Academics
“I got lost, and mentioned to someone I was interested in broadcasting,” he said. “They pointed me toward the booth, Troy Comeau asked if I wanted to work, and he put me on the graphics machine.”
“If I went to a D1 school, I’d have to wait until my junior year in college to do that,” he said. “Having that experience that day, I knew then that I was coming here.”
Now a sophomore communication major with an emphasis in media production, Santiago, who is from Valley Center, Kansas, says it was the right choice: He has added “Director / MIAA Basketball Tournament Broadcast” to his resumé.
Earlier this month, he and a team of 10 other classmates from Pitt State produced a live video stream of each of the 18 games in the men’s and women’s MIAA Tournaments from the historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
“This is the 19th year our students have gone to the tournament, and they did an incredible job,” said Troy Comeau, director of the Media Production program at Pitt State.
They began preparing in December for the five days of tournament play. Since 2014, they have been joined by students from Fort Hays State University and the University of Central Missouri.
“It was an awesome experience for students to do hands-on work in a professional setting,” Santiago said. “I directed Camera 1 to Camera 2, showing the various angles of the arena, organized replays and graphics, and coordinated the talent doing commentary and what’s going out on livestream.”
Abbie Nielson, a media production major from Joplin, Missouri, served as the producer during the tournaments.
“I oversaw production and organized the schedules for each task and who was working,” she said. “It was a lot of work, but it gave us great experience.”
Both Nielson and Santiago hope to work in professional sports broadcasting someday.
“This is a great start to help us get there,” Nielson said.
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Students in Pitt State’s Media Production program also broadcast athletic events from John Lance Arena, Carnie Smith Stadium, the Plaster Center, and the Gene Bicknell Sports Complex.
They regularly earn awards at both the state and national levels for their work in audio and video production. In 2020, they earned "Best Live Sports Broadcast" in the National Student Production Awards sponsored by College Broadcasters Inc.
In 2021, program director Troy Comeau was awarded the Faculty Best of Competition award from the Broadcast Education Association in Video Sports Event Direction and Production.
