by Edward Brydalski

What happens to a sports broadcasting organization when there are no more sports to broadcast? In the throes of surviving Covid-19, the RIT SportsZone is tackling this question head-on. As a student-run organization stationed on a quarantined campus, it’s facing some unique and harsh problems.

“It’s a hard time with all the worrying happening with everyone in all industries,” stated Executive Producer of SportsZone, Mark Fragale, “[There are] no sports to broadcast – anywhere; not just at RIT. Students aren’t working so they’re not learning or making money.”

Executive Producer of the SportsZone Pregame and All-Access Shows, Kevin Roche, expressed similar dismay concerning SportsZone’s student staff, stating, as he stated, “We want everybody back, but we realize that there will be some students who won’t be coming back.” Regarding next semester, Roche stated, “[We will] probably be needing to hire more than we usually do.”

Student employees being out of work may be a major concern for upper management, but this concern poses an immediate threat for the livelihoods of SportsZone’s student employees.

Vlad Simion is a fourth-year motion picture science major who oversees SportsZone’s student shader team and keeps stored equipment in a readied state, but he hasn’t got anything to work on now. “With most of my work being hands-on using/maintaining equipment there aren’t a lot of tasks I can do remotely,” Simeon stated.

“The student employment office has not shown any support or empathy toward its student work-force… It felt that after we worked for years for RIT they really didn’t care that the students have no more income.”

Sophie Walter is a second-year film and animation student responsible for editing, making SportsZone pregame shows, and overseeing new-hire training: all tasks that require access to SportsZone headquarters. “I’m not allowed to go into the office,” Walter stated, “which means I don’t have access to the server, the program, or any of the other programs we use to
edit.”

Walter mirrored Simeon’s dissatisfaction with the SEO, stating, “[they] told us that we are allowed to work, but ever since everything shut down we can’t come into work and my job requires me to be on-site.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. Work for free I guess,” Walter stated.

Ellen Rosen, Director of University Communications was questioned about student worker dissatisfaction with the SEO. She denied to make her own comments, but did reference the SEO’s official COVID policy, stating, “The Student Employment Office (SEO) is working to match impacted students with departments that have student employment needs. Students in Rochester whose positions have been impacted should contact the SEO with a request for reassignment as soon as possible.”

Bridget Cahill, a third-year medical illustration major and SportsZone replay operator, has been lucky enough to be given a paid task she can do from home. “I have been compiling research between the old replay system and the new replay system; comparing and contrasting them,” Cahill stated. “I just did a short report and I got paid for that, but I probably will not receive anything for the rest of the year.”

Cahill felt that her superiors were doing a fine job keeping tabs with their student employees, stating, “Mark [Fragale] will do anything to look out for his students,” and, “[Kevin Roche] keeps everyone updated with general emails.”

Despite the lack of an office and a student workforce, SportsZone employees are still using their time productively.

“[We have been] producing creative ideas for this fall. Updating graphics, learning new equipment from manuals and not on the actual tool and readjusting our workflows for editing, directing and producing the show,” Fragale stated, describing the multitude of tasks that the core
SportsZone staff have been working on from home.

Kevin Roche has been keeping busy, stating, “I’m doing probably five Zoom conferences a week… We’re working on a brand new graphics look for next year. It’s a major, major project” In addition, he produced and published a 23 minute-long special celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the legendary Frozen Four.

Even Sophie Walter, despite being a student-worker, has still taken up the mantle of supporting her organization. “What I have to do now is work on smaller projects,” Walter stated, “So right now I scour the internet for good songs we could use for the pregame show and I look at past shows we’ve done to see if there’s anything new that we don’t do anymore.”

Who could have guessed that it would be this tough to have a student-run sports broadcasting team without students to work or sports to broadcast? But despite this, the core SportsZone staff has been keeping on; working toward future goals during uncertain times.

“I feel this can be used as a good time to step back and see what we can update and improve around the program and workforce,” Fragale stated. “Once you start to realize you’re not alone and you’re not the only one going through this, you get to ask the right questions and get the right feel.”

Walter partially concurred, stating “I think they’re a bit of a mess, but the whole country is a bit of a mess.” Yet in the end, she still had to admit, “We’re a family here.”