Samohi Sports Center
Most sports followers have seen ESPN’s famous show, “SportsCenter on TV.” as often as the daily news. What began as a daily television program in 1979 has evolved into the fundamental sports news service, viewed on TV, online and via social media. The smiling sports analysts surrounded by televisions, graphics and the red, purple and blue hues of the SportsCenter studio are familiar to any sports fan. Now, Samo is channeling this phenomenon.
In room T100, history teacher and coach Douglas Kim reclines behind his desk, surrounded by sports memorabilia and trophies. He is the freshman football team coach, a junior varsity (JV) boys’ basketball team co-coach and a stadium announcer for varsity football games. This year, Kim is spearheading a movement to allow Samo students, alumni and other fans a way to watch varsity games without having to be there in person. His approach? Samo’s own SportsCenter.
When announcing football games at Santa Monica College, Max Mirkin (’15) and Kim brainstormed the idea of broadcasting Samo games, and eventually the two created the idea to form a group for students with similar interests.
“High school should be a little more than just the book and in-classroom experience, it should be creating opportunities for you to try different things,” Kim said. “This is an opportunity for kids who might be interested in sports broadcasting, who might be interested in game management, to understand how a game works and the whole functioning behind it to get some kind of practical experience.”
According to Kim, this organization would be a Samo club and would welcome any students willing to participate. He plans for Samo students to give full interviews with players and coaches, streaming the live games with these interviews to create an authentic ESPN SportsCenter experience.
Kim stressed that the club would be a student-run organization and he would just be an overseer.
“We have very talented kids at Santa Monica,” Kim said. “The idea would need to be that they are the ones that want to run it so that they could gain practical experience. Otherwise [if] it’s just adults running it and putting a kid in front of a mic or a camera, you are not getting the same experience.”
The Samo SportsCenter will feature a special YouTube account that would contain all the game film and interviews. With the exposure that can be brought by YouTube, Kim hopes that it can help Samo’s athletes get recruited and teach them how to carry themselves in front of the camera.
Many people around Samo support and have shown interest in the idea of an online Vikings sports interface, but athletic director Al Trundle has concerns about possible effects on game attendance.
“There would be a benefit to parents who, for whatever reason, could not make it to the game,” Trundle said. “I would hate to see the student body not attend a game because students saw it as a viable alternative. Nothing replaces, for the athlete or the fan, the thrill of being there, cheering on your team.”
Kim, along with other Samo SportsCenter planners, have held interviews with players and recorded games that will be published online soon. They plan on recapping the season in an episode, but are still figuring out the technology needed to pursue their plans, according to Kim.
The show will begin by covering only varsity teams, although Kim is considering posting season highlight videos for some of the lower level sports, primarily JV, when the club gets started.
As of now, there are between five and 10 people who are working to help make Samo SportsCenter a reality, including Sam Rietta (’16), Bryce Johnson (’16), Maria Perez Mendoza (’15), Shirley Saykali (’15) and Antonia Fuller (’16).
According to Johnson, the club will include cameramen, anchors, reporters and writers.
“Mr. Kim will tell us who to interview and which sporting event to spotlight on for the week and we would gear the show around that,” Johnson said.
Kim hopes that this new outlet of sharing sports coverage will make staying up-to-date with Samo teams easier and more accessible to students. Nevertheless, he is still concerned about ways the club will be able to keep up with demanding filming and producing specifics that will require experienced students and administrators.
“Now it’s a question of sitting down and putting it all together,” Kim said. “But the problem that you run into with anything like this is that you’re not so excited when the grunt work goes but the end product is always better. We’re running into that issue now. You can’t see the end product, so people are not that excited about it.”
Despite the complexities the production team of SportsCenter may encounter, Kim is excited to begin working on executing his ideas with Samo students. The club has already filmed interviews and plans to broadcast these along with a “year in review” segment. For next year, Kim hopes to establish a weekly show. He is also hoping to gather a dedicated group to train in the summer, teaching them editing and writing for the show.