Home games on the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School field will stream live online in future seasons, thanks to a $10,000 gift from Martha’s Vineyard Community Television (MVTV) that will provide internet and network services to the press box.
High school committee member Louis Paciello said playing on camera helps student-athletes who are seeking recognition from college coaches.
“It’s important for our athletes to gain film to get recruited for college. That’s a necessity and this is going to be amazing,” Mr. Paciello said at a school committee meeting earlier this month.
Anne Whiting, who chairs the public-access TV channel’s board of directors, said the upgrade will allow grandparents and other fans to watch in real time from wherever they are.
“A lot of it is for the folks who can’t get to the games,” said Ms. Whiting, who told the Gazette she recused herself from the board’s vote to grant the money to the high school.
“I had a vested interest in this, because I produce all the sporting events for MVTV,” she said. “I’m a sports geek.”
Ms. Whiting and her husband Danny are already fixtures at regional high school basketball games, where Mr. Whiting handles the camera work while his wife provides play-by-play announcements for cable viewers.
They also record field hockey and other sports for subsequent cablecasts, posting videos on the cable station’s YouTube channel, and they have used Facebook to stream live ice hockey games from the Martha’s Vineyard Ice Arena.
Ms. Whiting said the donation from MVTV underscores its long relationship with the high school, where the station was founded in 2003.
“We operated out of the school for years before we moved to our new space 10 years ago, [because] we just needed more space,” said Ms. Whiting, who taught at the school until 2010 and continues to coach girls’ sports teams.
Rick Mello, the high school’s head of information technology, said a schedule for the press box project has yet to be determined.
“Since we just recently received the donation, I do not have a start date yet from the vendor that will be assisting me with the installation of the hardware,” Mr. Mello wrote to the Gazette.
Along with the athletic department, the high school’s horticulture program also stands to benefit from the MVTV donation.
“As the press box project was implementing the MVRHS network across Sanderson Road, I felt it necessary to include the horticulture building in the same project, as it is our only classroom area on the other side of Sanderson and it also currently lacks true wi-fi and network connectivity,” Mr. Mello wrote.
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