Let’s go back to the fall of 2018. Venice High School Girls Volleyball team on their way to repeat the state championship from the previous year. I had the privilege to do the play by play for the team that was being aired on a local radio station. Five games in – the owner of the station pulled the plug and stopped the broadcast. Boom! Done! Reason – they couldn’t sell advertising to broadcast a state championship team.
What?
At that point there was an inner spirit that said “that was wrong and these kids and community deserve better”.
Spring of 2019, I began a journey to LIVE stream local games and do the play by play on YouTube. The first of those games was with the girls softball team of Lemon Bay High School coached by Head Coach Kim Pinkham. I saw the response from the team and the coach, they loved it! I also did a handful of games with the boys baseball team of LBHS as well.
Meanwhile, weekly I have breakfast with a good friend who is also in the broadcasting field and he concurred that the live streaming of games was not only the way to go – it was the future. In the summer of 2019 I left my position at the radio station and decided to go forward with live streaming local sports.
I had conversations with Head Coach Brian Wheatley of the VHS Volleyball team and he liked the idea of streaming the games and his team. Using Remotes R Me (RRM) was/is the vehicle to be used and we were off to the races. Getting the Athletic Directors of Pete Dombroski and Ryan LaVallee on board was a key component and they liked the idea as well.
Pop’s Sunset Grill came on board to host and sponsor the Coaches shows on Monday Evenings. Next was getting basketball games and also the sticks, Softball and Baseball, for the spring.
Coach John Flynn embraced RRM and loved the coaches show and the streaming of the team. Coach Mike Montgomery loved it too. The sponsor of McKenzie Construction came on board for hoops and Montgomery’s CarpetPlus came on board for the sticks.
The Coaches:
Special thanks to Kim Pinkham, Brian Wheatley, John Flynn, Mike Montgomery, Jeremy Martin, Craig Faulkner and Steve Constantino for giving me access and working with me to bring about a good streaming event. Also Sean Huber, Mike Young and Ryan Power for working with me along the way and being a friend.
