Fox treating game as a Super Bowl

By MARK WILSON / Staff Writer

It's not the Super Bowl - or is it?

The production behind the live cable television broadcast of Cooper's Class 5A Division II state championship football game against Austin Westlake at noon Saturday at Texas Stadium in Irving will involve as much effort and state-of-the-art equipment and hardware as any other football game done by Fox Sports Southwest.

To Cooper parents, fans and other die-hard gridiron followers, the interest level for Saturday's game likely surpasses any Super Bowl matchup imaginable.

"We go into this looking at it as the Super Bowl for high school football," said Jeff Muckleroy, Fox Sports Southwest's event producer for the Cooper-Austin Westlake game. "It's the same complement (of equipment and personnel) as a Big 12 game."

"We want to put a network-quality production on with this game," Fox Sports Southwest's executive producer Mike Anastassiou said by telephone on Tuesday. "There will probably be about 30 people at the site, including all the technicians and support personnel, runners and statisticians.

"We'll have five cameras, including two side-by-side at the 50-yard line, and two in the end zone - one high and one low. There will also be a hand-held camera (on the sideline). We'll have three tape machines for replays, and full-blown audio and other technical support.

"It will be done by John Crow Productions. He does all our NBA and baseball games."

Muckleroy was also the event producer for last weekend's Fox Sports Southwest broadcast of the Lewisville-Converse Judson Class 5A Division I championship game. Judson's win drew a Neilson Rating of 5.9, Muckleroy said.

"That's better than some Mavericks ratings. It's one of the highest-rated events we have on the air. To me, it's one of the most passionate," said Muckleroy, whose grandfather was a former president of the Texas High School Coaches Association. "It's one of my favorite things to do all year long."

Muckleroy said that some crew members actually turn down chances to cover other sporting events just so they can work the state football championships.

Fox Sports just received confirmation Tuesday that it would also be televising the Class 4A Division II Texas Bowl (state championship) game live from Texas Stadium, making it a doubleheader. That game, featuring La Marque against Denison, is set to start at 4 p.m.

"We'll arrive at the stadium at 7 or 8 a.m. Saturday, and we'll put in at least half a day Friday," Muckleroy said. "There will also be about eight hours of graphics loading on Thursday. It's hundreds of man-hours."

A special "High School Extra Championship Day" program, hosted by Kevin Eschenfelder, will bridge the gap between the games. Also during the broadcast, Fox Sports will air "The Road to the Texas Bowl" and Scholar Athletes of the Week, along with commentary from coaches who will be brought in to analyze the games.

Muckleroy also said that Fox Sports also plans to provide live "look-ins" from the Astrodome in Houston during the Class 3A state championship game between Sealy and Tatum.

The Cooper-Westlake game will be shown live throughout the network's entire coverage area of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of New Mexico. The Fox Sports crew for both games will be high school sports expert Craig Way doing play-by-play, former Texas A&M and Houston Oilers quarterback Bucky Richardson as analyst, and Jim Knox on the sidelines.

Replays of the Cooper-Westlake game are scheduled to be shown on Fox Sports at midnight on Monday, along with 9 a.m. Thursday and again at midnight on Monday, Dec. 30.

Locally, AISD cable channel 7 will also air a single replay of the game at 7 p.m. Tuesday.