National Sports Center Blog

NSCwebcast.tv is up and running!

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

It's Memorial Day Weekend, and that means it's time for the NSC's first big soccer tournament of the summer season, NSC Cup. Today, 225 teams from all over the Upper Midwest and Canada are playing their first games of the tournament. Championship games will be played on Monday.

The big new innovation this weekend is the premier of NSCwebcast. NSC Cup is the first of 17 events the NSC webcast team will produce over the next year. In the past, the NSC has partnered with an outside vendor to webcast two events: Schwan's USA CUP soccer tournament in July and the Schwan Cup hockey tournament in December. Now we're bringing webcasting in-house, which will allow us to televise many more events, and improve customer service.

Below, the NSCwebcast team hard at work broadcasting the Bangu vs NSSA 19 boys game on the Exhibition Field on Saturday afternoon: left-to-right: cameraman Mark Cooper, NSC intern and production engineer Mike Babcock, and play-by-play Jeff Huffman.

Selected games will be available for viewing on your computer, either live or after the game on an archived basis. There is a reasonable pay-per-view fee, which was $6.95 per game for NSC Cup. To find all about NSCwebcast, check out this informational page on the NSC website. After NSC Cup, the next events available for viewing on NSCwebcast are the Fixed Gear Cycling Classic from the NSC Velodrome, June 8; and the the Wal-Mart All-American Cup soccer tournament, June 13-15.

Hello!

By Lizzy Snell, NSC Media Intern

Hello there, from my lovely workspace at the National Sports Center. Exactly one week has gone by since the intern orienation, and it is pretty safe to say that everyone is busy working on various tasks to keep the NSC running smoothly.

We decided to keep the tradition of having the media interns keep a blog, updating every ten days or so, to give you an idea of what life is like for interns at the NSC. Each day is unique, and while it may seem that we spend eight hours in a cubicle, five days a week, that is not always the case.

Take yesterday, for example. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a regular program of "field trips," where a group of reporters travels to various areas of Minnesota to learn more about the state. Blaine was the area of interest this time, and the NSC was the longest stop on the tour.

Several of the interns, myself included, moved about 13 golf carts to the Schwan Center from the golf course in order for the visitors to have easy transportation around the NSC. We then assisted the reporters in driving the carts around the facilities for the tour.

BELOW: The 20 Star Tribune reporters and editors listen to Barclay Kruse, Chief Communications Officer at the NSC, give a brief introduction about the facilities. Soon they would be off, driving in a line, around the Super Rink, golf course and the Velodrome.

One of the highlights of the tour was the Velodrome, the outdoor cycling track. Six reporters - Jim Adams, Maria Baca, Laurie Blake, Lewis Leung, London Nelson and Cory Powell - decided to give the Velodrome a try. Everyone was successful and thankfully there were no crashes and/or injuries.

LOWER RIGHT: The chosen cyclists investigate the intricacies of the Velodrome bikes before they ride the track.

Star Tribune News Recruiting and Training Manager Brenda Rotherham set up the field trip and said in a thank you email that the trip was a great success and everyone from the Star Tribune learned a lot about the NSC.

Intern Orientation

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Today was a day we look forward to every year, the arrival of our new class of summer interns. The 2008 class of interns is typically impressive, with interns representing colleges and universities across the U.S. and even Europe. Every year, we get several hundred applications, and the 20 interns selected represent the best of the best.

Above: Schwan's USA CUP Director Teri Vogt briefs our new class of interns on the NSC Velodrome during their facility tour. NSCtv producer Greg Hutton, right, filmed intern orientation for a "meet the interns" segment of our weekly news show.

Today the interns spent time learning about the history and administrative structure of the NSC, took a facility tour, and of course, posed for the traditional opening day group photo. So without further adeu, we proudly present our 2008 class of summer interns:

  Front row, left-to-right: Mike Babcock, Michigan Tech, Anoka, Minn.; Jake Lunemann, St. Cloud State U, Clarissa, Minn.; Ryan Larson, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Little Canada, Minn.; Zachary Knight, James Madison University, Winchester, Va.; Kasey Grams, University of Minnesota, Fairchild, Wis.; Heather Holmes, Southwest Minnesota State U., Fridley, Minn.; Mikkala Korton, Minnesota State U, Mankato, Coon Rapids, Minn.; Clinton LaBeau*, Minnesota State U, Mankato, Cambridge, Minn.; Jami Steer*, Concordia College (Moorhead), Crookston, Minn..

Back row: Greg Hutton*, Slippery Rock State U & University of Minnesota, Stephens City, Va.; Claire Bouilleguet, IFI Rouen School of Management, Rouen, France; Erin Lammert, University of Minnesota, Luverne, Minn.; Taylor Kruse*, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio; Heather Anderson, Southwest Minnesota State U., Brooklyn Park, Minn.; Lizzy Snell, Boston University, North St. Paul, Minn.; Casey Allar, Bemidji State University, Sartell, Minn.

Not pictured: Pierre Bodin, IFI Rouen School of Management, Rouen, France; Lindsey Grauman.

* = returning intern