Local schools offer streaming services for athletics

TEN SLEEP – Ten Sleep athletics recently joined the National Federation of State High School Associations , or National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) streaming service to provide livestreams of sporting events to people who are unable to attend the games in person.

"We all definitely have a little bit of a learning curve," Ten Sleep Athletic Director Sarah Novak said. "I know that I do since I am responsible for putting in all of the information."

According to Novak, Ten Sleep currently only has the camera available in the gymnasium at their school, and has used it to stream volleyball matches since Sept. 28.

According to Novak, they do have an additional camera available to hook up at the football field, but since Ten Sleep was unable to field a football team this year, Novak said it was not a pressing matter to get it fully operational this fall. She added that they will also have to figure out how to get internet to the stadium.

The main reason it took until the end of September to get the project up and running was because it took time to get the setup calibrated to the national system in order for the school to stream games.

According to Novak, it is nice to have this service because it will allow parents to watch their kids from home if weather is bad, or it will allow supportive family members from out of state to watch relatives they do not get to go watch very often.

Novak does feel that they are not using the program up to its full potential just yet, but she knows that with more experience and time the streaming service will become a more valuable asset for the town of Ten Sleep.

SECOND YEAR

Like Ten Sleep, Worland is still in the early stages of the process of streaming through NFHS, entering into their second year using the program.

Worland High School Activities Director Mark Mortimer, just like Novak, feels like this program has been a huge part of allowing family members to watch relatives play they do not get to see very often, and also allows for alumni to watch games even after they have moved on from their alma mater.

When asked whether the athletes get nervous or not knowing they are going to be livestreamed online Mortimer jokingly replied that "most of them probably do not even know it is a thing."

This was the first year that they are streaming football entering into the second year using the program, and it has been a success so far as the first home football game that they streamed obtained around 400 views.

Mortimer noted that the Worland High School Football Booster Club helped purchase the camera that is used on the football field.

The use of a Pixellot camera has constantly grown throughout the state of Wyoming, and there are very few venues that do not have the technology at this time and being able to watch games on the road is not as difficult if travel is difficult.

This camera has been important to the streaming of these games because the Pixellot camera does not require an operator to run the camera during the game.

The future of the program is to look into streaming track meets, but with that idea comes the difficulty of attempting to film each and every event and it would be hard to focus on a certain event throughout the day, but Mortimer believes that using a stationary point will help stream the events in an easier fashion.

The future of adding soccer into the streaming services will be difficult, unless by some change of events the teams end up playing in Warrior Stadium in the future.

The streaming services can be found online through the NFHS network website, and monthly or annual membership fees are required to use the service, but the growth and use of the service has been a great boost to the awareness of athletes in the Big Horn Basin region, and the Washakie County School districts hope to continue to learn and grow the services in the coming years.