About three weeks ago, I had a great experience. I was chosen out of all the students at Heritage Christian to be a MyINDY TV sideline reporter.

MyINDY TV went to local high schools in Indiana and picked prospective journalist/broadcast students for this very selective opportunity. My broadcast teacher told me that she had nominated me for the sideline reporter position, and I got it. This meant that during our varsity football game, I would be able to report live. The game that I reported was against the Cardinal Ritter Raiders—the biggest game of the year.

Prior to the game, I had to research information on both teams, like stats and star players. I met the crew of MyINDY and WISH-TV before the game. They hooked me up to a microphone and a headset. Throughout the whole game, I followed a cameraman around. Every once in a while, I would hear someone in my earpiece say "standby." A few minutes later, the main reporters introduced me and let me report. 

When I was on camera, I reported what was happening during the game and I also interviewed some coaching staff and players. Throughout the whole experience, I was definitely nervous. I was afraid of messing up on live television or forgetting my lines. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

I got the chance to interview head coach Ron Qualls and some Varsity football players. I asked them about their feelings prior to the game and about how the team had been practicing all week. I also was able to interview a cheerleader and get her input on the game and what it was like to cheer at past state championships.

The next day the whole game, including my reporting, was shown on MyINDY. It was so cool to get that experience behind the camera. Opportunities like this are definitely preparing me for my future career in broadcast journalism. I recieved a lot of great feedback concerning my reporting. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I would do it again in a heart beat!

I’ll post the video as soon as I can.