“It’s over. It’s over,” screeched ScoresBroadcast.com’s Jack Kramer on Saturday night, as the clock ticked down to zero at the end of Botkins’ triumph over Riverside in the boys Division IV sectional.
The Pirates missed a game-winning shot just before the buzzer and after Botkins, behind Ethan Butcher and Spencer Heuker, rallied from a late 38-32 deficit for the thrilling victory.
However, it’s actually far from over for the ScoresBroadcast crew of Jack and Chuck McBee, who webcasted seven games in 27 hours spanning last Friday and Saturday. They will call at least eight more contests this week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and likely at least 40 total in the upcoming five weeks.
“This time of year, we own stock in Halls, Ludens and Vicks,” Jack laughed. “The throat might get a little sore and raspy. But with each passing tourney game, our interest soars with interest and excitement.”
Saturday’s Botkins-Riverside contest was a special treat for Jack and Chuck. They enjoyed covering the young Trojans team coached by Brett Meyer. At the same time, they reunited with Riverside coach Seth Bodenmiller, a former Jackson Center player and Bowling Green graduate, who participated in the first ever ScoresBroadcast audio commercial for Lacal Equipment. Lacal of Jackson Center is a founding advertising partner for the unique online service.
“Seth chuckled that his claim to fame is the 4.5 seconds of air time in the middle of the 60 second Lacal message.” Jack said. “As a Jackson Center student, he commented in the spot about the success of the Lacal scholarship program.”
Lacal, the longest running SCORES sponsor, is one of 24 organizations assisting in the support of webcasts of sports teams at Minster and Versailles High schools, all the schools in the Shelby County Athletic League, plus Sidney and Lehman Catholic. SCORES stands for the Shelby County Online Radio Entertainment System.
“Chuck and I can’t sustain the coverage of high school sports unless businesses lend a helping hand. We want to continue to make the online webcasts free of charge to our listeners,” Jack said.
Todd VanTasel, CEO of Christian NetCast, which performs the web hosting for SCORES from its Virginia location, said the Internet program provides a “one-of-a-kind” service that is not duplicated. “Today, it’s the radio on the phone for high school sports in west central Ohio,” he stated.
The Sidney radio station dropped coverage of local high school sports in 2007. SCORES was then conceived. More than 700,000 online users have since taken advantage of the online streaming.
This week, SCORES webcasts boys sectional tourney games from Piqua on Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday at 6:45 p.m. A pair of girls Division IV district games from Troy will also be covered this Saturday.
During the current 2017-18 school year, SCORES has already offered webcasts of 63 football, volleyball and boys and girls basketball contests.
