Greencastle creates F.B.I. club

Friday, October 28, 2011

Greencastle High School has introduced a new club this year, Future Broadcasters Initiative, and is looking for support from the community.

At this time the club only covers sporting events but plans on expanding in coming years. Currently, it streams live from sporting events as well as hosting a weekly broadcast, "Tiger Talk News and Sports," each Wednesday as a recap of the previous week.

The idea for the club came from Olivia Humphreys, a GHS senior. Humphreys helped broadcast basketball games last year with several other seniors and realized she would be the only one left after the year ended.

"I realized that we were going to need someone else to do this with me," Humphreys said. "So, I turned my passion into a club."

After drafting a constitution and hosting a call-out meeting, the group now has 17 members, with only five seniors.

"Most people had no idea what the Future Broadcasters Initiative was," explained Humphreys. "More and more people are becoming interested now after seeing the broadcasts."

The Future Broadcasters Initiative is a club designed not only to bring attention to the sports occurring at the high school but it also designed to teach students the importance of broadcast journalism.

"The club really raises school spirit," Humphreys said. "We've been covering sports that many don't cover."

Each week a reporter is assigned a story to cover. Two members are also selected to anchor the weekly broadcast in which they are rotated out on a weekly basis. Teachers then show these weekly broadcasts to all students each Wednesday.

"I'm teaching everyone else how to broadcast and write sports journalism," explained Humphreys.

Although the group is now limited do only doing indoor sporting events due to lack of equipment and internet access, they are planning to expand in the future.

"We would like to do more but, we just don't have the means to," said Humphreys.

The club runs on equipment that was donated from the Banner Graphic in the recent years. It's the club's goal to fundraise this spring in order to afford their own equipment and make it available for them to broadcast from outdoor events such as football games as well as have the room to do spot interviews at games if needed.

Live streams and broadcasts can be found on the Banner Graphic's website each week. These broadcasts can be located on the left side of the website under the Greencastle video tab.

"We really want to bring more awareness to Greencastle High School sports and academics," Humphreys said. "I hope the community embraces Tiger Talk."

The group is open to anyone who expresses an interest. They are also accepting donations for new equipment, as the club is not school funded.

Future participants or donors can contact the club's supervisor, Tracie Speakman, at tspeakman@greencastle.k12.in.us.

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