Although Ector County ISD has had Mascot Media apps for its Odessa and Permian High School games for several years, this is the first year they’ve had a full TV production for the games that can be watched from anywhere on any device on Friday nights.
Executive Director for Athletics Tracey Borchardt said Trans Global Productions now provides video and commentary on your phone through the apps or your computer or other device.
They had been compiling a packaged show to be broadcast on the weekend after the game was over. KWWT is where people could watch it.
Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said you can listen to Permian High School games on KICKS 99.1 FM and OHS games on KMCM 97 Gold.
“What’s really fun, from my standpoint, is it’s available in so many ways to people … There’s nothing like the game experience at Ratliff Stadium,” Adkins said.
But if you can’t be there, you can listen to the game on the radio at home or away.
“Now you have the option, if you have the app … anywhere you are, you can listen to the radio broadcast for either team, or you can watch the home broadcast from Ratliff Stadium,” Adkins said.
Borchardt said she can be at a football game at Ratliff Stadium and watch an OHS or PHS home volleyball game, for example, through one of the apps at the same time.
There is also a computer in the press box running one of the games as well, so at any given time they could be watching three games.
On Friday nights, they have an average of 900 students participating either in band, cheer, flag corps and football players.
This Friday with the OHS-Permian football game set for 7:30 p.m. at Ratliff Stadium, there will be even more students involved, not to mention the fans.
“We’re looking to put 18,000 to 20,000 in the stadium. It’ll be one of the largest games in Texas,” Borchardt said.
The game is part of the Great American Rivalry Series.
“Our two teams made it into the selection of teams and so we’re going to be giving two $250 scholarships … to the highest GPA senior on the OHS team and the highest GPA senior on the Permian team through this organization as well. … Anytime you can get recognized across the state … we’re pretty excited about it,” Borchardt said.
“Here’s what’s really cool … I can be out at the stadium. I know I can get … football on my phone if I want, but I can also go to my Permian or my Bronco app … I can hit it and pull it up. If I have OHS or Permian volleyball playing (at) home, I can pull up the volleyball game. I can watch the volleyball because I have my huddle camera there. It’s really good with the jumbo screen and the replays and the hype videos and then now the LED lights that can change colors and flash on and off.”
There is a half time show, but it’s not the band due to copyright concerns for the music, but they are trying to get clearance.
Her vision is to have the career and technical education students provide a lot of the pieces that go into the radio, streaming and the filming of the broadcast of the game.
Borchardt would also like to have students doing the interviews.
“We would love to have the kids involved in every aspect of it,” Adkins said.
Bob Bailey at Trans Global Productions has been putting together a packaged game to be shown on the weekend.
For a long time under University Interscholastic League rules, you couldn’t show video feed on a Friday night, Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said.
It wasn’t until COVID that UIL started changing the rules, Borchardt said.
The pandemic limited the number of people who could be at Ratliff Stadium, Adkins said.
Borchardt said there are a lot of moving parts to this.
“Trans Global Productions actually does the production part for a varsity football game. Our huddle (camera) takes care of all the other games,” she added.
The huddle camera is a single camera mounted at a venue that allows the whole volleyball court, for example, to be streamed, Adkins said.
There’s no commentary, but you can watch it from anywhere, he added.
“You just find the game and on game day, you’ll see a red-orange camera and all you do is hit the camera and it will take you to the game, or you’ll see a set of headphones and the headphones are the radio stations,” Borchardt said.
She added that the streaming really helped people during COVID who didn’t want to get out or were afraid to get out.
The ECISD YouTube page also shows the games after the fact.
“What we’ve got going right now … with the radio stations (and) Trans Global Productions, it’s just a great relationship with everyone due to the fact that they really do a great job of taking care of us and making it happen,” Borchardt said. “I can’t say thank you enough … because it’s a lot of moving parts that you don’t realize and all those guys just get it done for me. It’s great,” Borchardt said.
The broadcasts don’t cost the district anything because there are sponsors for television, radio and Mascot Media.
One of the sponsors for Mascot Media has been Odessa College “tying the community back together,” Borchardt said.
