“Since I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster, there are certain venues you dream of working in,” said Nicholas Alumkal ‘23. “While Ford Field isn’t the Rose Bowl or Lambeau Field, the opportunity to operate such a professional event, and being able to call the high school football championships for Michigan, was a memorable and terrific experience.”

Greenhills’ student-run sports broadcasting club, Gryphon Sports Live Club (GSL) was invited in early November to broadcast the D1 and D5 MHSAA football finals, featuring Belleville versus Caledonia, and Gladwin versus Frankenmuth. The group jumped at the opportunity, and broadcasted the event Nov. 26. 

“It allowed me to see what goes into covering such an important event. It let me peek behind the curtains and see what really goes on behind the scenes, the production, the photography, the broadcasting and all the other sides of the MHSAA football finals,” said Alumkal.

Gryphon Sports Live is a student-run organization that was originally  founded by Austin Andrews ‘23 and Nicholas Alumkal ‘23 in 2021. The club specializes in broadcasting school sports, using social media accounts  to promote and recognize  students, teams, and games.

“Very few students get the chance to broadcast at Ford Field’s selective event and we are lucky enough to know some folks that allow us to do it,” said club co-president Austin Andrews ‘23 before the event. “We are so really excited to get the experience of broadcasting a high school football game at a big stage at a crucial time in these players’ careers.”

Many students from the school attended the event including  Austin Andrews ‘23, Nick Alumkal ‘23, Sarah Horan ‘23, Abraham Fayad ‘23, Matthew Prabhu ‘23, Zayd Uzzaman ‘23, Conor Bamberry ‘24, Dash Mangrulkar ‘24, Dominic Schuster ‘24, Sophie Erb-Watson ‘25, Shannon Cheng ‘25, Hannah Lee ‘25, and Alena Andrews ‘26. Students on the team spent 10-12 hours of their Saturday working together to broadcast the game. 

“We built some cool connections,” said GSL statistician Zayd Uzzaman ‘23. “ I got the opportunity to meet the head of statistics for the Detroit Lions. There were a lot of high level people in the area and it’s kind of surreal to be around a bunch of professionals. We were able to get new guys on the microphone, and overall it was a fantastic learning experience for the team. We were able to apply what we had practiced during normal broadcasting, and just in an overall sense it was super fun.”

What’s special about the team is that any student can join and help out. Recently the team has had an influx of new students and is growing in size allowing for the group to have more opportunities. 

“In the past year we didn’t have a lot of people,” said Associate Producer Dominic Schuster ‘24. “We were testing out media days and filming games. We have many more people now, so we are able to diversify and expand our reach. We now have video footage for all sports instead of just a handful like we used to have.”

At the event, different sections within the club are able to work together within their individual groups and later combine to create a comprehensive image for viewers. Students commentated, worked as photographers, took important statistics regarding the game, and served as tech support assistance. 

“The event gave me insights on how broadcasting is done at a professional level,” said Head of Statistics, Abraham Fayad ‘23. “I can use this to incorporate better practices into my own work and the Greenhills broadcasting team. As the head of stats, my team records all the individual player performances and analyzes it for the commentators’ use. In order so that the audience has a better picture of how the game is going.” 

The team plans on using the learning experience from the event to develop students’ managing skills for coming school sports events. 

“The Ford Field Event taught us how to work together and run an individual broadcasting team,” said Schuster. “We want to have different teams within the club that manage different individual sports.”

The event also served as good practice for the future of the club. As co-presidents Nicholas Alumkal and Austin Andrews are seniors, next year other members of the club plan to step up.

“The future is still being paved, we have the right people to keep working with it, people that can call games and fill in the roles,” said Schuster. “Photographers and commentators. It definitely is gonna take more than just one person stepping up, it’s gonna take the whole group.”