 |
| Gilfillan Court at Peoria Notre Dame |
Galesburg @ Peoria Notre Dame (Boy's Basketball)
(2/22/11)
Who would have thought that an early arrival and extra preparation to avoid an equipment disaster would blow up in my face? Tonight, the broadcast resembled the 84-39 final score between these two teams, and I was on wrong end...
Organization, overly prepared, and early are three things that are extremely important, and words I live by for my broadcasts. No matter how much effort is put into these three, one oversight can create a disaster. Here's my story.
In Game Blog #140, I touched on the problematic power supply for our Cellcaster unit. We are in the process of trying to secure a new power supply. Numerous phone calls have left us empty on this issue. Since I just averted a catastrophe on Monday night in Metamora with the unit, I opted for Plan B. The Cellcaster was left behind at the radio station, to try and find out if it was something that could be rewired, or soldered.
By the way, I had to Google search the spelling of solder, since it's commonly misspelled as sodder. Here's a humorous definition from Urban Dictionary.
"Soddering" - An incorrect term for 'soldering', usually used by idiots, or people with 'labtop' computers.
Tuesday afternoon, I packed the Monmouth-Roseville equipment bag for the Titans broadcast at the Mercer County Regional, as well as my own bag for the night. I made the mistake of assuming that one very important cable was with the remote mix board (where it should be). It wasn't, as I found out in Peoria later on.
The funny thing is, after picking Jimmie up in Galesburg and we hopped on Interstate 74, I had this sense of panic come over me that I didn't have the proper equipment. Apparently, I've done enough broadcasts that I have this "motherly instict," and can sense danger.
It was the dawning of disaster. Okay, I am probably exaggerating on how terrible the broadcast went, and it wasn't that bad. In fact, when I cut up audio on Wednesday, you could not tell a difference in the sound quality, however the content was lacking due to having to hold a cell phone to my face for three hours, more on that in a moment.
When we arrived at Notre Dame High School, the cheerleaders were still practicing upstairs in one end of the balcony. I talked with athletic director Matt Blackford, and he said we could set up at the table right next to the scorer's table. Jimmie had suggested all along that we broadcast from the balcony, which was where he preferred. Blackford was a little curious as to why we wanted to use that spot, and he had to fetch a table and a couple chairs.
The cheerleaders wrapped up their practice, and the bleachers were extended out. We had a very small table, but enough room to set up our remote mix board and my laptop. There was very little room to work with, which created some obstacles with the foot traffic that would be passing by.
After emptying out the equipment bag, the initial panic of forgetting something turned to reality. There was no cord that connected my cell phone to the mixer board. I had no adapters, nothing. Of course, I took the radio station vehicle, so my personal equipment for the IHSSN broadcasts was left behind in my own vehicle. It's unlikely that I had anything in that bag that would have worked, but stranger things have happened.
I searched every nook and cranny in the duffel bag, and nothing. The sophomore game was a few minutes from tipping off, and Jimmie had gone down to conduct a pregame interview with Notre Dame head coach Eddie Matthews. I made a beeline to the car, and headed off to find a Radio Shack.
Garmin is not that helpful when it comes to these emergency situations. According to Garmin, the nearest Radio Shack was 2.9 miles away. When I got to the 2nd stoplight (and where I was supposed to turn left), I spotted a Radio Shack a half block away. It was destiny, maybe Lady Luck had made the trip with me tonight.
Inside Radio Shack, I scanned the various adapters, and found no cord that I needed. One of the employees helped out, and said that they didn't have any cords with the connections I needed, but had an adapter. I said that's all I needed, and $6.48 later, I was headed back to Notre Dame.
The sophomore game was midway through the 1st quarter when I made my return, giving up a prime parking spot near the front door. Now, I was down the hill in the main parking lot. At any rate, I made the call to the radio station, and nothing. I could hear them, they couldn't hear me. I flipped every switch on the mixer board to get it to work, to no avail.
Greg Ford, back at the station, mentioned I should call U.S. Cellular, the provider of the cell phone we use. I called one store, they had nothing. I called a second store in Peoria, nothing. Strike three on the Knoxville location, and a fourth strike on yet another outlet. The last store told me that Best Buy would be the only place that would have something like that. A quick call to the Peoria Best Buy netted zero results. They instructed me to try Radio Shack, where I had just been. Knowing the Sheridan location didn't have what I was looking for, I tried the Northwoods Mall location.
