TV time a big deal for WACH, Midlands high school football

Corey Miller, nightly sports anchor at WACH-TV 57, was asked his favorite moment from the 2015 high school football season, specifically the Columbia station’s first season of live coverage of Midlands-area games. The mammoth ex-NFL linebacker’s face broke into a wide grin.

“We were doing the Northwestern-Irmo game,” he said, “and the Northwestern end (Logan Rudolph, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound defender committed to Clemson) was rushing Irmo’s punter. The snap goes back, and the punter” – who was not a 6-3, 210-pound future college player, and thus shall remain nameless – “drops the ball.

“Rudolph is coming hard, and the Irmo kid sees him … and turns and runs away.” Miller let out a deep chuckle. “You see those kinds of things in high school football, not in college.”

Miller should know. Before playing for the New York Giants, he did duty at South Carolina (1988-90) and, before that, at Pageland Central High. Over his career, he was part of many televised games … just none while in high school.

So last season, when WACH’s then-general manager Allison Aldridge launched “Sonic Friday Night Rivals,” Miller says he couldn’t wait. He remembered what a big deal even those brief appearances on Friday’s 11 p.m. newscasts were for him in high school.

“When (Florence TV sports director) Bob Juback was coming to our games,” he said, “it was huge.”

Now Miller, who handles play-by-play, and analyst Syvelle Newton (an ex-Gamecocks and Marlboro County High quarterback) get to create bigger thrills for local youngsters each week. A dozen games are on the schedule as WACH’s second season kicks off.

“We’re pumped up just like you for football season,” Miller told a recent gathering of coaches and players from teams on the 2016 schedule. “You have the opportunity to play high school football on TV. We didn’t have that.”

Echoed Newton: “We’d rush home after games to see if we made the highlights on TV. You guys get to be on TV live – how great is that?”

WACH general manager Greg Conner has only been in Columbia six months, but was part of high school football coverage at other Sinclair Broadcasting stations in North Carolina and Las Vegas. He said the “huge investment in time and money” is worth it “for the community and the kids.”

Not just players, either; “we want to focus on the cheerleaders, the bands, the fans in the stands,” Conner said. Each week’s telecast, including the noon setup and midnight breakdown, labor-wise is “comparable to doing the (hour-long WACH) 10 p.m. newscast.” Connor declined to reveal costs.

Games will be available on Time-Warner Cable’s Channel 1250, on American Sports Network 57.2, or at WACH.com. Next week has two games: Lexington at A.C. Flora on Thursday, Crestwood at Sumter on Friday (for a complete schedule, visit wach.com/sports/friday-night-rivals).

And unlike last fall, when an outside company produced the telecasts with Miller and Newton in the booth, WACH crews will handle everything, using a new remote van, five cameras (two in the stands, two on the sidelines and a roving news camera) and some 25 people. The station also will cover Friday 8 a.m. pep rallies at the home schools on its “Good Day Columbia Live” program, and will air a pregame show, postgame interviews and trophy presentations.

There’s more S.C. high school coverage coming. Executive producer Steve Mann of Sinclair’s home office in Nashville said the company has signed a three-year deal with the S.C. High School League to televise state championship games at Williams-Brice Stadium in Classes 5A, 4A and 3A. During that same period, boys and girls state title games in all five classifications will be aired from Colonial Life Arena.

A year ago, Sinclair, owner of stations in 28 markets nationally – “the only television company with a high school division,” said Mann, who heads that division – logged 4.1 million views of prep games, he said. “We want kids to get showcased, introduce principals and raise the profiles of schools in the Midlands.”

Area coaches are on board, too. “Our kids will never play in a better environment,” Spring Valley High coach Robin Bacon said. In fact, Mann said, coaches told him “that’s the best week their teams have all season, because the kids don’t want to be embarrassed on TV.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 10:36 PM.