Students Make Connection at University Over Control
Investing in a high quality scoreboard goes a long way. Not only does it enhance your sports facility, but it creates educational opportunities for your students, preparing them for college-level gamedays.
12/4/2019
Categories: High School Sports
During its first two years with a Daktronics video board, students at Juab High School in Nephi, Utah, are already gaining firsthand experience with sports media. The board is also bringing the school and community closer together through a few events and activities:
Live Stream Away Games
The JHS football team plays some games over three hours away, so they started live streaming those games on the board, so fans can still watch those games together without having to spend six hours travelling in one night.
Movie Nights
Student government has also started hosting movie nights, inviting both the community and students to come enjoy a film with each other at the field.
“The board has had a very positive impact on our school, and it does a great job of engaging the crowd during games,” said business instructor Janell Bowles.
Gameday Media Production
Students take control during games by running the score board, running instant replays, creating graphics, and using a TriCaster. This added entertainment brings in a larger crowd and energizes the crowd.
Opportunity for all students
“During the games, our students rotate who is on which equipment and cameras, and who is running instant replays and graphics, so they all get the chance to do everything,” Bowles said.
The lucky students that get to run the board are members of Bowles’s sports marketing class, so new students get this opportunity every six months. Some students have even taken the class twice to help with training and to gain more experience.
They get creative advertising their sponsors with graphics like “first-down sponsored by so-and-so,” noted JHS principal Jim Langford.
Making connections
A group of students from JHS took a fieldtrip to Weber State to see what the gameday production environment is like at the college level. Juab has one board for the facility, whereas Weber has multiple boards and banners, as well.
“Our students instantly recognized that Weber uses the same software we do, and they already know how to run all of the equipment,”
Bowles said.
Using Daktronics equipment has opened the door to many opportunities for the students at Juab – one student was given Weber’s Assistant Marketing Director’s business card for a potential future career.
“It’s been fun to watch this thing grow and see students take initiative – going on the fieldtrips, getting the ball rolling, making connections with colleges,” Langford said.
Working with a world-leading company
The previous scoreboards at JHS were Daktronics also, so going through us for this next addition was a no-brainer.
“Our sales rep who was with us before was always there for questions and troubleshooting, and this time around (our rep) was super helpful again,” Langford said.
Their sales rep went over all Daktronics products with JHS to help them explore their options.
“We liked every product we saw,” Langford said. “She helped us narrow down our options logistically and find the right one for us.”
According to Langford, the future for JHS is bright with a possibility of adding Daktronics video boards to the indoor facilities as well, for the wrestling, basketball and volleyball games.