The Golden Griffin Sports Broadcast Center is now online. The state-of-the-art studio is home to students in charge of producing live Canisius athletic events among other video projects. Students involved come from a variety of programs including the newly-created sports journalism and broadcast concentration within the journalism program, communication studies, digital media arts and sports management.
Directed by the Athletic Department’s communication staff, students have use of up to six high-definition cameras, replay capabilities and the opportunity to be on a two-or-three person broadcast crew. The academic tie-in with the Communication Studies and Journalism departments is an opportunity not all broadcast programs afford students.
“Other programs have students involved in their broadcasts but they don’t have classes, they don’t have an academic component,” says Bill Maher, athletic director at Canisius. “The students who are in the program are getting that practical experience in the field.”
The inaugural broadcast for Canisius athletics was a women’s volleyball match at the Koessler Athletic Center between the Griffs and local rival University at Buffalo on Tuesday, September 15. Freshman Andy Helwig ’19 filled in for play-by-play duties with just eight-hours notice. Helwig recalls his conversation with Assistant Athletic Director of Athletic Communications Matt Reitnour:
“The guy who was supposed to do color commentary that night, his wife went into labor,” says Helwig. “Matt (Reitnour) called me and said ‘Would you be willing and comfortable to do the game tonight?’ I told him absolutely!”
In addition to live event production, Canisius students are responsible for pregame, halftime and postgame content production, as well as feature pieces, commercials, in game and postgame highlight packages, interviews and coaches shows.
“Students rotate between working the cameras, audio, replay, graphics, editing and technical directing,” says John Dahlberg, PhD, chair of the Communication Studies Department. “These are all skills that they can build into a portfolio and take with them when they graduate.”
“To have ESPN on your resume is a pretty big deal,” says CJ Gates ’16. “Canisius is one of a few schools that allows students to work on broadcasts, so it’s unique.”
Canisius is one of three Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) schools contracted with ESPN3 to offer the live production of home sporting events.
With the addition of the broadcast studio, the college revised its journalism program to include concentrations in narrative journalism and multimedia journalism.
To see a schedule of upcoming games, visit www.GoGriffs.com
To read more about the ESPN3 partnership, click here.
Submitted by: Marketing and Communication
