Here, There and Everywhere (Mike Wagenheim, Oct. 21)
One
of the great things about working at UNO Athletics is that you're never
focused on any one task for too long. Especially around this time of
year, each passing hour seems to bring something new. This holds
especially true this season, as we get situated back in Lakefront Arena.
One
new thing we've tried this year is adding a play-by-play element to our
volleyball webcasts. Watching the Olympics this past summer, I found it
fascinating how some of the television announcers could hop from one
obscure sport to another and seem so informed and educated about each
and every element.
Since
volleyball is much more of a mainstream sport that I've watched many
times, I was hoping that adding it to my repertoire wouldn't be too
tough. Well, it has been. Enjoying a game from the stands doesn't
really compare to conversing about roll shots, dumps, pancake digs and
jump floaters. But, I think I'm getting the hang of it now with four
matches under my belt. Adam Stowe, our Privateer Athletic Foundation
director and former volleyball player, has been a tremendous help on
the broadcasts. Former UNO player Lauren Loeffelholz provided a big
assist a few weeks ago, as well. If you've watched the webcasts and
have any feedback at all, please let me know.
We're going to attempt to webcast some UNO tennis matches in the spring.
Our
men's basketball webcasts should have a much more professional look to
them this year. Our good friend in Instructional Media and Technology,
Mike Adler, has granted us use of his high-end (and very expensive)
broadcasting equipment. It is the same system used on the Sun Belt
Conference Championships webcasts, with multiple cameras and graphics.
IMT's engineer, Greg Randolph, will serve as our technical director.
We're going to put the call out to UNO film students to serve as our
camera operators. We cannot thank Mike Adler enough. He has been
tremendously kind to me and the department. We should be able to make
the recordings of the games available on UNO Vision for later on-demand
viewing.
Jason
Plotkin and I need to get back into Lakefront Arena sometime this week.
We've been cleaning out the area that will serve as our media room on
game days this year. Basically, after Katrina, an entire department's
worth of files and computers was stored in a room and kept there.
There's several decades worth of items, and presumably there were to be
re-filed and redistributed once we move into Privateer Hall. Well, we
couldn't wait that long. So, we've been doing some digging and
reorganizing. While much of it has been mundane, we have come across a
few gems, like a special edition Monte Towe T-shirt, commemorative
player participation pins from the 1991 NCAA Tournament, some old
articles and press clipping relating to great moments in UNO history
and other artifacts long time fans would surely enjoy.
Though
not an athletics-sponsored event, I wanted to make you aware of the
Privateer Lakeshore Classic 5K Run/Walk benefiting student
scholarships, to be held on Saturday, November 15 at 9:00 a.m. at the
Homer L. Hitt Alumni Center. For more info, please contact Brian
McDonald at the Metropolitan College at (504) 280-7114 or bmcdonal@uno.edu.
A
big thank you to Cox Sports Television and our old comrade, John Barranco. CST will air the Joe Pasternack Show and Tom Walter Show this
season, and I believe Johnny B., CST's new Director of Sales, was
instrumental in making that happen. I know local fans had a tough time
catching the shows last year. This should ease that. Air times will be
released at a later date.
Don't
forget, the first UNO Basketball Hour radio show is less than two weeks
away! We'll see you at Lafitte's Café at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 3!
Time to move onto to something else.
