Game 92: Galesburg vs. Marian Catholic (Boy's Basketball)

Game 92
Galesburg vs. Marian Catholic (Boy's Basketball)
Galesburg Martin Luther King Tournament
(1/15/11)

When I schedule tournament broadcasts around my radio broadcasts, its very tentative.  It all depends on how timely the tournament is going, and how long my postgame shows go on the radio broadcasts.  Today, I was going to try and squeeze as many broadcasts as possible, meaning I would have to be on top of my game in getting scorebooks filled out, pronunciations, etc.

He's a very friendly realtor, please call him!

In my Game 91 Blog I mentioned the drive, and how it is painful to make the drive from Macomb to Galesburg for a HOME game.  My house went on the market last April.  At the time, my realtor was pretty confident that it would sell by November.  Many people would ask me what happens if it doesn't sell by the start of basketball.  I said I didn't know, because it would be impossible to do the amount of driving during the season, and have to drive all the way back to Macomb.  Most of my games are done in Galesburg and the Quad Cities.  It's funny that we think things will be impossible, until push comes to shove.  When unfortunate circumstances rear their ugly head, we have to gut it out and make it work.  That's the only thing to it.  Does the drive all the way back to Macomb suck?  Absolutely!  Is it impossible?  Absolutely not! 

My house is in a very quiet neighborhood.  The folks across the street always wave when they drive by.  The people next door clean my gutters.  A longtime police officer is my neighbor through the backyard, and the county sheriff lives a few doors down.  And....best of all, it is equipped with a large deck with TV...I'll even leave the outside 32" TV, no extra charge!

It was a 10:00 arrival at Galesburg High School.  There was hardly a car in the parking lot.  The first game pitted Sterling against Maine South, at 11:00.  Sterling coach Ryan Brown was walking from the bus to the gym when I pulled up. 

There was quite a problem when I logged into my email.  A note from Network1Sports, saying the website had been maliciously attacked.  There was no timetable for repair, but it should be up and running sometime today.  That was unacceptable, as I cannot miss three or four broadcasts today.  I had two options.

Option #1
Frantically re-establish my iHigh software and encoder, and use them to broadcast my non-radio games today.  When I established the iHigh encoder before basketball season to run some video tests, it messed up my Network1Sports encoder.  Since all of my audio broadcasts run through Network1Sports, I had to disable the iHigh stuff.  This created a quandry of sorts, because I would like to do some video stuff in the spring, which isn't available on Network1Sports.  To reactivate my iHigh software, I would have to get a hold of Kevin Sander, and I had limited time to do so, since I would be going on the air at noon for the Galesburg/Marian Catholic game, and the Minooka/York game would run concurrently after that broadcast.

Option #2
With lack of time, I go ahead and broadcast the Minooka/York game on tape delay, contact Kevin during the break in the afternoon, then go live for the evening games.  This may not work, with the potential of no break between the two sessions.  During tournaments like this, overtimes, close games, fouling, any stoppage of clock can delay games and put the tournament off schedule.  Decisions, decisions.

The Result
I love working under pressure, it's such a rush!  I wasted no time in making a decision.  I quickly weighed the options, and made a quick call to Kevin Sander.  I explained the situation, and he said he would get me going.  He was at the Naperville North King Tournament, and would call me back.  The notebook I had brought today, did not have my original iHigh user names and passwords that we had set up in August before football season.  With my pregame prep for the Galesburg game, I couldn't take Kevin's call, so I sent him a text during my pregame interviews (taped) that were running on my broadcast. 

He sent me the information I needed via text, walking me through everything.  It was perfect.  During breaks in action during my broadcast, I was able to get the game schedule information loaded, and my website changed to access the broadcasts.  I downloaded the software, and during Jimmie's postgame interview with assistant coach Steve Cheesman, I was able to to finish everything up, and as the Minooka/York game tipped, I flipped to live and was ready to go.  One day later, I look back on yesterday morning, and I am quite amazed at how smoothly everything went under the stresses that were presented. 

Face Time
When I went down to interview Galesburg coach Mike Reynolds, he was intercepted by WHBF-TV and interviewed about the King Tournament, and importance of the holiday.  WHBF had a crazy looking camera that had a really bright light.  Coach Reynolds commented on the light asking, "Is this going to give me a tan?"

Streaks/Spartans
Galesburg jumped out to a 24-13 after one quarter.  The Silver Streaks led 41-26 at halftime in a game filled with technical fouls.  Marian Catholic was called for three technical fouls, including ones on Randall Wells and John Rohde, and one on coach Mike Taylor.  Galesburg coach Mike Reynolds also received a technical foul.

The Streaks cruised to a 73-52 win, and it was never in doubt.  Chad Thompson scored a career-high 21 points.  Brandon Thompson scored 18 points, Dalton Davis added 15 points and Ryan McElmurry scored 14 points.  Brian Gates scored a game-high 22 points for the Spartans.

Family Connection
Marian Catholic coach Mike Taylor is the brother of Quincy Blue Devils coach Sean Taylor.  Quincy competes in the Western Big 6 with Galesburg.

Marian Catholic Cameraman
A student filmer from Marian Catholic ran down the pronunciations for me before the game.  I thought he looked familiar, and during the game he would shout out to his classmates words of encouragement, reminding me that he also did the filming for the Spartans at the King Tournament last year.

Postgame
As mentioned earlier, I finished the iHigh downloading and setup during Jimmie's postgame interview with coach Cheesman.  I also spotted a couple of (Elmhurst) York fans in front of our broadcast booth, so I was able to get a quick rundown of pronunciations for the Dukes.  It was the father of senior Kyle Leone (long "E") who gave me the pronunciations. 

Game 92 Miles:  50