SPB's High School Football

It used to be that high school athletics were covered by their local newspapers and local television, and that’s it. Then, maybe 15 or so years ago, came the rare high school TV highlight show, which eventually dipped its toes into the odd game broadcast.

Then came the internet, MaxPreps.com, which dedicated itself to being the ESPN of high school sports across the nation–with its streaming video shows and national game coverage to go along with its revolutionary statistical database. As interest spiked, copycat sites followed and the big media executives suddenly realized there was good ol’ fashioned money to be made — and lots of it — at the high school level.

Nowadays, you can watch a high school football game on every Fox Sports regional channel in the country. CBS threw its weight behind MaxPreps. Local cable TV quickly upped its coverage last year, in our case, WTNH’s affiliate “MyTV9″ started broadcasting a football game of the week. CPTV and WFSB’s joint venture Connecticut Sports Network started broadcasting all the CIAC championships and recently debuted “Game Time” a weekly high school football show.

Perhaps no one, to my knowledge anyway, has done high school sports broadcasting better than the Madison Square Garden network during the last 15 years or so. Mike Quick and his crew have been scouring the Tri-Date area, covering games and broadcasting highlight shows forever — and doing them well.

So the powers that be over at Cablevision/MSG finally decided to get into the game full time. Using the power of the internet, MSG is attempting to tap the high school market deeper than ever before.

POINT (and there is one): Today is the official Launch of MSG Varsity, a multiplatform high school network covering the entire tri-state, from New Jersey all the way up into Westchester, Long Island and Fairfield County.

MSG Varsity will broadcast at least three, maybe four high school games (not just football) on tape delay for every region, every week (Fairfield County is lumped in with the Westchester group). it will also feature high school roundtables, highlight shows… you name it.

Not only will it be a 24-hour television network, filled with everything sports network should feature, it will also broadcast additional content from its website and provide an interactive service to all of the high schools of the region.

What that means is while the network’s focus will be on sports, part of it will appeal to all extracurricular activities — debate, band, drama and dance… you name it. MSG will attempt to work with high schools to provide content as broadcasters, technicians, camera operators, producers… How many AV departments (do they even call them that anymore?) would love to get their hands on MSG’s technology to broadcast their events?

“There’s always been an interest in high school sports and activities,” said Theresa Chillianis, general manager of MSG Varsity in a recent AP story. “I think you’d agree that, today, kids are already using everything from a cell phone to a video camera to capture their own stories. MSG Varsity is simply providing them with a greater platform to tell those stories. And we can do this more cost effectively than others because we already have the technological and operational infrastructure in place.”

It’s a bold venture for MSG, especially in this economy. But it’s smart. Over the last decade, the network has seen its programming undercut by the likes of YES and SNY for New York pro coverage. So why not try to make some coin by going local, like every every other big news conglomerate? It’s only a matter of time before ESPN and its ultra-local push gets here, anyway… if they’re not already.

What should make this work is this: nobody knows the tri-state better than Quick and the rest of his high school crew, including the guys at Cablevision-owned News12 (Damien Andrew, et. al.) MSG Varsity’s brass have even met with the local newspapers (i.e. Cablevision-owned Newsday and the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers — that’s us) to see how we can contribute to the venture.

The only rub is that this network is available only to the 3 million Cablevision subscribers, which reaches deep into Fairfield County’s coast, but no further — the same way the Connecticut Sports Newtork is only available to Comcast and Cox cable subscribers. The MSG Varsity debut is today, but I can’t watch at home or online in New Haven county, nor can I even attempt to get it.

Cable TV is a pain in the you-know-what, always has been. Just ask UConn fans.

Update:YOU CAN, however, still watch Quick’s High School Weekly show online and on MSG’s regular channel. It’s back after a year spent on satellite channel MSGPlus. Watch High School Weekly here. Or just watch the video below for this week’s episode.

Regardless, this has the potential to be a wonderful outlet and opportunity for the region’s high schools. I’m anxious to see how the first few weeks of programming go. MSG Varsity already has a feature on Kolbe Cathedral’s Chris Smith. We’ve heard the Varsity crew paid a visit to Trinity Catholic‘s volleyball team. Among the venture’s many new hires is Connecticut Post intern Brian Fitzsimmons, who took in Central’s 53-28 football win over Fairfield Ludlowe, looking for a feature on Central QB Christon Gill.

So it’s here, it’s here, it’s here. Check it out…and then tell me what it’s like.