Fox Sports West is “Introducing Prep Zone” - “A Revolutionary way to watch HS Sports begins tonight” - “From “Zero Week” through the playoffs, look to the Prep Zone every Friday night for four games streamed live online, an integrated studio show with a host to guide you to the best high school football action, a pregame show, social video sharing and exclusive written analysis. Welcome to your home for all things CIF-SS and high school sports in Southern California…”

ABOUT THE ‘PREP ZONE’

• ‘Prep Zone’ is a channel within foxsportswest.com that is dedicated to high school athletics in SoCal, with an emphasis on CIF-SS schools.
• Exclusive written analysis from Rahshaun Haylock, Mike Martinez, Joe McDonnell, Courtney Jones, and more
• Original video content featuring local high schools and their student-athletes
• Archived games made available immediately following all streamed games
• Photo galleries from featured games on foxsportswest.com and FS West / PT

ABOUT ‘PREP ZONE LIVE’

• “Prep Zone Live” is the online video player that lives within the “Prep Zone” page on FOXSportsWest.com every Friday night this fall.
• Schedule features four football games per week highlighting a vast array of HS programs across the Southland, click here for schedule.

Dear David,

First and foremost I want to let you know that your production company did an excellent job covering the Redlands East Valley vs. Mission Viejo prep football game this past Friday! The students, players, and spectators were all very proud and excited to have professional coverage of such an important game. Thank you for your time, and thank you for coming out to our game!

Laura Diaz
Redlands East Valley High School

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Fox Sports West in full ‘Zone’ coverage

What started out as a significant undertaking to expand coverage of high school football in Wisconsin has helped revolutionize broadcasting of the sport this season in Southern California.

Already at the forefront of coverage of regular season, playoff and state bowl championship games, Fox Sports West decided that one football game every Friday wasn’t enough for diehard fans to view.

So, after the Midwest-based company When We Were Young successfully implemented broadcasting several games at once for Fox Sports North last season, FSW executive producer Tom Feuer assembled a group of producers, directors, engineers, Web site coordinators, researchers, broadcasters and analysts that developed FoxSportsWest.com’s Prep Zone, the most comprehensive showcase of high school football this side of the Great Lakes.

After experiencing “a madhouse on the air” according to studio host Mark Rogondino during its launch of season-opening games Sept. 2, Prep Zone has developed into a cutting-edge weekly webcast that includes a 30-minute pre-game show broadcast live on the site at 6:30 p.m. — which is immediately replayed on TV on FSW — followed by three-plus hours of simultaneous internet coverage of four games ranging from several areas in the Southern Section.

No longer do certain regions slip under the radar or feel neglected by the weekly FSW TV schedule.

Thanks to chief engineer Gavin Nex, coordinating producer Shawn Kopelakis and more than 35 others on air and behind the scenes, FoxSportsWest.com showcased Friday the 8-man game featuring Lone Pine at Trona, which followed a trip Sept. 16 to Catalina Island for host Avalon’s 43-42 victory over Rolling Hills Prep in an 8-man nonleague game that was decided on a missed 2-point conversion in the final seconds.

With Rogondino serving as host from the FSW downtown L.A. studios, along with analyst Chris Rix and Scout.com director of scouting Scott Kennedy inside a fifth box on the screen designed by Coincident TV that gives Prep Zone a look comparable to the NFL’s Red Zone channel, no play goes unreviewed, no gameplan change goes unreported and no Division I college prospect goes undetected.

“That’s the beauty of a live show and being on your toes for two or three hours is that you never know what’s coming your way,” Rogondino said. “But it’s definitely exceeded my expectations and a lot of people’s expectations who are involved with putting this together. But we’re very lucky to be surrounded by a lot of people who are very good at what they do. They make my job very easy.”

From setup to breakdown

Although Rogondino, Rix and Kennedy have become the faces of the Prep Zone operation Friday nights, the true stars of the live webcast might be those behind the scenes.

According to Whitney Garvens, director of communications for FSW and Prime Ticket, the network’s partnership with SnappyTV has allowed every play of every game — both on Prep Zone and FSW televised contests — to be archived and is now available via iPad and iPhone.

King and Takata devote most of Wednesday and Thursday to putting a show outline together, building graphics, constructing charts, editing highlight clips and assembling video packages, often with the assistance of the aforementioned footage.

Once gameday arrives, the production efficiency and quality resembles any other FSW broadcast, only it’s keeping track of four games instead of just one.

Takata or King, along with Kopelakis and the production crew, keep a close eye on several video screens in one studio. In the adjacent studio is Rogondino, Rix, Kennedy and Nakagawa, along with a manually operated camera, all being supervised by a floor manager.

They have a television monitor split into four screens, with rosters for all eight teams, game notes and cue cards.

As impressive as the production value remains inside the studio, perhaps the most creative aspect occurs in how the games are transmitted.

Under the supervision of Nex, with the use of three high-definition cameras and a TriCaster portable live production system, FoxSportsWest.com delivers impressive quality from even the most remote locations such as Trona and Avalon, relying on the assistance of a Live U backpack transmitter, which combines up to 14 cell phone signals.

Each game showcased on the Prep Zone also features play-by-play and color commentators, similar to the roles occupied by Chris McGee, John Jackson and recently hired Village Christian coach Jay Schroeder on TV broadcasts.

Golden Valley golf coach Tony Moskal was part of the Prep Zone broadcast team for Friday’s Mission League opener featuring Harvard-Westlake and St. Francis.

“It’s a great concept and I love the opportunity. It’s great to see great football in person every week” Moskal said. “I wish I would have started doing this years ago.”

Taking it to another level

The launch of Prep Zone in Southern California has allowed former high school standouts and NFL quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Jimmy Clausen to follow their alma maters from across the country during webcasts of their games.

Clausen, who played at Oaks Christian and Notre Dame before being drafted by the Carolina Panthers, was interacting via Twitter with the Prep Zone studio crew during the Oaks Christian-St.Bonaventure game Sept. 23.

Sanchez, who competed for Mission Viejo and USC before being drafted by the New York Jets, was also posting on Twitter while watching the Oct. 7 game involving Mission Viejo and Redlands East Valley.

“Those guys remember their roots and this is a great way for them to keep track of what’s going on with their teams,” LaRocca said. “Whether you’re a professional athlete or somebody’s relative, this gives you access to watching people play that you might have never seen otherwise.”

Garvens said the Oaks Christian-St. Bonaventure matchup created quite a buzz, not only because of the power outage that delayed the game for nearly 25 minutes but because of a holding penalty in the end zone on the first play after the lights returned that resulted in a St. Bonaventure safety, considered to be the turning point in a 36-24 loss.

In less than 24 hours, Garvens said the highlight of the play edited by SnappyTV garnered 51,000 views.

But Prep Zone isn’t resting on its success, looking to potentially add a sixth box to its webcast in the near future, providing CoincidentTV can make minor adjustments to the on-screen presentation and Nex can, “work some more of his bandwith magic,” Garvens said.

According to LaRocca, FoxSportsWest.com is also attempting to provide coverage of every non-televised Southern Section football final, as well as showcasing postseason contests in girls’ volleyball, boys’ water polo and girls’ tennis in November.

“Nobody covers high school football the way Fox Sports does,” Kennedy said.

“Where else except for Fox Sports out in Wisconsin can you get this coverage of high school football?” Rogondino asked. “Other networks show games, but it’s not even close to Fox Sports. It’s taken a full, collective team effort to cover all the bases like no one else can. They’re taking it to another level.”