Buzzerbeater, BYU-Hawaii’s new sports talk show, was “put together on a whim,” according to Myck Miller, a senior from Washington D.C. studying communications. Every Wednesday at 2:30pm, Miller and Jake McCleary, a freshman from Utah studying accounting, cover the top sporting events that occurred during the week in athletics. They also promote upcoming events, highlight athletes, and discuss other international sporting events such as the Olympics.Despite it being the last year for athletics at BYUH, Amos Watene, director of media productions, said, “We’re going to go out with a bang this year… this show is going to be really fun for not only Myck and Jake but all Seasider fans.” Miller and McCleary said their focus for starting the show was not to mourn the end of BYUH athletics, but rather to give appreciation and attention to faculty of the sports department. Miller said, “We see how hard our coaches and our players work, and we feel like through this show they will get the recognition that they deserve.”The original idea to start up a sports show occurred to Miller during his summer break. During the previous semester, Miller was interviewing athletic coaches for school in short 3-5 minutes videos, but during the break he decided to compile them together to make a 30 minutes show with “at least 85% of it covering BYUH sports.”Miller’s father is a sports reporter for the Washington Wizards. After collecting his father’s input, Miller began doing the research and preparation for the upcoming semester to put on the show. He then turned to McCleary to partner with him as co-host.McCleary and Miller met three years prior through McCleary’s other brother, D Jordan McCleary, who is on BYUH’s basketball team. McCleary said he was keen to give sports casting a go. He admitted he had “never done anything in front of a camera,” but he trusted Miller and his abilities to put on the show because “Myck’s been the mastermind of everything.”The first live showing had some errors. Difficulties in audio made the show start later than originally planned, but the moment the technical difficulties dissolved, Miller and McCleary were focused and ready to bring the latest sports news.They expect to attract more viewers than just their mothers, they joked. Miller said they are shooting for triple digits in the live viewings. Students can watch the show on BYUH’s media productions website.
Writer: Katie Bak
