Right on time, ScoresBroadcast.com kicks off a full 2021 high school football schedule with coverage of the Fort Loramie at Minster clash on Friday night at 6:30 p.m., less than 10 months after it offered a shortened, late-starting season during the first year of the pandemic.
Then, last December the free, online, play-by-play service followed up with an expanded basketball campaign that led to two state championships by local teams and a record-breaking response of approximately 30,000 listeners to 10 tournament games played from the end of February through the third full weekend of March 2021.
“To begin this new school year, you might say, ‘It’s full steam ahead and first and ten’ for statewide gridiron action on Aug. 20, and ScoresBroadcast expects the lofty listenership trends to continue as the Redskins meet the Wildcats,” said Chuck McBee, a ScoresBroadcast announcer, who joins Jack Kramer on the coverage.
McBee added, “Despite the health crisis, it was a great thrill for us to be a very small part of the magnificent state tourney triumphs earned by the Fort Loramie girls and the Botkins boys earlier this year.”
Botkins won its first ever state crown in Division IV of boys basketball. The Fort Loramie girls earned their third title in the same division.
Back in March 2020, the Redskins and Minster girls were both in the state semifinals when the tournament was halted. The Jackson Center boys were also still alive and had advanced to the region finals.
“Our count of listeners to the contests this past March really exploded,” McBee noted, “sparked, in part, by the limited in-person attendance, the additional exposure our webcasts received from presence on radio, and the super excitement throughout west central Ohio generated by both the Botkins and Fort Loramie programs.”
Close to 15,000 listeners joined the online coverage of Botkins five tourney games at the district, regional and state levels. A similar number followed the Redskins for their last five contests.
The online presentations and the on-radio simulcasts via WMVR-FM continued all the way to March 21, 2021.
In the end, the ScoresBroadcast audience for hoops contests in a single season ranked higher than during any one of the 16 years before.
The Shelby County Online Radio Entertainment System, often simply referred to as SCORES, introduces coverage of Fort Loramie at Minster football with pre-game conversations with the two head coaches — fourth-year mentor Spencer Wells of Fort Loramie and first-year coach Seth Whiting of Minster.
Kick-off is at 7 p.m. on both SCORES, “The radio on your phone for High School Sports,” and WMVR-FM, “The Upper Miami Valley’s Hit Music Station.” Live audio streaming begins 30 minutes earlier.
Minster has won the last eight meetings between the two clubs including a hard-fought 20-13 battle in Auglaize County two years ago. The rivalry was interrupted in August 2020. Fort Loramie was last victorious by a 21-18 tally in 2013.
SCORES is undecided about its week two match-up and will choose from games between Anna and Brookville, Lehman and New Bremen, Fort Loramie and Versailles, and Sidney and Tippecanoe.
