Published: November 10, 2008 01:53 pm      

Brothers broadcast Frankston football on the Web

Serving the Fan

FRANKSTON — On Friday nights in many Texas communities, hometown radio stations broadcast every first down, touchdown and pass thrown by the local high school football team.

For communities without radio coverage, fans unable to attend are forced to be creative to keep up with their favorite school, calling or texting friends at the game or checking online high school sports Web sites in the off chance that someone posted an update.

Thanks to two former students, Frankston High School fans with computer access have had another option this season — live Internet broadcasts of each home game.

Brothers Justin and Jace White provided color and play-by-play coverage of each of the Indians’ five home football games, using headsets and a live phone connection to a host Web site specializing in offering streaming Internet radio.

Fans anywhere in the world could visit the school Web site and click a link on the home page for either “FHS Football LIve Radio” for real-time action or “Football on Demand” for previously played games hosted on the Texas Sports Radio Network server in Houston.

For the White boys, the games offered a chance to broadcast live sports, something they’d joked around with while watching games but never actually had the chance to do.

The opportunity came about last spring former when then-Frankston head football coach Les Rhea had approached Jace, a 2006 graduate and former player, about doing the broadcasts.

Jace, who plans to transfer to the University of South Florida in 2009 to study broadcast journalism, knew where to look when Rhea told him to find someone to help him by providing the color commentary.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Jace said. “We’d go to a lot of local games and sit in the stands and do this, so he was the first one I thought of. I asked him if he wanted to and he jumped right on board.”

Justin, a parole officer in the Dallas area who graduated from Frankston in 1998, was happy to oblige.

The Whites have strong ties to the Frankston school community. Both brothers had played sports while in school and had been big supporters of the various teams.

Their middle brother, Jordan, served as the school Indian mascot before graduating and joining the Navy, their mother Barbara recently retired as elementary school secretary after many years and their father Chris, the high school principal, has been the PA announcer at home basketball games in the past.

On the air, though, they’re all business, providing team and player statistics for both schools gleaned from local newspapers and the Internet, discussing what they see as keys to the game, and providing a running commentary of the action on the field.

Because the broadcasts have no commercials to fill gaps during timeouts or halftime, once they’re on the air, they’re constantly talking for around three hours to avoid dead air and keep listeners informed.

The hardest thing?

“Trying not to laugh,” Justin said.

It’s been a learning process, finding out what works, how to fill gaps, developing a delivery style.

“It started out kind of rocky, being the first time of doing it for real,” Justin said. “Each game we try to improve and improve our pace, make the transition a little easier.”

Feedback has been positive from those who’ve listened in, they said.

“Everybody says it sounds pretty good,” Justin said. “We’re kind of our worst critic as to how it sounds. We’re always hard on ourselves.”

They’ve focused on making the banter and description sound smooth to listeners, without saying ‘uh’ in a search for something to say.

While the brothers say they don’t pattern themselves after any particular professional broadcasters, they do pay attention to the way that the pros such as Brad Sham and David Smoak bring a game to life.

“We will listen to how they say things but that’s about the extent of it,” Justin said.

One of the most enjoyable games was the district game with Troup on Oct. 10, Jace said.

“Normally I do play-by-play but I did color that game and let Justin do play-by-play to try it out,” Jace said. “There was a play in the third quarter that he called and we both kind of got carried away on the play. It was fun, but I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to color.”

Doing the broadcasts has also provided Jace with some experience in the career he’s pursuing.

“When they asked me if I wanted to, I was like, yeah, it’s something else I can put on my resume,” Jace said. “I did this a couple times when I was going to school at Harding University. I was a sports anchor on campus news. I’ve done this before but having to do a whole season worth of it is definitely new to me. But I love it. I love it.”

Frankston ISD technology director Ed Prater said the school has had good feedback about the broadcasts.

“We’ve had people listening that I know of as far away as England and New York City and places like that, relatives of people who play,” Prater said. “So far it’s been good.”

With the football season over, the broadcasts will head to the gym for home boys and girls basketball games, Prater said.

“I think we’re one of the smaller schools that do it,” he added. “We’re doing it for people who just can’t come to the games.”

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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com

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On the Net:

Frankston ISD, http://www.frankstonisd.net/

Texas State Radio Network archives for 2008 East Texas high school football, http://www.tsrnsports.com/webcast/2008-09/EastTexas/2008-archive-football.htm