by Luis Hernandez, Managing Editor

St. John Bosco High School introduced a brand new way to watch the Braves compete in their athletics called Bosco+, which is a platform to watch sports and other extracurricular events on campus.

St. John Bosco is working alongside the National Federation of State High Schools (NFHS) Network in order to stream Bosco events, which will be produced and broadcast by Bosco students. This new opportunity would have not been achievable without school President Dr. Brian Wickstrom, who is in his fourth year here at Bosco.

“If we didn’t have Bosco+, [most events] wouldn’t be broadcast,” said Dr. Wickstrom.

Prior to this streaming service, there was no way that many of the sports could be broadcast. This was unfortunate, as all the athletes deserve the opportunity to showcase their talents.

“If we didn’t have our students filming, we would have to hope that a major network picked [events] up,” Dr. Wickstrom said.

Currently Bosco+ films the games for football, basketball, baseball, swim and lacrosse. However, the school plans on adding more events as time goes on.

This opportunity is not only important for athletes here at Bosco but also members of the Film & Media Pathway. They are in charge of the production of these broadcasts and are able to gain real experience in what could potentially be a future career.

Nathan Vargas, a senior here at Bosco who has been involved with the pathway since his freshman year, believes this is an opportunity of a lifetime.

“Not only do you get practical experience, but you get professionals in the industry who help assist and guide you,” said Nathan.

The chance to be able to film their school’s sports teams is an amazing opportunity for these students as they get to put the skills they have learned to use in the classroom to the real world, which very few high school students get the chance to do.

“It gives students production experience to prepare them for a career and also builds up their resumes, which is important when applying to colleges,” Dr. Wickstrom said.

Members of the pathway are not restricted to strictly filming. Some have the opportunity to actually provide play-by-play and color commentary. This allows students to try out different roles within the field of media production to see what they enjoy best.

One of the commentators, senior Adam Rosales, could not be happier about this new experience.

“It’s amazing being able to film these games, especially because we have great sport programs across the board,” said Adam. “It’s fun to do with my friends, especially when I get to commentate games.”

The students are not only in charge of the filming and commentating, but they have to set up the wiring, communication and control other devices throughout the event.

“It builds a skill set for those that want to get involved in cinematography,” Nathan said. “So we can help the school but also look into a potential career path.”

Bosco+ is not done yet. They are planning to continue adding different sports and more events. Getting more students involved and more exposure for Bosco’s excellent extracurricular programs is their top goal. The great things that the Braves are accomplishing at school and in their communities deserves to be shown to the world.

“The chance to broadcast and stream the great things our students do on the Bosco+ app is so important for the school,” Dr. Wickstrom said.

Every Brave has the opportunity to watch any of these productions for free when they download the Bosco+ app on their smart devices and make accounts with their Bosco Gmail addresses.