ALBUQUERQUE – Welcome to the latest edition of the Ice Wolves Den. Recently I had the opportunity to do play by play for an NA3HL Ice Wolves game and got to work with their amazing production team. This week, we will be featuring that team.
NAHL play by play announcer Jason Thomas says they’re the best crew in the league and they’re mostly high school interns. “Our production staff is amazing. Without them I have no show, it’s everything from camera operators, replays, technical directors, producers, I’ve seen so many people grow. I’ve seen high school kids go to college and get jobs with Reelz Network. They really put the show together, all I do is talk. Everything you’re seeing is from them, I’m very lucky because they make me look better then I really am.” Thomas continued, “It’s all high school interns who volunteer their weekends. I remember being in high school, I didn’t want to give up my weekends, I wanted to go out with my friends. For them to be so committed to this being a potential career, I’m forever grateful, we have a great staff.”
Casey James runs the NA3HL broadcast and is part of the NAHL team and hopes this leads to his dream job, “I want to be an engineer, I want to work on a production truck. Our production is essentially set up like one of those sports production trucks, just kind of in a room.” James said, “There are way too many things that go into a broadcast. If there are 100 things, I’ll remember 99 and when the game starts I’ll remember number 100. We have 5 recorders going for the replays, we have to make sure the audio and video is being sent to NAHLTV, the streaming service. We have to make sure all the microphones work, the cameras are in proper position. It’s so much you have to remember to create the perfect broadcast.”
It’s not just the Ice Wolves broadcast, most NAHL teams bring in their own broadcaster, James says that’s just one more thing to worry about, “We give them their own Internet connection and their own feed of our broadcast and we can control their audio to make sure their audio is perfect. Recently we have them their own monitor so they could see the replays and commentate on those. We really just give them another version of our broadcast so they have all the tools they need to make their broadcast as perfect as possible.”
Thomas says the visiting announcers do appreciate the crew, “They love them, especially when they come here for the first time. They want me to show them the set up, so I’ll take them to the control room and introduce them to the kids. When they find out they’re high school interns, not everybody knows that, it’s a little hidden gem and they can’t believe they’re high schoolers and they’re this good.”
Matt Vencill runs the NAHL broadcast and says it’s more then just turning on a camera, “At the start of the day we have to make sure we have all of our graphics. Is there a special jersey? Is there an Anthem singer? Is there a ceremonial puck drop? So we get started with that then we have to set up the announcers area. We set up all the tables, the chairs, microphones, review monitors. Then we set up the cameras, the handhelds down by the ice, the headset and microphone in the tunnel for player interviews. Then we have to fire up the replay machine, there’s so much and it’s all happening at the same time. I’ll be working on one thing and someone has a problem on the other side of the rink so I have to decide if I need to finish what I’m doing or do I need to stop and put out that fire. It’s all about time. We’re also kind of unique in that we built our own scoreboard, we have to build the graphics for that, put each team’s logo on there. There are a lot of small pieces that other teams may not have, but in the end it’s massive benefit.”
Thomas says one of the best parts are the cameras themselves, “Stan Hubbard owning his own broadcasting company is a massive benefit. The main cameras we use to shoot the game were used to shoot the Super Bowl a few years ago. We have hand held cameras, fixed cameras above the goals and at center ice, microphones to pick up crowd noise. All of the equipment in the production room is from Reelz. We don’t just have an owner who says here’s all of this equipment, Stan knows what he’s doing and has experience with it and that’s why we have the best broadcast in the league.”
Vencill agrees, Stan has built a gem with a bright future. “Just a couple of years ago before Stan brought in the Ice Wolves, I was talking to Dan Webster who used to be part of our broadcast, he was telling me that everybody knows Stan is a hockey guy, I was the opposite, I knew Stan as a TV guy. If I knew that I would have been bugging him about hockey because I used to work the Scorpions games. We’ve ended up with a great opportunity here. If you wanted to start this yourself it would take years to amass this kind of stuff. In the end, our goal is to have one of these kids working at ESPN, one of the big networks or a major movie studio. Stan’s goal was to teach these kids, get them experience and have them move on to bigger things.”
Vencill says the equipment may be worn, but it’s still serving a purpose, “The equipment is very love worn, but it’s solid. It wasn’t that long ago that all of this equipment was being used to broadcast major college and professional sports broadcasts, football, baseball, basketball. All of this stuff was on a truck traveling around the country. Not no brag, but if you want to work on an ESPN truck, it’s this. We just don’t have to tear it down, we’ve eliminated that part, but this is an ESPN production truck inside a room. We can bring these kids in, have them sit down and learn on a replay machine. If you’re wanting to work on a truck, here you go. It’s not new, but the interface is exactly the same.”
Thomas credits his success to the production team, “I had never broadcasted a game before I worked with the Ice Wolves, my first year we were on the road all season, I never worked with a producer or a team before. This was a new experience for me. We push each other to get better and they have been a huge inspiration for me. I want them to look good as much as they want me to look good. They create all of the magic so I want to give back to them as much as I can.”
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