Yay sports! LSHS athletes are relieved to be back on the field again. Although athletes were disappointed that there would be no one in the stands cheering them on, they are grateful they can have sports streamed. When senior Delaine Polly, a member of the girl’s soccer team, was asked if she was excited for the games to be streamed she said “Yeah, if people watch them,” Polly said.

With all the challenges that have come with the past year, sports have come back over the last few weeks. Due to state guidelines, there will be no spectators allowed in attendance, but Lake Stevens High School as well as other area high schools have found an alternative. Rather than viewing the sports in person, LSHS Video Production classes will now have a fully set up streaming system for all home sporting events.

The hope is for the streams to be high quality as well as accessible. All sporting events will be streamed on either LSHS Viking Athletics Channel #1 or LSHS Viking Athletics Channel #2. To enhance their streaming quality, even more, the school has gotten setups to allow for more than one sport streaming at once. Along with that, each set-up will have multiple cameras to make the experience as professional as possible.

Video Production teacher Barry Cogswell will have his students be in charge of much of the streams. Cogswell was very excited about this opportunity and thinks the streams will turn out great.
“We’re getting really nice cameras for streaming purposes,” Cogswell said.

It’s not just the spectators who are growing excited about the streaming of sporting events, the athletes are too. For almost a full year, LSHS student-athletes have not been able to play much, if any of their sports, and most of the time with limited to no spectators. This is a great opportunity for athletes to be able to be seen again and showcase their skills to a wide broadcast of people. There is a sense of excitement among athletes knowing that they will be seen playing again in the near future.

Senior Kalie Kelly, a member of the LSHS girl’s soccer team said, “I think it’s a good opportunity, especially for college coaches.”

The introduction of streaming is viewed by many as a new chance to branch out and be seen by many people that would never see them play otherwise. The stream is not entirely viewed as a serious matter either. Many athletes and spectators view this as a chance to have some fun with the team. For some athletes, this may be their only opportunity like this and they definitely want to make the most of it.

Senior Delaine Polly spoke about what her on-camera celebration would be. “I’d go up to Kalie and we’d chest-bump,” she said.

Take advantage of this new opportunity and tune in to the YouTube channels and follow Viking Athletics in action.