BRUNSWICK — Puck drop is minutes away, so the Brunswick High Sports Network goes via its ultimate preparations earlier than its boys hockey broadcast goes reside.
Equipment charged and arrange? Check. Rosters printed and recreation notes added? Yep. Scoreboard related and stream hyperlink posted to YouTube? Done.
Robert Bowen, Caz Kosinski, Oscar Gartside and Brandon Wear stand within the Watson Arena concourse, all holding their breath as they watch the SportCam app slowly load. Slowly.
Eventually, the iPad display goes via, and the group that leads a student-run sports broadcasting outfit lets out a collective sigh of reduction. High-fives and smiles go across the makeshift manufacturing sales space, a folding desk that’s simple to stroll proper previous and dismiss as an oddly-placed research corridor with the quantity of papers, laptops and backpacks strewn about.
Wear, a Brunswick alum who has filmed for the boys hockey program since 2016, works the iPad digital camera. Gartside, a junior, controls the stream’s scoreboard from his cellphone. Bowen and Kosinski, BHSN’s co-president and vp, alternate play-by-play and shade commentating duties with a pair of wired Apple earbuds.
The set-up for the broadcasting organization is straightforward, but it surely on no account prevents the crew’s inside information and real enthusiasm of Brunswick sports from shining via. Or for others to note.
Before a Brunswick/Freeport boys hockey recreation in mid-January in opposition to Gorham/Massabesic begins, a participant’s mom walks over to Kosinski to go with their work and relay the message that her dad and mom take pleasure in watching from their residence in Massachusetts.
As quickly because the nationwide anthem ends and sticks slap the ice, the channel’s stream formally begins. Bowen fastidiously holds the wired microphone, takes a deep breath and activates his broadcasting voice.
‘Is this going to go anywhere?’
When Bowen, now a senior, first considered offering commentary on Brunswick sporting occasions in the course of the fall 2023, he was simply attempting to return up with a option to fulfill his community service commencement requirement.
Bowen knew that when his dad and mom and grandparents couldn’t make it to his older brother’s hockey video games, they’d watch one in all Wear’s Facebook reside streams. It was superb, however with no voiceover or scoreboard, it wasn’t at all times clear what was occurring on the ice.
He additionally thought again to a 2022 soccer recreation at Gardiner, when accidents to Brunswick’s first- and second-string QBs pressured the 5-foot-6, 100-pound freshman below middle. Bowen’s dad and mom didn’t make the journey, in order that they watched him play through a reside stream from Munzing Media, as an alternative.
“When they showed it to me after the game, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s this commentator from Gardiner who said my name — Robert Bowen — when I went into the game,’ and I just thought that was so cool,” he stated. “I really just wanted to take that feeling and give it to as many people as possible.”
So Bowen requested a buddy, Brady Marzakis, to affix him, and the tandem began calling boys hockey video games that winter to a handful of oldsters and grandparents.
Rick Wilson, Brunswick High’s community outreach coordinator, remembers the primary season.
“‘Aw, this is kind of cute,’” Wilson thought. “But wondering, also, ‘Is this going to go anywhere? Or is it going to be back next year?’”
Then he listened to a name.
“I was frankly blown away when I heard their play-by-play,” Wilson stated. “I thought they fill the space, not only fill the space well, in the broadcast, but (they are) really enthusiastic, articulate, at times funny, and they’ve just gotten better and better.”
Now in its third winter season, Brunswick High Sports Network is busy most nights of the week.
The whole operation has grown, as there’s a pool of about 20 students that BHSN can name upon for assist in saying, filming, stat-keeping or recreation prep. Highlights and postgame interviews are posted on Instagram, and protection has expanded to incorporate girls and boys hockey, girls and boys basketball, some postseason soccer, and even a wrestling meet. Home and away video games are circled on the calendar, and if there’s an evening with a number of video games in several areas, the crew will break up up, prepared for the subsequent stream as soon as the primary one ends.
“Overall, people want us to do more than we possibly can,” stated senior co-president Ethan Patterson.
“I get people coming up to me in the hallways all the time saying, ‘What are you guys covering tonight?’ Or players from teams asking, ‘Are we covering their games?’” Kosinski stated. “If not, they’re always quite disappointed. And if we are, they’re always quite excited.”
This winter, streams have often drawn 30-50 simultaneous viewers. A boys basketball game on Jan. 23 at then-undefeated Camden Hills surpassed the century mark, rivaling the 120-person viewers in the course of the 2025 Class A North boys soccer semifinal against Lewiston and the 138 folks tuning into last year’s girls hockey state championship game against Cheverus.
“Everyone whom I have spoken with is a fan,” stated Brunswick Athletic Director Kaili Phillips, including that she has additionally heard optimistic issues from opposing faculties. “I know families and teachers who play the games at home on their TVs, mine included. Students love watching the postgame interviews and seeing highlights posted and (rewatching) games to see their performance or that of their friends.”
Leaving a legacy
BHSN just isn’t an official faculty membership, however as the varsity’s first alternative for students keen on sports broadcasting, there’s a truthful quantity of cooperation with faculty officers.
Phillips and the athletic division assist unfold the phrase about BHSN streams, and Wilson has helped the students make a connection with notable New England broadcaster and Brunswick alum Dale Arnold, who gave critiques and recommendation.
“Students are so creative and ambitious that it’s important to hear their ideas, give them guardrails and get out of their way,” Phillips stated.
The core trio laughs when they’re requested about managing a steadiness between faculty, sports, sleep, school prep and BHSN, saying the time dedication is price it, particularly after they hear from grateful dad and mom.
As the winter season begins to wind down, BHSN is trying towards the longer term. Bowen, Kosinski and numerous their “employees” play a spring sport, so their availability for recreation protection will shrink. They are additionally trying previous this spring, as many members are set to graduate. This previous semester, the upperclassmen have made a aware effort to recruit and embody extra underclassmen on calls or behind the scenes.
“I think it’s all of our dreams that we make a valiant return to Brunswick in 15 years and find that the Brunswick High School Sports Network is still operating at a very high level,” stated Kosinski, subsequent yr’s president. “Obviously, none of us have that much time left with the high school, so we’ve got to really try and make it happen.”