More Work is Needed but the Foundation is There- Analyzing USports Broadcast Coverage

Full Disclaimer: I called U Sports Final Eight Games in both Men's Volleyball and Women's Basketball and called football, basketball and volleyball for OUA TV this year.

U Sports remains a coverage curiosity for all involved on the air and behind the scenes and despite rapid advancements in technology it remains a sort of patchwork of different coverage platforms that have migrated from sports station to sports station when it comes to major coverage. The creativity of young broadcasters creating their own brand and own coverage has been in many ways a vital component of the coverage They are people who write about the sport and create podcasts and other audio and video content . Both TSN and Sportsnet have covered the product with varying levels of success, depending on the sport There's a footprint. There's tons of potential and the quality of sports is highly underrated but marketing, branding and promoting the sport has been an issue ever since I got involved when I was a university student in the mid 90's and after. Each conference has its own vision when it comes to coverage. Most stream many events and the quality of coverage can wildly fluctuate. U Sports, as a whole, has to oversee the whole package and then tie it all together during championship season.

This season we should be feting the hard-working people at U-Sports because what they were able to pull of this year was a Herculean feat. Was it perfect? No. Did they try to correct, and take into consideration the complaints of the fans? They sure did!

I was involved in two Final 8 Championships as I called two quarter final games at the Men's Volleyball and five from the Women's basketball, including the final. All was done remotely and the colour commentators I worked with were in different cities. That in and unto itself is a challenge as play-by-play like myself feed of the colour commentator and vice versa and use non-verbal cues, or the occasional punch like my buddy and colour commentator Ed Burkholder from the IceDog broadcasts.

For the women's basketball I called three of the QF games, one SF and the final. After the first game there was a volume of complaints about the lack of female voices sound quality, production values and the lack of broadcasting crowd noise in the venue. No doubt there were some about the idiot play-by-play guy but lets not get into that! All comments were fair. Some were correctable. Others not so much. By the end of the tournament the sound, production and ambient sound had all improved. The main colour commentator was Rose-Anne Joly, the excellent coach from the Ottawa Gee Gee's and she was a wonderful analyst to work with. No word on whether the idiot play-by-play guy improved his game by the end. We, and I include myself as part of the USports team, listened and really tried to improve the viewer experience. People don't realize it but there was a real chance that there was going to be NO national championships this year due to the pandemic. When seasons restarted, save for Canada West, after a pause the race was on to plan the finals, scramble for new dates, and in some cases new venues. Also, there was the need to figure out the broadcasting situation and work with the new partner of U Sports, the CBC. I can say that the production people, the U Sports people and those at the venue were fantastic to work with and it was a true team approach.

Certainly there's work to be done, and I'm not telling tales out of school by saying that. One thing to address right off the bat was the lack of over the air TV presence. All games were streamed on various CBC platforms, and there was no traditional TV save for a couple of football games. Streaming games with announcers remote is the wave of the future and broadcasters will be remote much of the time. Think of a lot of your favourite sports during the pandemic. Many of them were broadcasted remotely to limit the number of physical bodies in a building, and certainly as a cost savings measure. The Olympics have been doing this for years, and no one has really noticed the difference. Do you think every broadcaster was sent to China for the Winter Olympics? Think again. Trust me as a play-by-play broadcaster, I'd much rather be at the venue where you can talk to people, get closer to the action and to drink in the ambience of the building. It is my hope to be able to do that as much as possible whether I'm broadcasting U Sports or OHL hockey. For the OUA this year I was on site, but the set up was simple. For my basketball and volleyball commentary, I was all by myself, no colour comentator, sitting on a stool in a balcony above the bleachers sitting on a chair. That was my "office" and we pulled off a credible broadcast with different, all be it limited camera angles and production values.

Trust me I'll be the first to say that the coverage certainly needs to be improved and in some cases streamlined. Many times games are being called by people who have very little training or knowledge of a live broadcast. Those who have worked in live sports for a number of years, like myself, know the difficulty in calling a game and bringing the action home to the viewers. People need training, mentoring and reps in learning the craft of sports broadcasting, and yes sports broadcasting is a craft. There does need to be streamlined, consistent approach with an eye on promoting not only the lead up to U Sports championships but the road to those finals. How that looks? Depends really on the conference, and while I support autonomy when it comes to conference coverage, there does need to be some consistency and a shared approach to coverage. U Sports and/or the conference need to invest in broadcast training to help people who want to support their school, team or even launch their career. When I started play-by-play at the tender age of 22, I was not good. In fact I was awful and did not like the sound of my won voice. If I didn't like the sound of my own voice, I'm sure others who were actually listening felt the same way. Watching games, reflecting on my craft, not being afraid of asking for constructive criticism and finding my own voice and style gradually helped me to improve, but that was a process and it took time. U Sports and/or the conferences need to take the time to sharpen up the broadcasts and present for what they are, as the best marketing and promotional tool for your school and sport.

It certainly was a unique experience broadcasting off of a computer. I'd never done it before, and I know that I made more of my fair share of mistakes in player identification and referee calls, but the game was the game and I think we pulled it off in the end. The weirdest thing was simply coming downstairs from my office after a game to the living room where my family was. Usually I need to reflect, decompress and really calm down form the adrenalin of a live broadcast. My wife had to tell me to stop shouting because I came downstairs and didn't modulate my voice from the broadcast. Not the first, nor the last time she has wished that I was a lot more quiet! The good news is that while there were growing pains, a lot of the trouble-shooting was correctable and the infrastructure for improvement was there. I'd like to get back into the venues to call games, but if its not in the cards then a producer I worked with always told me "improvise, adapt and overcome". There is great potential in a partnership with CBC as U Sports fits their mandate perfectly.

Have faith, stay invested, and never be afraid to voice your opinion. U Sports and certainly myself were listening. I've been invested in improving this product off and on for over 25 years on radio, TV, and online. The potential of the product remains great, and the coverage should match that. The good news is there is a lot of people invested in making U Sports the best product possible.

Steve Clark- Steve has called university sports on various platforms and sports outlets, including CBC and TSN radio. He also calls OHL games for YourTV and the Niagara IceDogs