Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) is proud to announce the Sports Broadcast Institute at Rockdale Career Academy (RCA) was recently awarded the top national honor of Best Overall School Broadcast Program by the NFHS Network.

This competitive distinction is awarded to the school that best utilizes the NFHS Network to broadcast events. The school must excel in the number and diversity of live events, original programming, production quality and viewership on the NFHS Network, which has more than 1,700 schools participating in 49 states.

NHFS Network executives presented the award to Sports Broadcast Institute Director Tom White in front of his seventh period class at RCA on May 5th.

“We get hundreds of nominations,” said NFHS Network School Broadcast Program President Alan Powell. “This year we’re really excited to award Rockdale Career Academy and Tom White for Best Overall School Broadcasting Program.”

White was beaming with pride as he accepted the award on behalf of his students and RCA.

“This honor is a result of a lot of very eager students ready and willing to take chances, challenge their comfort zones, and most importantly, learn through the experiences that only take place by taking chances,” White said later.

RCA was previously named an NFHS Network Elite school and a past finalist for Best Overall School Broadcasting Program. This year, Sports Broadcast Institute students covered more than 30 live football games, 180 live basketball games, and games for various sports each season, in addition to prepackaged features, commercials, commentaries, special events, newscasts and more.

“I will never forget the looks on the students’ faces when I told them the plan for this year. Shock, awe, depression, fear, anxiety, and a couple of excited, happy faces were what I saw. The idea of turning the classroom into a professional quality production house was scary to most,” White later said. “This award is for the students and their families, for the sacrifices that they have made.”

RCA seniors Ellie Thompson and Johnzel Smith said Sports Broadcast Institute classes drove home the importance of solving problems independently and time management – both crucial skills in the workplace.

“We have really hard deadlines,” said Thompson, “Especially when it’s midseason of basketball or football. It’s not just creating a project for no reason. It’s going to be aired somewhere, or we’re going to use it or it’s a graphic for something.”

Smith added, “I’m glad I took his class. It prepares you, not just for this area, but in whatever you want to do. It prepares you to be independent.”

The Sports Broadcast Institute at RCA was launched in Fall 2015 as part of RCA’s Broadcast Video Production program to give students a real, relevant, and safe environment to experience production expectations and deadlines. Students work in four main areas in sports media production – live broadcasts, studio shows, commercial/feature production, and marketing/graphics production – in two-week rotations. For more information, go to www.rockdalelive.com.

Rockdale Career Academy is an award winning, technologically innovative, career academy that develops each student’s interests and abilities and prepares tomorrow’s workforce by offering programs of study designed by industry experts. For more information, go to www.rockdalecareeracademy.org.