The “still-alive” area high school basketball tournament teams know both the path ahead of them and their prospective opponents as they practice virtually each day to stay warm for “February tourney fever.”
Meanwhile, the announcing team for ScoresBroadcast.com has been laying low for a few days, resting the vocal cords while not knowing for sure the journey ahead.
“We do know we begin a heavy schedule this weekend that may not end until high school March Madness subsides on Saturday, March 24, in Columbus,” said online color announcer Chuck McBee, who was joined by Jack Kramer on 50 regular season webcasts.
“Our slate for the coming weekend spans three games this Friday night, two on Saturday afternoon and a pair on Saturday night. But after Sunday, it’s wait and see. As long as our programs keep playing, we’ll keep pumping out the play by play.”
McBee teams with Kramer on ScoresBroadcast.com, which is in its 12th calendar year of webcasting high schools sports since the local radio station dropped coverage of such contests in 2007.
This time of year, ScoresBroadcast tries its very best to stream online the key contests involving Minster and Versailles boys and girls hoops teams, plus, of course, the boys and girls squads at Shelby County Athletic League (SCAL) schools, along with Sidney and Lehman Catholic.
Regular season webcasts concluded last Friday night when the Fort Loramie boys defeated Russia to create a three-way tie atop the SCAL standings. Three days before, the Sidney boys nipped Vandalia-Butler in the final 2.5 seconds to earn a share of the GWOC North championship.
“In late February and in March, a few seconds can determine whether or not a team plays another game,” McBee stated. “Jack and I will be at courtside to try and paint for our listeners a verbal picture of each second and minute of each contest.”
SCORES, the Shelby County Online Radio Entertainment System, has already experienced far more listeners in the 2017-18 school year than in any past season. Its tournament coverage is launched on Friday and Saturday at 5:15 p.m. both days with a total of five games from the Division IV boys Piqua sectional. The girls Division IV sectional finals at Sidney are set for Saturday at 11:45 a.m.
Next Wednesday night, SCORES will cover Anna boys action in the Division III tourney or will cover Division IV contests at Piqua.
“We expect the tourney to be very exciting,” McBee said. “If contests match the closeness of some of the games we covered during the regular season, Jack and I may be repeating the same on-air story lines.”
McBee noted that the two covered a series of “buzzer beaters” and “photo finishes” from December to last week. He said that the tourney, like the regular season, will offer its share of surprises.
“The Botkins girls have already pulled off a tourney upset turning around a 20-point season loss to Mechanicsburg,” McBee said. “The Trojans will try to rebound from a pair of season setbacks to Russia in this Saturday’s upper bracket Division IV final at Sidney.”
SCORES will cover at least 40 tournament games, providing webcast after webcast until all area schools are eliminated.
