Wichita State debuts its “Valley on ESPN3” production with volleyball (+video)

Dylan Seybert is a business administration major and manager of the Wichita State baseball team whose broadcasting experience consists of pretend play-by-play of scrimmages at Eck Stadium.

On Thursday, Seybert makes his debut on ESPN3, working as color analyst for WSU’s volleyball match against Northern Illinois.

“I have absolutely no experience, except messing around … in the pressbox,” Seybert said. “I think I know enough about volleyball where I feel like I can do it. I’m actually pretty nervous about doing it now that it’s actually going to happen.”

Nerves and new experiences are part of the plan for the Missouri Valley Conference’s “Valley on ESPN3” project, announced in July. It is designed to put more MVC sports on ESPN3, an Internet platform available through TV, smart phones and tablets, while giving students broadcast experience.

“It’s scary,” said Kevin Hager, associate professor of WSU’s Elliott School. “But I think it will end up being really exciting for our students and our athletic department.”

WSU makes its “Valley on ESPN3” debut with Thursday’s match in Koch Arena. Seybert will work with KGSO’s Chris Solwecki on Thursday and Friday. Fellow senior Denning Gerig, a journalism major, takes over color duties for Saturday’s two matches. Student Danielle Prewitt will join the on-camera crew later.

“Thankfully, all the games that have been broadcast on ESPN3 are available as replays,” Gerig said. “For the past two weeks, I’ve been watching as many of those as I can, trying to get a feel for, not only the terminology and the formations, but also the role of a color guy in a volleyball game.”

Wichita State’s ESPN3 control room is set up in Koch Arena. The connection to ESPN’s studios worked. On-air talent is well into its volleyball homework. On Wednesday afternoon, three people made final preparations in the control room while Weston Pletcher, WSU’s assistant director of new media, watched.

All that remains is action on the court. WSU’s ESPN3 crew will broadcast all home volleyball, women’s basketball and men’s basketball games not selected for a TV network. The MVC gave each school $100,000, money withheld from previous NCAA Tournament payouts and saved for a special project, for start-up costs. WSU deputy athletic director Darron Boatright said that fund largely covered WSU’s initial investment in equipment, training and salaries.

While it sounds complex, WSU already had some of the system in place to show action and highlights on the Koch Arena videoboard. ESPN3 broadcasts require a fourth camera and ESPN graphics.

“We’re adding talent and sending it to ESPN to put on the Internet,” Pletcher said. “We did a test (last week) with ESPN and they were getting our signal and our video feed. That was promising.”

WSU will use a professional crew from Intake Studios in the production room and behind the cameras. Students will observe and Hager expects them to take on bigger responsibilities in the future. He also expects to attract new students to the program as word gets around. Around the MVC, schools are using a mixture of students and professionals. Bradley is using student announcers. Missouri State is using some students for production jobs and professional announcers.

“Slowly, we’ll have them sit down and do some button-punching themselves,” Hager said. “It's a new opportunity for our students to really get behind the scenes and get their hands on some gear in a real situation. It's a full-blown ESPN quality production.”

All men’s basketball games are expected to go to a TV network, so the big bonus goes to sports such as volleyball and women’s basketball. Each MVC school is responsible for producing home games, meaning fans with ESPN3 can watch all 18 conference games. More sports will be added in future years.

“If you were to have my job for the past 20 years, there’s been plenty of talk about growing our sport,” WSU coach Chris Lamb said. “It’s not like volleyball is entrenched in every community. We don’t get a ticker across the bottom (of the screen) that says how the top 25 is doing. If your own personal Division I school is good at marketing and media, they get the word out. If it’s not, you might not even know there’s a volleyball team.”

Lamb used WSU’s radio broadcasts on the recruiting trail. Now he, and other MVC coaches, can tell athletes, parents and grandparents that most Shockers matches are available on ESPN3.

“I was at Arizona and we didn’t have radio,” he said. “The fact we were doing that was a feather in our cap.”

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Wichita State debuts its “Valley on ESPN3” production with volleyball (+video)."