SHAWNEE, Kan. — Several high schools in the Shawnee Mission School District are celebrating homecoming this week, but the centerpiece of those festivities will look far different amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With limits on the number of spectators allowed at events, most people can't celebrate at football games, where the homecoming court traditionally is announced and crowned.
Instead, SMSD said families will have the option to tune into a new livestream service, the NFHS Network, in partnership with the National Federation of State High School Associations to watch games, including Friday's homecoming game and court ceremony.
Richard Kramer, director of student activities and athletics, said the NFHS offered to install two cameras free of charge at all Kansas high schools in August.
"We vetted the possibility, and we all agreed that we really should have some type of streaming service," Kramer said.
The NFHS wound up installing 16 cameras for free, which Kramer said normally would have cost SMSD $40,000 to $50,000. Kramer said the free cameras and the ability to stream all games made for a pretty good deal.
Before partnering with NFHS, students in broadcast classes would stream games on their KUGR YouTube Channel, but Kramer said only about 8% of games — all varsity — were available online.
"We thought this would be a great thing, because we could have equity and everybody could be streamed and everybody would have access to watching their kids play," Kramer said.
He said KUGR can still stream games, but it now will go through the NFHS platform. He said working with the NFHS network also gives broadcast students more opportunities.
"It should also allow us now to have commentators at every level, if we want to, if we can get enough students that want to be commentators or game announcers," Kramer said.
The network does require a subscription — $10.99 per month or $69.99 per year — but Kramer said there's no commitment. Parents or students can sign up for as many months or as few months as they want.
Shawnee Mission Northwest High School senior Callan Taylor said he doesn't see the service being popular among students.
"I don't think students will pay to watch this," Taylor said. "I think when people tune into the YoutTube livestreams for the games, it's nice because they can watch a couple plays, watch a quarter, see when their friend goes in and then get off."
Some parents and students are not happy about the timing of the paid service rollout, especially with homecoming on Friday forcing friends and family members to pay to tune into the game.
SM Northwest senior Samantha Mudgett, who is nominated for homecoming queen, said she wasn't thrilled to find out about the fee.
"That was a little disappointing just because I have a lot of friends, a lot of high school students, who work minimum-wage jobs, and that's like an hour of pay for them to stream one game just to see me walk," Mudgett said.
But Kramer said the price actually saves families money as $10.99 is probably less than the cost of tickets to the game plus gas to get there and any concessions purchases.
