Written by Alyssa Allmon

Our goal for  NSAA Girl’s and Boy’s State Basketball? Let our army of student content creators shine on the big stage!

Striv Education’s Academy prides itself on providing hands-on real-world-experience for students who have diligently worked on their projects and have shown they are ready to take their creative craft to the next level. Our students are able to represent Striv, their school, and the world of journalism with professionalism and skill.

We believe the NSAA Girls and Boys State Basketball Championships are one of the best events for our students to shine. Each of the tracks – design, videography, audio, and writing, have limitless creative potential at these events, which is how we were able to get 14 students involved in a variety of different projects over the course of the two tournaments. 

Track: Design / Photography

Photography is definitely one of the more popular tracks at state events. Students are given the chance to be on the floor with real press passes. They sit side by side the photographers for the Omaha World Herald, NET, and countless other journalists. Their goal is to either capture content for their school, or for us. Because this is also the design track, there is another opportunity to create graphics for halftime or final score updates, and then use their photos as the images for their graphics. 

Striv is fortunate to have Marcus Scheer, (Photographer, JCC’s Tech Director, and Striv Leader), and Ben Mohorn in the house as a mentor in this field.

We had 8 photographers over the course of these tournaments: Keyara Casper, Nate Dupler, Jack Coil, Devon Ackles, Tenley Wright, Josh Ferdico, Kalem Jackson, and Landon Scott. As well as 3 graphic designers: Hailey Price, Devon Ackles, Jack Coil. 

To view these graphics, check out our tweets on @Striv_Education.

Track: Videography

Our advanced videography student, Dante Boelhower, shot the majority of the girl’s tournament but also pulled off the all-nighters it takes for our Creative Director, Ben Mohorn, to crank out the official hype videos for the NSAA. After it’s all said and done, Dante has the opportunity to see some of his footage and editing skills played on the big screens at Pinnacle Bank Arena and the Devaney Sports Center. We encourage all video students to focus on their shots and camera settings for a less than one-minute game recap.

Track: Audio & Writing 

For Striv, this track is our bread and butter. We are passionate about sports journalism and broadcasting, and this track represents that perfectly.  These academy students learn just how fast stats and stories need to get out there in order to keep up with the pace of a real-life journalist. These particular students also get press passes that allow them to work in the media room with the professional journalists, as well as to be in the post-game interview rooms where coaches deliver their final statements. We had two groups of students for these tournaments – writers and commentators. Our commentators, Nathan Ladeoff, Jon Willis, Damon Bennett, did just what you would expect, they announced the games! Can you imagine being 17 calling games live from PBA? Ask these kids. They know what it’s like. For the games they didn’t commentate, we challenged these students to create conduct a game recap story, using the stats and coach and player interviews to compile into a written and recorded story. To see their final game recaps head over to @Striv_Education.

Striv Streaming Crews

For the week of girls state, 11 different schools had students involved in the streaming for select first and second-round games. Crete, Mullen, BRLD, Waverly, and Milford all had full crews to stream, while Northwest, Millard West, Johnson County Central, Sutton also had students cover positions on the broadcast, from play by play to color commentary to camera work to producing the game. All the students conducted themselves very well and represented their school, and Striv, in a positive manner. 

With the pandemic of COVID-19 sweeping the state during the boys tournament the following week, media rights got pushed to the front and center. Unfortunately, the student crews were unable to broadcast due to an NFHS Network rule of one stream per game. But the kids and schools adapted well, and other projects were found for many of the students. Here’s hoping the future brings even more opportunity for these great students and teachers to showcase their talents on the state’s biggest stage!

All in all, we are incredibly proud of our Academy Students and Striv Student Streaming Crews. They cranked out an impressive amount of quality content because they are passionate and knowledgeable about their tracks. We can’t wait for you to see what they create next time. For more information on how you can get involved with Academy contact sara at [email protected]