March 27, 2020

Two days after the Summit League basketball championships March 10, everything started to change.

The team at Midco Sports Network watched from the sidelines as hockey and basketball seasons began to unravel.

First, there was talk of teams playing in arenas without fans.

That quickly turned to teams not playing at all.

“It all got pulled out from everyone on that Thursday,” said Craig DeWit, general manager of the sports network, which broadcasts high school and college sports in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.

“We were set up, and we broadcasted on Friday the 13th South Dakota high school hockey from the Scheels IcePlex. And we started the first couple games … and then they canceled the tournament before the 2 p.m. game started.”

In North Dakota, where Midco was scheduled to broadcast the University of North Dakota hosting the first round of its “best out of three weekend series” hockey tournament, everything was canceled.

“And our April events and May events all trickled down, one at a time, for the next week,” DeWit said.

“We have programming 24/7/365 we need to fill. So without live sports, which is what people love to see, it was like: Now what are we going to do?”

Josh Munce, senior producer, videographer and producer of the show “Midco Sports Magazine,” was the first to put forward a Plan B.

“I wanted to make sure we were telling stories that were happening now,” said Munce, who has a background in television news.

“We were looking at teams whose seasons had abruptly ended. As a group, MidcoSN, who had been following these teams throughout the season, we wanted to give them an ending to their season through storytelling.”

The team quickly rallied around the idea, creating a three-episode arc titled “The Lost Season” that would run as part of “Midco Sports Magazine.”

“Midco Sports Magazine is an amazing human-interest show, and we had to hit on the human-interest portion of all these cancellations, and these kids and coaches, stories and emotions during that time,” DeWit said. “There are so many stories out there, so many athletes getting their season cut short and not getting to finish what they started.”

Production with precautions

Actually producing the show created its own set of challenges for the nine-person team, including conducting interviews without being able to record them in person.

“All the rules we had before are kind of thrown out or fluid,” Munce said, adding that he suggested the contributors “embrace Skype, embrace Zoom” for interviews.

“It does not need to be pretty. I had our graphics person build a surround for our Skype interviews to at least make it look like we’re not throwing it out there. But if I have to, that’s fine too.”

The universities involved helped by providing footage and interviews, MidcoSN had some shot already, and technology helped gather the rest.

Munce, host Tom Nieman and the show’s contributors recorded introductions to segments in the Midco studio, and expert guests from sponsor Sanford Health were brought into the building for interviews.

“We actually created the shortest route, changed up which door people are coming in, so they can go straight from the door to the studio and not touch anything,” DeWit said.

“They do the interview and get escorted out, and we sanitize before and after anything they would have come in contact with, microphones and all that – being overly cautious, as we should.”

Munce edited the show from a makeshift office in his basement, balancing care with his wife for his 2-year old daughter.

“We had an extra room upstairs, and we set it up as my office, and I absolutely loved it. And I never really used it because I was always working from work because I love the collaboration,” he said.

“But my wife and I are expecting our second child in May, and we needed a nursery, so I think three or four weeks ago I moved my computer down to the basement. I thought if I don’t use it in the next year when we finish the basement, we’ll just pack it up. But now it’s come in handy.”

The first episode, which aired March 23, featured the USD women’s basketball team, which had just won the Summit League championship and was expected to make a good run in the NCAA tournament.

“The USD women’s team had an amazing year,” Munce said. “They were going to make history. We definitely wanted to do a story on that.”

The show also included the UND hockey team and the NDSU men’s basketball team.

“With the UND hockey team, the stay-at-home fear wasn’t quite out there yet, so we were able to get a couple of those interviews,” Munce said.

“With NDSU, the coach and player asked to prop the door open to the studio and wipe things down, and, of course, we’re going to do what’s safe for everyone, including ourselves. And it was a great, raw story. It wasn’t flashy, but it certainly got the emotion across.”

The second episode will air at 6:30 p.m. March 30 on MidcoSN and feature stories from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference as well as high school sports affected by the cancellation of tournaments.

The third episode will air April 6 and include spring football, potential scholarship changes for next year and an interview with a strength and conditioning coach on how students continue to train from their homes.

DeWit deliberately did not preview the inaugural episode and watched it for the first time at home as a viewer.

“It was hard to watch, just for the kids,” he said. “I feel horrible for all these kids. It’s the right thing to do, all these cancellations, for society. But it still doesn’t make it any easier for the kids not getting to finish the season. So it was emotional watching it.”

Each segment has a different voice and feel, thanks to how all involved brought their creativity to the production, Munce added.

“I loved it,” he said. “I think we were able to give those teams … not the ending they expected and not the ending they truly deserved, but one we were able to put together.”

To view full episodes, click here.