ESPN TAKES CENTER STAGE AT AREA FOOTBALL GAME When ESPN covers a college football game it is a big deal. It now seems might be an even bigger event when the sports conglomerate comes to town to cover a high school game. How big? Well, the Mayor of Gardner, KS., is officially going to change the name of his town to "ESPN, Kansas" on Friday (10/22), the day of the game that will pit Gardner-Edgerton High School versus St. Thomas Aquinas. In order to broadcast the game ESPN had to have a site survey done. The Gardner Chamber of Commerce will host a pep rally Thursday night. The Governor of Kansas will get in on the act for the ceremonial coin flip prior to the 7 p.m. game. But that is not all that will be going on with the Walt Disney affiliate's visit. A Jumbotron scoreboard will have to be installed for the game. Extra stands will be constructed, and ESPN will bring in its own special lights to light the field appropriately for TV. While some might question the huge emphasis and pressure placed on high school athletes, others don't have a problem with it. Veteran Gardner-Edgerton Football Coach Marvin Denier is one person who doesn't mind all the accommodations and hoopla the ESPN visit involves. "It has been crazy around here," Denier said on the KC Sports & Fitness radio show Saturday on KCTE-1510. "Having ESPN come here to nationally televise our game is a big deal, and we are willing to work with them to help them any way we can. "It gives our players some great national exposure." The game will also focus heavily on Edgerton's all-everything star quarterback Bubba Starling. Starling has committed to play football for Nebraska, but might bypass a football career and enter the Major League Baseball draft.
10-20-2010
ESPN IN SACRAMENTO "You should read the post game fallout after ESPN’s high school game in the Sacramento area, it was the season opener involving national powerhouse Grant High School. ESPN big footed the local media and did some other things that rubbed the locals wrong. "ESPN is trying to own cradle to grave sports coverage with this incursion into high school sports. They recently purchased a very popular nationally respected high school running website called Dyestat and left it alone for awhile and it continued to thrive. Then they folded it over the summer into its ESPN Rise platform and now it’s a ghost town. They managed to destroy the sense of community that existed on Dyestat. "I guess what I’m saying is that everything ESPN touches doesn’t turn to gold. They’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to coverage of high school sports." --- John Rinkenbaugh
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