AISD offers broadcasting classes
By Donnie A. Lucas
Albany High school sports fans will not only get to hear a play-by-play account of Lion and Lady Lion sports this year, they will also get to see the action.
The district is adding a new program of study as part of the Career and Technology Education (CTE) offered at the high school.
The district hired Donnie Hart as a coach and CTE teacher for the field of digital communication, which will primarily involve students helping to broadcast Albany sporting events. Hart developed a similar program, Shallowater Sports Network, two years ago in Shallowater.
The new local venue will stream live on the new Albany Sports Tx channel on YouTube, including all football games both at home, away, and playoffs. In addition, the program will also cover at least five regular season contests and all playoffs for volleyball, basketball, baseball, and softball.
“The kids in these new classes will help set up equipment, shoot video, and create graphics in the classroom, that will be viewed live on our YouTube channel,” superintendent Jonathan Scott said. “They will also produce highlight films that can be used at pep rallies and other events.”
Scott announced that previous radio announcers Tony Wheeler and Kevin Hill will continue to provide play-by-play and color announcing, but will now have the added feature of live streaming video that can include instant replays.
“This opportunity happened as we were interviewing for a new girls basketball coach,” Scott said. “The first calls I made were to Tony and Kevin, and we were able to meet a couple of weeks ago and knock out a plan with them to continue.”
The pair have been providing radio-type announcing for Lone Star Sports Radio for football and some playoff coverage of other sports over the internet in the past.
“It certainly wasn’t a lack of quality on the part of Lone Star Sports Radio,” Scott said. “We just had a unique opportunity to offer this as a program of study for the kids.”
Scott said that the program will “start slow” with two students taught how to shoot the camera feed, with Hart providing the production work on a computer to tie it all together.
Eventually, it is anticipated that students would become more proficient in shooting, editing, and producing broadcasts on their own.
The new sports channel will provide advertising for sponsors who will fund the program.
“We want to continue with local sponsors, with all the money going directly to the school to fund the new program and purchase equipment,” the superintendent said. “This is a way to get kids involved and provide another CTE track for training.”
Fans will be able to view the streaming content for free, but only when it is live during an event.
“Once the live feed is over, it is removed from public view,” Scott said. “There may be ways to grant access using a password afterwards, but we don’t want other schools to be able to see our content – especially in basketball.”
Hart said that he has four years of experience with streaming and announcing, first working with a Lubbock radio station for two years, and the last two years serving as a consultant for the school district’s own program.
“I worked for the district, but not in a teaching capacity,” Hart said. “It wasn’t part of the curriculum like it will be here, but we did have some kids that it opened doors for into broadcasting.”
Hart is a certified teacher, working at Wichita Falls Ryder and Lubbock Monterrey after graduating from Texas Tech in the early 2000s, he said.
He said that he has worked as a pharmaceutical representative for the last 20 years, but was wanting to find a way back into teaching and coaching.
“I have been coaching club teams that my kids were involved in and volunteering at the school some,” he said. “That drove me to want to get back into coaching, especially on the girls side since I have daughters who would be involved.”
Hart and his wife, Lenzi, have three daughters and a son, who is the youngest. His wife was hired to teach sixth grade ELA and social studies at Nancy Smith Elementary.
“I applied for the girls head basketball job and just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I also know the live streaming process, so you couldn’t ask for a better fit.”
Sponsors interested supporting the digital broadcast can contact Hart at donniehart@albany.esc14.net or albanysports tx@gmail.com
Hart can be reached by phone at 806-239-9292.
