IWUCom and WIWU-TV once again covered the Indiana Wesleyan University’s men’s and women’s basketball teams in 2013 all the way through the postseason, and this time it paid off with a national championship. The TV station started sending staff and students to the national tournament in 2006 and has been at one or both of the NAIA events every year since. The week of coverage is now a major media event for the station and the Division of Communication and Theatre, with 6-8 of the best media students selected because of their storytelling skills and overall performance through the year. WIWU-TV staff members led the teams in Branson, MO and Sioux City, IA and students produced segments for television, a special Wildcat Central website, blog posts and photos. Each game was broadcast live and WIWU-TV produced its own live halftime and post-game shows and a half-hour edition of Wildcat Week, summing up the day’s highlights.
Students typically give up the week of spring break to make the trip, but receive an intensive educational experience with daily, even hourly deadline pressure. Those attending the women’s tournament got to stay a little longer this year as the Wildcats played all the way through to the national championship. Following the win, the station broadcast an extended post-game show, talking to players and coaches as they celebrated and cut down the nets.
That special moment capped off an exhausting but exhilarating experience for every student, faculty and staff person wearing a media pass. Veterans of this “boot camp” will tell you they learn as much in a week as in a full semester class. According to Dr. Randall E King, Director of Broadcast Media, “As long as our teams keep winning, we will keep taking our best students to cover them. There’s nothing quite like it. ”
Watch “Capturing the Champions”:
