By Jack Sintic
All Bellarmine University sports have hit the airways with the introduction of the new BU Knights Sports Network website. BU Knights Sports Network can be accessed through the Apple TV app, the Roku App, and mobile apps (Apple and Android).
The website features all “stadium sports,” except for both men’s and women’s basketball, which have partnerships with ESPN+ and various local radio partners including 93.9 The Ville, ESPN’s Louisville station. Sports included on BUKSN are soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball and wrestling.
“That means cross country, tennis, golf, swimming and track/field won’t be featured on BUKSN this year,” said John Spugnardi, assistant athletic director for communications, in an email message.
While there aren’t definitive plans to include these sports moving forward, the athletic communications department will review its options for adding sports to the network’s coverage.
“I don’t think we’re going to rule out anything for the future,” Spugnardi said in an email message.
The website builds on the GLVC Sports Network that Bellarmine previously used, in partnership with BlueFrame Technology, to broadcast sports events when the university competed in Division II sports as part of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
“We wanted to create a similar environment to what we had last year with the GLVC SN,” Spugnardi said.
BU Knights Sports Network is a similar concept to the GLVC Sports Network; however, it features only Bellarmine athletics.
Spugnardi said, “We basically got them [BlueFrame Technology] to implement a Bellarmine version of the GLVC SN.”
BlueFrame Technology is a company that specializes in streaming networks that can be delivered on a variety of platforms. They have a special connection to Bellarmine in more ways than just the old GLVC SN.
Sydney Windell, director of production for BlueFrame, is a 2016 Bellarmine graduate. She had experience working on the event streams with Spugnardi for GLVC SN as a student before being hired at BlueFrame.
“Since I graduated from Bellarmine, that account has been mine since I started, pretty much,” Windell said.
Windell’s close affiliation has given her a good idea of the needs and wants of Bellarmine, especially going through the transition to Division I.
“When news broke that Bellarmine was going to leave the GLVC… and go to the ASUN, I started working with John on what that meant for Bellarmine and what they were going to need,” Windell said. “He was obviously used to having BlueFrame services going through the GLVC… we just needed to set up the same exact thing except dedicated to the Knights.”
This platform allows BU sports to get some airtime and gives fans the opportunity to follow their team from nearly anywhere.
Athletes are excited about the new streaming platform. Alex Cleverly, a senior sports administration major and baseball player, said he is excited that people from out of town are able to watch the games.
“It gives players the opportunity to have their families and friends and people that aren’t from around here that maybe can’t make it to a game… it gives them the abilities to watch games or watch them play,” Cleverly said.
Cleverly said he is happy his parents would have a way to watch his games if they are unable to make the trip to Bellarmine.
“I’m from Noblesville, Indiana, so it’s about a two-and-a-half-hour drive, so it’s not always easy for my parents to come down and watch us play, so it’s a good resource for them to use,” he said.
The platform is also a good opportunity for Bellarmine students to gain hands-on experience in broadcasting, streaming, camera work and other elements related to the stream.
“Even though I’ve got a couple of student workers doing it [stream production] right now, I would love to open it up to comm students and sports administration majors who want to get some experience,” Spugnardi said. “I’m not opposed to getting people trained up and getting them behind a computer or a camera.”
Axel Halvarson, a graduate assistant with Bellarmine athletic communications, has worked closely with Spugnardi on sports productions since his freshman year.
“We were short on staff late that first semester of my freshman year, and John was basically like, ‘Alright we need you… it’s your turn to produce this game.’”
Working on productions has given Halvarson a good opportunity to gain experience with broadcasts.
“All the cameras go into my computer, and then I’ll cut the cameras, put the graphics on, make sure the audio sounds good and also post to social media,” Halvarson said. “There’s a lot that goes into that little Mac that I have.”
Cleverly said being able to work on the streams would be an important experience to add to his resume and will help other Bellarmine athletes, too.
“As a sports administration major it would be awesome to put that on a resume somewhere like, ‘Hey I’ve done this. I’ve helped out my school and helped out my fellow athletes to provide this experience for others to view,’” he said.
Any students interested in assisting with BU Knights Sports Network should email Spugnardi at jspugnardi@bellarmine.edu.