Tiger Sports Network Connects Alumni Worldwide

The newly developed Tiger Sports Network provides live broadcasts and on demand streaming of tiger sports games to reconnect alumni worldwide. The professional quality broadcasts are primarily student run with adult supervision, and St. X is the only high school in the (region/state) that provides this unique opportunity for its alumni and fanbase.

President Colistra had the idea to start this project in the summer of 2022. St. X secured $40,000 from corporate sponsorships, and the Kroger Company became the presenting sponsor. St. X then booked air time on The Big X Sports Radio and John Spears (’81) and Tony Birk (’81) agreed to be the analysts for football and basketball games.

Efren Quirino (Director of Information Technology) and Brian Mitchell (’89 and Television/ AV production manager) set up the Becherer Production Studio as a space for students to get involved in YouTube Live broadcasts. Mitchell is the main supervisor for the network.

In order to run a full production of the Tiger Sports Network, several pieces of equipment and numerous personnel are needed. This includes at least two live camera operators, a director/technical director, an audio operator, and a graphics operator. Junior Cayman Kelting, director of the Tiger Sports Network, leads all of the broadcasts with the help of freshman Jayden Pacheco. They run the video switcher and instruct the camera operators on what shots they need.

“For a full production, we feed all our microphones and camera feeds from the gym or stadium back to our WSTX control room” Mitchell said. “Because we just built our control room two years ago when the Callahan Media Center was renovated, we have state-of-the-art equipment in place. This gives us the ability to feed cameras and audio from anywhere on campus that has a computer network connection.”

The broadcast also requires an on camera talent to introduce the event and provide a halftime report for football and basketball. Sophomore Matt Lynn is the head reporter for the broadcast. Additionally, for basketball, Lynn conducts sideline interviews and reports. He was both the play-by-play announcer and color analyst on the show for soccer this year too.

The St. X football regional championship versus Male High School is the most viewed game for TSN. Over forty-five hundred viewers tuned in on YouTube to watch the thrilling game. Although the night ended with a loss for the football team, it was a huge success for the network and provided an optimistic outlook for future broadcasts.

The network does not only benefit alumni, it benefits students as well. Matt Lynn has used Spears and Birk’s wealth of knowledge to help him with his broadcasting skills and future career. The broadcast creates opportunities for “real world” career experiences for students in areas that are of interest to them, and it offers the chance to learn about these careers to pursue further once they begin their college-level studies.

“I do hope to continue broadcasting after my time at St. X is done,” Lynn said. “It’s something that I am very passionate about and have a lot of fun with. I still have two years left, so I am really looking forward to it.”

The program is expected to grow in the next few years because of increased student interest and future equipment purchases. The network will also be covering more games and sports in the future. The goal for the program is to be completely student run under adult supervision, and to have students choose to come to St. X for the broadcasting program.

Anyone can access live broadcasts through the StXTigers YouTube channel and the WHAS11+ app on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. St. X is the first, and currently, only school, to stream events on the app. The broadcast can also be listened to on the Big X Sports Radio station (96.1 FM and 1450 AM). Past games are also available on demand on the StXTigers Youtube channel.