Watching prep sports from your recliner

Limitations on the number of fans allowed into gyms and other venues due to the Covid-19 pandemic made a significant dent in attendance during the fall and winter sports seasons, but schools found a workaround to recover — and even expand — viewership.

They developed a system in which fans who don’t get to go to the games in person could still watch — and they didn’t need stadium cushions to prevent sore backsides courtesy of high school bleachers.

Schools used different services to livestream sporting events and other activities, allowing people to view the action from the comfort of their own homes, perhaps in their easy chairs with beverages and snacks while not wearing masks.

Some schools already had the capability but expanded their reach during the pandemic.

Port Washington bought two cameras from the National Federation of High Schools two years ago.

“These systems were purchased for the coaches to record games, but since they also livestream at no additional cost we used them for that purpose as well,” said Port High Principal Thad Gabrielse, who was the school’s athletic director at the time.

The Pixellot cameras are automated tandfollow the action without requiring a person to operate them.

Port has one camera in its gym and one in its press box, allowing football, basketball and volleyball to be shown through an NFHS subscription.

Once Covid-19 hit, the school wanted to livestream other sports so it used Facebook Live, a service that only requires a wireless signal and a cell phone.

Athletic Director Nate Hinze ended up running a camera at swimming meets and boys’ soccer games, “which was a lot,” he said.

Wrestling and gymnastics were also captured.

“We’ve gotten compliments about it obviously due to the limited spectators — grandpas and grandmas who couldn’t come,” Hinze said.

He said he expects the service to stay around and possibly involve students from the school’s media production class.

Grafton began using a stationary camera from the video hosting service company Hudl in its gym last school year. The service allows coaches to watch film of future opponents without sending assistants to travel and tape games by hand. The school had another use in mind.

“We wanted to broadcast our games in the commons area while people were getting concessions,” Athletic Director Kevin Moore said.

The automatic cameras aren’t perfect and will occasionally miss a play, but it’s a small price to pay to not require someone to attend a game and operate one by hand.

With a camera permanently installed in the gym, any activity can be captured, including dance team performances and athletic team practices for coaches to analyze. The service even offers statistics from game film, saving coaches time.

Due to the pandemic this year, Grafton added football, soccer and swimming to its livestreaming mix with cameras run by student managers or parents. Recordings are available on YouTube.

Moore said he likes involving students in the process as an educational tool while giving the community a chance to watch its youth compete.

“It’s kind of a win-win,” he said.

Moore credited the school’s technical department for getting the camera systems up and running and training the staff how to use them.

Grafton’s athletic department, booster clubs and individual programs helped contribute to pay for the service.

Cedar Grove-Belgium High School began using Hudl this year with a camera in the gym and one in the press box of the football field, and it got rave reviews.

“Feedback was really, really positive. I believe that the attraction to this will go long past the Covid era,” Athletic Director Scott Parsons said.

“To be someone local or across the country, to be able to watch a live game for free, from anywhere, is a huge bonus. We’d share the link of any live event and put it on our YouTube channel, which was a popular landing spot for many schools.”

Ozaukee High School experimented with showing its volleyball games in fall, then filmed all of its basketball games.

“We opted not to use one of the bigger programs from Hudl or Pixellot as we thought the investment was too high,” Athletic Director Andy McKee said.

“I did some research and we were able to come up with a system for streaming that was more cost effective but meant we needed a camera operator. That was easy to find this year since it got two students into every game. We created a website so our fans could more easily find us and all of our conference away games,” he said.

The system, McKee said, was paid for by between the district and booster club.

“There was a small hardware investment and a monthly hosting cost but we were able to keep it free for anyone who wanted to watch,” McKee said.

Ozaukee’s contract runs through fall sports, and McKee said they will evaluate the service heading into the next winter sports season.

Schools are still figuring out how, or if it’s possible, to film spring sports, which start next month.

Despite the positive response to video, the high school sports seasons so far have reminded athletic directors of the value of attending live competition. Students, parents and other fans prefer to watch games in person and cheer on their children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, friends and classmates in person.

As the basketball season wore on, Moore said, demand to expand to expand the number of fans allowed at games increased.

While the camera services may be here to stay, athletic directors have their fingers crossed that video won’t be the only way for many people to watch local live sports.

“Hopefully, next year we’ll be back to normal as much as we can,” Hinze said.