Carson Minnear, 11th grade, Kameron Hershey, 12th grade, and Dawson Cook, 12th grade, started live-streaming the Moniteau Jr./ Sr. High School football games.

Friday night lights, camera, action! Friday, September 5th, was a big night at Moniteau High School. Not only did the Warriors win a football game, but the first live, student-led simulcast also premiered Friday night. A crew of three students gave a live, play-by-play analysis of the Varsity Football game between Moniteau High School and Bucktail High School.

The project was an undertaking that took years to complete. While many schools broadcast their games, most simply show the game with the scoreboard in the corner. Moniteau’s goal was to let some of the talented students tell the story of the game in a broadcast-style format. After some brainstorming and coordination with the administration, technology, athletics, and maintenance departments, the students were able to broadcast the game on Friday night.

A team of three students took on the task of simulcasting the game. Kameron Hershey was the producer and main director of the show. Dawson Cook was the color and play-by-play announcer for the game. Carson Minnear was the spotter and acquired statistics for the game. Altogether, they utilized an Apple computer and Hudl, the company Moniteau uses to stream all of their home athletics events, to simulcast the game on Friday night.

The students utilized the “Production Truck” tool provided by Hudl to make the stream look like a professional broadcast. This tool allowed the students to create a graphic that showed the time left in the game, when a penalty occurred, and most importantly, the score. It also synchronized the play-by-play analysis with the game footage. Production Truck will also allow the students to create pre-game videos that they can use at the beginning of the simulcast to help the viewers learn something about the visiting team and more about the Warriors as well.

The students also had some great takeaways from the introductory broadcast. There were several instances where critical thinking and troubleshooting came into play. They have also started to plan for upcoming games to make sure they are ready for future simulcasts. In addition to Football, the students are looking to create content for Volleyball and Basketball as well.

So now Friday Night Lights is not just a reference to High School Football or the name of a prime-time TV show, it’s an opportunity for students to get the experience of simulcasting a live event. Now Moniteau students are participating in Friday Night Lights not just on the football field, but in the press box as well.

Carson Minnear, 11th grade, Kameron Hershey, 12th grade, and Dawson Cook, 12th grade, started live-streaming the Moniteau Jr./ Sr. High School football games.