Vermont School Develops Livestream Option for Parents

On March 17, 2020, the email was received by athletic directors across the state of Vermont that the winter sports playoffs were going to be cancelled. COVID-19 had become a true reality in our lives. Moving forward, sports as we knew them in the coming months and years would look nothing like we have ever known.

One week later, we were all working and learning from home and the spring sports season was just another domino that fell in the wake of the pandemic. During those long months of speculation about the new school year and how our sports seasons would look, nothing would prepare me for the new rules and regulations handed down by our State Office of Education and Governor.

Sports would eventually return, but two new regulations would dominate public discussions everywhere. One, masks must be worn by all athletes where students were participating next to one another. Two, spectators at all indoor sporting events would be prohibited. What? Did they just say parents would not be allowed to watch their sons and daughters compete in sporting events? They certainly did!

As an athletic director, there are times that the job requires you to have tough conversations with parents, but telling the parents of my athletes that they are not going to be allowed in our hockey rink and basketball gymnasium was never going to be well-received.

After the new regulations broke, I just kept reiterating to myself and our families that our athletes are having their sports seasons returned to them and this is a good thing. Well, it was until indoor sporting events started happening in empty gymnasiums. It started with the volleyball teams, the first teams in competitive games. Our gymnasium was empty except for the players, coaches, officials and myself. The adrenaline of a real game was missing. You could tell from the players that although this was better than sitting out, it was a far cry from what they were used to. Something needed to be done.

Being an athletic director, I belong to a group of very special people who are in this profession for the right reasons. We help one another and we want to see everyone succeed. So, if I have a problem, I feel like I have endless resources to help, so that’s exactly what I did – I asked for help. I picked up the phone and asked some of my favorite people what they were doing for the upcoming basketball season so spectators could watch their games. It was through these discussions that our film teacher, Mr. Parker, and I came up with a YouTube© solution of livestreaming our boys and girls basketball games.

First, we would need hardwire cable from our gymnasium to one of our routers. Next, we would have to create a YouTube channel for our school. Finally, we would need a high-quality camera and then someone to operate that camera for every game. Simple, right? Nope!

Who could have guessed the school would not have enough band-width to livestream? Why did we need to create a new access code each time we wanted to livestream through our YouTube channel. My initial thought was this is not going to be fun if we can’t put out a quality product for our families and high school community; however, little by little that wise media teacher and this athletic director made inroads. Before we knew it, our first game was upon us and we were up and broadcasting.

It was a little rudimentary at first, but by the tail end of the season we had a play-by-play announcer and a steady cameraman. Not too bad for a quick solution to a COVID gut punch.

The following year, we took the livestream professional and now broadcast games with a robot camera for volleyball, football, lacrosse and basketball. We now have a growing population in our sporting event viewership and we are able to bring these games to family and friends all over the world.

From the dire news of high school sporting events being shut down, we punched back at COVID-19 and found our silver lining in livestream broadcasting.