The football season is over, the equipment is getting a much needed overhaul, and for the first time in a few months, we're not spending the beginning of the week figuring out who is on the Friday night crew.
Which is probably a good thing, because I'm pretty sure some of our crew could use a break from me.
Over the weekend, I wrote about the players, coaches, and families who gave us another season of Yellowjacket football to follow. But there's another group of people who deserve some recognition before we turn the page to basketball season.
Our crew, our viewers, and especially the local businesses that make all of this possible.
When we started Jacket Nation Sports, we wanted to give people a better way to watch Lebanon athletics. Three football seasons later, we're doing things I don't think we would've imagined when we first started.
But none of that happens just because we decided to buy some cameras and show up at football games.
It happens because people believe it's worth supporting.
And this year, one local business helped us take a pretty important step.
National TV Sales & Rental became our first sponsor to specifically support the coverage of an entire sport.
That's something I want people to understand, because it's a little different from the way we've traditionally approached sponsorships.
National TV didn't just purchase commercials to run during football games. They partnered with us to help create more coverage of Lebanon football, both during the broadcasts and throughout the week.
That support helped us do more with the football program, including creating content for Jacket Stadium and giving our Creator Program students opportunities to get involved.
One of my favorite examples came when we brought football players into the studio to shoot photos and videos for all of our content. Malachi helped plan the project, and our team handled the production.
Those videos were only a few seconds long, but they represented something much bigger to me.
We were creating something for the football program that wouldn't have happened through a traditional game broadcast.
And a local business helped make it possible.
That's pretty cool.
We've also seen what this kind of partnership can do for other sports. Hidden Valley Outfitters supported our volleyball coverage this fall, helping us give that program more consistent attention through our articles, social media, and coverage.
I don't want to overlook how important that is.
Football is naturally going to draw a big audience. But there are kids in every sport and activity at Lebanon doing things worth talking about. Finding businesses willing to help us tell those stories gives us the opportunity to do more for more students.
National TV was the first to take that step with us, and I hope they know how much we appreciate it.
And to all of our other sponsors and advertisers, whether you've been with us since the beginning or joined us this year, thank you.
We understand that you have plenty of places you could spend your advertising dollars. The fact that you choose to invest some of them into Jacket Nation Sports means a lot.
We take that responsibility seriously. We want your business to benefit from the partnership, and we want the community to benefit from what your support allows us to do.
Because at the end of the day, that's how this works. The businesses support us, our viewers support those businesses, and together we're able to give these kids more attention than they might otherwise receive.
Now, let's talk about the people who actually have to put up with me every Friday night.
Our crew.
If you've watched much Jacket Nation Sports, you've probably heard me mention Super Shane. He's the guy who somehow manages to stay calm when something isn't working, which happens more often than I'd like to admit.
Shane is usually trying to figure out what's wrong while I'm explaining how everything was working perfectly five minutes ago.
Ryan is probably the quietest guy on our crew. He doesn't say much, but he's always paying attention. He's reliable, observant, and one of those people you don't have to worry about because you know he's doing his job.
Then there's Hoyt.
Hoyt, another one of our JNS Creator Program kids has spent this season learning more about football and replays, and he's made a lot of progress. He's also probably apologized to me 327 times during broadcasts for things that usually don't require an apology.
And apparently, at some point during the season, he decided that wearing his shoes during broadcasts was optional.
I don't know if taking your boots off makes you better at running a camera, but I'm not going to question his methods.
We've also got Fix-It Fenix.
Fenix has taken on quite a bit this fall. From helping manage social media during games to creating graphics for our fall sports coverage and designing T-shirts, he's been involved in a lot of what you've seen from Jacket Nation Sports.
He's also part of our Creator Program, and it's been pretty cool watching him take on projects and put his own work out there for the community to see.
And, of course, Kevin Stubblefield and David Millsap.
Those two bring a lot more to our broadcasts than just calling the plays. They know Lebanon football, care about the program, and have developed a pretty good chemistry together.
They also keep things entertaining for those of us listening behind the scenes.
Sometimes intentionally.
And finally, Bryon.
A lot of the photos and videos you see from Jacket Nation Sports are things Bryon has created. He also handles a lot of the technical side of our broadcasts, which is no small task when you consider how much equipment we're running and how many things can go wrong during a live production.
He's constantly evaluating things on the back end, whether it's putting together content, helping solve a technical problem, or figuring out how we can make the next broadcast better. He's even been known to run a camera from time to time!
He's also apparently responsible for bringing whatever I forgot at the office.
I'd love to tell you that doesn't happen very often, but Bryon would probably have a different version of that story.
The reality is that Bryon and I spend a lot of time working on Jacket Nation Sports outside of the actual broadcasts, too. There's planning, creating content, figuring out new ideas, and occasionally trying to solve problems I actually created. I promise to get better at that... tomorrow.
I appreciate having somebody alongside me who's willing to put that kind of time into it.
Every person on this crew brings something different, and I appreciate all of them.
People see the finished broadcast, but they don't always see the planning, loading equipment, traveling, setting up cameras, testing audio, troubleshooting, tearing everything back down, and getting home late.
Then we turn around and do it again.
And somehow, we still look forward to the next one.
And then there's the other part of this whole thing.
You.
The people who tune in, share our videos, read our articles, comment on our posts, and tell other people about Jacket Nation Sports.
During the buildup to the Camdenton playoff game, more than 100,000 people engaged with our content surrounding that rivalry.
Think about that for a second.
We're talking about high school football in Lebanon, Missouri.
That's a pretty remarkable amount of attention for a group of kids playing a game they love.
And while numbers like that are exciting, what matters more to me is what they represent.
Parents and grandparents watching when they can't make it to a game. Former Yellowjackets keeping up with the program. People sharing highlights of kids they know. Families getting to watch moments they might otherwise have missed.
And local businesses getting an opportunity to connect with the same community they're helping us cover.
That's the part of Jacket Nation Sports that I think is easy to underestimate.
Every view, share, comment, and conversation helps put more attention on these programs. And the more attention these kids receive, the more opportunities we have to keep doing what we're doing.
Football is a big part of Jacket Nation Sports. There's no getting around that. It's where a lot of people first found us, and it's one of the biggest productions we take on each year.
But it's also where we learn a lot.
This season, we tried new things with our broadcasts, created more content away from the field, and found different ways to involve students in the process.
Some things worked really well.
Others gave us a pretty good idea of what we need to work on.
That's part of it.
Three years ago, we were just trying to figure out how to put together a decent football broadcast. Now we're talking about ways to create more content for individual programs, give students hands-on experience, and work with local businesses to make it sustainable.
There's still plenty we want to improve, but I'm proud of how far we've come.
And I'm especially proud that we've been able to do it with people and businesses from our own community.
So before we move on to basketball, I want to say thank you.
To National TV Sales & Rental, thank you for being willing to try something new with us and helping us give Lebanon football more coverage this season.
To Hidden Valley Outfitters, our Gold Sponsors, Our Black Sponsors, our Buzz Sponsors and every other sponsor who supports Jacket Nation Sports, thank you for continuing to invest in what we're doing.
To our crew, thank you for your time, your patience, and the work you put into every broadcast. I know I don't always make your jobs easy.
And to everyone who spent part of their Friday nights with us, thank you for watching and giving us a reason to keep getting better.
We started Jacket Nation Sports because we thought these kids deserved more coverage.
Three football seasons later, I believe that more than ever.
And thanks to all of you, we're able to keep doing something about it.
Now, if somebody could make sure Hoyt has his boots before we head to our first basketball game, I'd appreciate it.