Sports Link: Your New Way to Watch Everything HPU Sports
If you have ever wondered how to watch the latest sports action on campus, HPU Sports Link should be your first place to look. They have all of the home panthers games live on your laptop or phone on the Big South Network. It is completely student run and they will be broadcasting over 100 events this year, from big sports like basketball to the little sports like track and field.
By Keith Watson
Whether you are looking for an opportunity for hands on camera experience, or just have a passion for High Point University sports, HPU Sports Link is a wonderful program to look into. HPU Sports Link welcomes students who want to join the program, with positions for camera operators, graphics, play-by-play analysts and much more.
The program has really come a long way in only two years of its existence. Michelle Manzo is the advisor for the club, who says they have gotten "a ton of equipment upgrades... so we're becoming more capable in what we're able to achieve."
Whether you are looking for an opportunity for hands on camera experience, or just have a passion for High Point University sports, HPU Sports Link is a wonderful program to look into. HPU Sports Link welcomes students who want to join the program, with positions for camera operators, graphics, play-by-play analysts and much more.
The program has really come a long way in only two years of its existence. Michelle Manzo is the advisor for the club, who says they have gotten "a ton of equipment upgrades... so we're becoming more capable in what we're able to achieve."
HPU Sports Link: Everything You Need to Know
HPU Sports Link is a program that started in 2011 and allows students who are looking to pursue a future in sports communications to get first hand experience with all types of positions in the broadcasting field. The students also get to get their hands on professional broadcast and production equipment so they will be ready for the future.
They cover all positions with three or four cameramen, a person to handle all of the graphics, a color commentator and a play-by-play announcer, as well as a director. Also, no one position is set to a certain person, so you do not have to worry about not getting locked out of a spot. It is a great way to get students involved in sports media and will continue to improve year after year.
They will show every High Point University home game this year and they also do plenty of road games, including every men and women’s basketball games. Games will be broadcasted on the Big South Network, which you can watch on any of your mobile devices for free.
Michelle Manzo: The Woman Behind it All
Michelle Manzo was hired in early 2012 as High Point University’s Multimedia Coordinator, and she has worked very hard to build up HPU Sports Link to what it is today as an advisor for it. She is the person behind the scenes setting up who works what position for what game, and goes to as many events as possible to help people out.
Manzo graduated from Ball State University in 2011 with a degree in telecommunications. At Ball State she was an executive producer of an Emmy-nominated program called “Ball State Sports Link: Be a Fan”, which was aired nationally on Fox College Sports.
Manzo is now working harder than ever now to take Sports Link to the next level. It may be a fully functioning program here, but that’s not enough for her. When asked in an interview how close are they to approaching their potential ceiling she said, “I don’t really see a limit that we will reach… If the students have the drive to keep making it better, we will keep making it better.”
Getting the Word Out
HPU Sports Link does all they can to provide Panthers fans as much action as possible, but how much sports do people actually watch the broadcasts that these students put on? After looking at the viewing records for all of our games this year, it turns out that it might be more people than you think.
The graph shows that the most watched Panthers game of the year was a volleyball game against Presbyterian College with 901 views. Every single game viewed for all High Point sports teams had at least 100 views.
I got to speak to Dylan Lovering, a senior at High Point University and active member of Sports Link. He encouraged anyone interested in communications and sports broadcasting to try and get involved: "Once you give it a shot, a lot of the times you'll want to keep coming back."
The graph shows that the most watched Panthers game of the year was a volleyball game against Presbyterian College with 901 views. Every single game viewed for all High Point sports teams had at least 100 views.
I got to speak to Dylan Lovering, a senior at High Point University and active member of Sports Link. He encouraged anyone interested in communications and sports broadcasting to try and get involved: "Once you give it a shot, a lot of the times you'll want to keep coming back."
HPU Sports Link welcomes anyone who is interested, all you need to do is sign up online on their site.
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