Crimson and Gold Connection; Cameron Molina

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. With the start of the fall, the end of daylight saving time and the winding down of the college football season, it all means one thing, the start of the college basketball season. This past weekend, both the men and women's Pittsburgh State basketball team started, the season 210. The men are looking to improve on a five-win season from one year ago, and the women's team is seeking another birth into the NCAA Division 2 tournament, after going 26 and 5 last season. Joining me this week on the Crimson and Gold Connection is Cameron Molina. He's a student producer that works behind the scenes to broadcast Pitt State basketball games, which can be seen on CAPS 13 here in the four states. Cameron, thanks for joining me.

Hey, thanks Fred, really appreciate the time. Now, Cameron, how is the MIAA stacking up against both our men's and women's basketball teams? This season, let's start with the women. The women well obviously led by head coach Lane Lorde. He's done a superb job over his last decade plus of work. He returned Michaela Burgess, a senior who was a preseason all-american, a great three-point shooter. What Coach Laura did was bring in some taller athletes in the middle. So the front court is far more stacked than it has been in the past. Madison, Northcut, Athena, Alvarado, down low on the post, really looked to be a dynamic duo. When you look at the rest of the MIAA, the number one team of the preseason polls in the University of Citroë, Missouri, Jennings, led by Dave Slyther, obviously a very talented team, Paige Redman returns this year for her junior season. She's an electrifying guard. She does a great job facilitating the basketball. That's probably the primary reason they are number one of the preseason polls. Now under the men, even if they go 500 this season, that will be viewed as a huge improvement over last season's five and 22 record.

What are some of your first impressions on the men's team after the first two games? Well, this week it was the MIAA Northern Son and a collegiate conference matchup where the Northern Son conference traveled to Pittsburgh, Kansas, to take on two great MIAA opponents and obviously Pittsburgh State of Missouri, Southern State University. Pittsburgh State, they bring in a lot of heralded transfers from some Juco levels, several from Oberly Area Community College, where assistant coach John Gilliam played at one point before transferring to UCM, where in 2014 he was paired up with Kim Anderson, the first year head coach for the guerrillas, those two combined to assist in the 2014 national championship with the mules. But Kim Anderson brings a plethora of knowledge to the guerrillas basketball team obviously with the national championship experience where his team went 30 and five with the mules back in 2014. And then at the University of Missouri and Columbia where he spent three seasons with D1 talent, he's able to bring that D1 talent and those players of that echelon to the guerrilla fan base.

Donovan Franklin over the weekend was spectacular. He had a 30 point outburst against Minnesota State Mankato. He doubled that with another double digit performance against the St. Cloud State Huskies. In addition, you look down on the post, Dietrich Kohl, a six tin sinner who played as a bouquet against KU in their exhibition matchup. He showed out well. He's a good strong forward in addition to bring guys like Mark Well Jackson over from Oberly Area Community College and then Brent LaZoya from Stetson University where he spent two years with the hatters. So this is a nucleus of players that are experienced, but the cohesion is not quite there yet. But through the first two games, it gets two reputable teams who finished inside the top six in the northern sun conference. It's a great way to show out to begin your season. For listeners who aren't familiar with the sports broadcasting emphasis that is offered here at Pitt State, Cameron, you're working on a communications degree. Yes. And you're a senior. You're looking for probably looking at the job market right now. Looking at it, hopefully able to jump into it. And since you're at the end of your time almost here at Pitt State, could you tell us

about the sports broadcasting emphasis? What's that taught you here at Pitt State? Holistically, just to give an overview of what the sports broadcasting program is, it's led by some expert professors here at the University, Dr. Troy Coma, who has over a decade's worth of experience and live remote broadcasting. He's a graduate of Missouri Southern State University, came to Pittsburgh, stating the early 2000 and has done a tremendous job with the program. Mr. Trent Kling, another very reputable source that students look up to regularly. He is a nationally, I wouldn't say syndicated, but he has a national podcast that's gained a lot of traction in the retail focus podcast. I would highly advise him to check that out. And then Leo Hudson, another teacher in the broadcasting lab does a great job with documentary filmmaking, broadcast script writing. So already three valuable sources, but Caps 13 is a student run cable station that is also public access. We are able to travel with the football team to provide all the coverage of football season. So whenever Pittsburgh State travels to an area like Northeastern State University,

all the way in Tallahqua, Oklahoma, we are there when it's all the way in Nebraska County. We are there. Caps 13 tends to travel a lot for one, but two, we also do a lot of student programming itself. So you'll see students in a lot of our introductory remedial courses doing a lot of public relations work for one, and the number two, doing some PSAs, they're also doing some radio spots as well. So it's a learning experience for a lot of these students in addition with the live remote broadcasting. We're also covering basketball. We do a little bit of baseball, and then we have some experimental areas. Just last week we were unable to travel to Nebraska County. So we did a, and might double a red zone, if you will, if anybody is familiar with the NFL network or familiar with NFL Sunday ticket, they have a red zone feature where whenever a team enters inside the red zone of the opponent inside the 20 yard line, that's when we cut to that team. We'll give you a live look in, maybe throw in some stats. We had a four hour production, and we were able to exhibit six games. We displayed those games to an audience who are on the Crock can feed and also who can

access Caps 13, and it was a great experience. It sounds well rounded. It is. It really is well rounded. It touches every single point, and it's a multifaceted area. So you're not going to be just working with the camera, you're going to be working with the soundboard with our switcher, you're going to be doing stuff with the radio side as well, and I'll enter twice. You're not working just one job, you're working a dozen different jobs. Like you said, whether it's on the camera or maybe you're editing, or maybe you're directing or calling the game, and so much effort and time goes into bringing all of that together. And it sounds like Pat, a great experience here at Princeton. It's been a fantastic experience, obviously, as I mentioned before, the friends that I made, the connections that I made are going to carry with me throughout the rest of my life, including the experiences. I'll reflect back to 2015 or 16, I'm trying to recall. I think it was 16 when the women went to the South Central Regional and beat in Poria State here on Pittsburgh's campus, just seeing over 9,000 guerrilla fans screaming in their crimson and gold attire, yelling down at Paige Lungwitz and Kylie Gafford when

they were still here, and just feeling that energy, including very recently, in Pittsburgh State beat Northwest and number one ranked team of the country at the time, just feeling that energy inside Carnegie Smith Stadium, there's no real feel like Pittsburgh State, nothing really compares to it. All right. I want to thank you for joining me this week on the crimson and gold connection. I've been speaking with Cameron Molina. He's a student producer that works behind the scenes to broadcast Pittsburgh State Sports. Thanks for coming to my camera. I thank you so much for trying it for the time. Join us for crimson and gold connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.