By this time, it was halftime of the sophomore game. Travis at the Radio Shack mall location wasn't too confident that he had anything to help me out. I still had time to make a gamble, before using the old cell phone-to-mouth broadcast. I slowly explained what I needed, and what I had that didn't work. I'm not technical when it comes to the stereo and mono plugs, so I threw each cord setup I had to show him what DIDN'T work.
With 2:00 before the start of the 3rd quarter in the sophomore game, I was headed back out of the gym and driving to the Northwoods Mall. I had no idea where the Radio Shack location was in the mall, so I found the first mall entrance, and asked the young woman at the Verizon kiosk. She directed me downstairs next to J.C. Penney.
I took the escalator, which always reminds me of one of my favorite movies (remember, I have horrible taste in movies), Mallrats. "Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator." - Brodie (Jason Lee of "My Name is Earl" fame)
Travis was working the counter at Radio Shack and piled together some adapters and cords, three to be exact. He plugged everything together how I would need it, and said it should work. He wasn't very convincing! Fortunately, he was extremely gracious and knocked off over 50% of the total bill. One of the adapters was $12 alone, and the total bill came to $26, but was charged a little over $12.
Jimmie had texted me as I pulled back onto Sheridan, or War Memorial, or whatever road I was on headed back to the school. He said there was just 3:00 left in the game. It was going to be a tight squeeze. Pulling into the parking lot, I gave up another good parking spot, and ended up out of the main lot, a far, far cry from the initial parking spot when we arrived (we had the closest non-handicap spot outside the front door).
Rushing back into the gym, the warmup clock was just beginning to run. I plugged in the new cord, still nothing. Flip of the switches, and still nothing. I took a deep breath, and had one cord that I didn't think to use. When I plugged it into the cell phone, I had a much clearer sound in my headphones from the station, but alas, the station couldn't hear me. It was phone-to-face the entire night!
In retrospect, I'm not sure which broadcast location would have been better. I certainly didn't enjoy our location with the tight space, and the constant traffic, however it seemed to be a tight squeeze down on the floor.
Galesburg made it a game in the first quarter, despite trailing 7-0 to start the contest. It was 17-14 after the first quarter. The Silver Streaks were also playing without top defender and starting senior guard Ryan McElmurry, sitting out a game due to violating school rules.
There were some questionable calls made in the 1st quarter that did not go the Streaks way. I am very rarely critical of officials during a game, but what transpired by this crew at Notre Dame was abhorable. Following an exchange before an in-bounds play, Austin Gernant picked up two quick fouls. On the following posession, another foul was called, and Galesburg coach Mike Reynolds was in disagreement. He was whistled very, very quickly for a technical foul. The explanation: hand gestures. This referee in particular is no stranger to controversial technical fouls. In fact, this referee may have been trying to make a "statement," in getting in coach Mike Reynolds face after the technical foul. Reynolds was issued a second technical foul moments later when he was trying to get a timeout, "earning" an ejection. The reason for technical foul number two is as laughable as the first...."unsportsmanlike conduct." The only other comment I'll make is that the best officials are the ones you don't notice. This referee is certainly not one of them, and hopefully his antics aren't rewarded with IHSA postseason assignments.
The wheels fell off after this debacle, and Peoria Notre Dame took a 39-23 lead at the half, and cruised to a 84-39 win. The loss of McElmurry in this game, and the calls that went against the Silver Streaks certainly played no part in a win or loss for Galesburg, it was 45 points for goodness sakes, but I will say that if these two teams meet up in a Class 3A Regional championship game, expect a much closer outcome.
Max Bielfeldt finished with a game-high 25 points, while teammates David Molinari (14), Sam Feehan (12), and Nick Reynolds (10) also reached double figures. Brandon Thompson scored a team-high 17 points for Galesburg. The Irish knocked down 13 three-pointers.
Notre Dame improves to 26-0 on the season. In the latest ESPN Rise Fab 50 national rankings, the Irish moved up five spots to #25 nationally. Galesburg drops to 23-6.
You can hear coach Mike Reynolds comments on the game, and his techincals online here in WAIK Sportsline.
With his ejection, Reynolds must miss the Galesburg/Moline season finale at Wharton Field House. He tells me that he will be scouting his first round Regional opponent, Richwoods, on Friday night.
In the house: Rock Island head coach Thom Sigel was at Notre Dame watching the Irish for a potential Sectional matchup. Moline head coach Ryan Webber was also in the gym getting one last look at the Silver Streaks before Friday night's game. Dartmouth was in the house, watching Max Bielfeldt. I also saw coaches from Ashford University.
Game 141 Miles: 232
No comments:
Post a Comment