FPSN keeps fans informed amid pandemic
“If you wanted to be here, we’ll try to be the voice and the eyes,” said George Young before Panther volleyball’s recent game at Smoky Mountain.
For the past several weeks, Young and his partner in the booth, Tony Christie, have been Franklin’s link to its co-conference champion Panthers, giving viewers a first-hand account of every kill, dig, pass and set the Franklin Panther Sports Network has been able to cover.
When the coronavirus forced schools to limit the number of spectators in gyms for North Carolina High School Athletic Association events this year, the 25-person cap gave live broadcasts like those provided by FPSN greater importance than ever. Luckily for Panther faithful, FHS boasts the gold standard in high school telecasts.
“We have a very professionally done stream,” said Young on the production of FPSN. “It’s done with graphics and commentary and multiple cameras with our five cameras, and you don’t see that a lot of places.”
Between Young and Christie’s commentary, state-of-the-art 4K cameras, and professional-level graphics and cutaways, FPSN has allowed its viewers to see the match as if they were watching it on ESPN. While the network’s broadcasts are better than those of most colleges though, FPSN didn’t always have the kind of production it boasts today.
“Funny story, we actually started it because I was filming some games when my kids were in middle school,” said Josh Drake on the beginnings of FPSN. “I had to be gone one time, and so I was like, ‘Let’s broadcast the game.’ I don’t miss many games – I’ve probably missed less than five games in the past three years or something.”
From the first games Drake and other fans streamed live, the one-off broadcasts slowly morphed into an organized effort.
As an employee at Drake Software, over time Josh was able to use equipment from the Drakes’ umbrella of companies, and eventually FPSN was born as an offshoot of Myriad Media and Backlot Cinemas. For the past few years FPSN has broadcasted games on Facebook and YouTube for fans unable to attend in person, and this year FPSN is the only way many families can see their kids play at all.
“This year we’ve done every home game for volleyball, which normally isn’t the case,” said FPSN sports production manager Clinton Taylor. “With the attendance, it was our goal to cover all of those games so the parents that aren’t able to make it can still tune in and watch. … We made an extended effort to cover as many games as possible, even at the JV level. Normally, we would only do varsity for all the major sports, so varsity girls and boys. With volleyball we only did the varsity side of things for the livestream, so this year we included JV as well because of the COVID restrictions.”
With COVID-19 preventing many fans from attending in person, the 2020 school year has been a busy one for FPSN. Aside from fans though, FPSN’s most important role might be for the athletes themselves.
“The major one and probably number one for me is that it has been life changing to some athletes at Franklin High School,” said Taylor. “In 2019, I know we had at least two athletes that got offered college scholarships based solely on our livestreams. College coaches didn’t want to travel to Franklin or just weren’t able to travel to Franklin to watch a game, but they could still tune in to our broadcasts wherever they were at. A lot of times these college teams have games the same day as the high school. We had one college coach tell us, ‘I watched the livestream on the way back from our game on the bus.’ He was able to watch these athletes playing two or three times on our broadcast, and he offered them scholarships based solely on that. So I’m very proud of that.”
In a year where many families are unable to watch their kids play in person, FPSN has been a critical link between Panther fans and their teams. For his part FPSN’s play-by-play man said he’s just glad to keep fans in the loop.
“It pains me that only 25 people can come in and that they have to select who has to get that golden ticket,” said Young. “It’s unfair, and for a lot of these kids, if you’re a senior this is the last time you’ll pick up a basketball, volleyball, whatever. You can’t get that back. You can’t play the season over again and have as many people there as you want, so it’s been an honor for us to be able to bring the games free of charge to everybody.”