Since its first broadcast in the fall of 2022, Northwestern State has set the standard for ESPN+ production in the region.

Praised for the technical work done with on-screen graphics, the finely tuned audio quality and mixing and well-trained and talented camera work, both in variety of shots and superiority in what they capture, the NSU ESPN+ production represents the best of what Northwestern has to offer.

That network-level production value is heightened by the first-class and experienced on-air talent that helps tell the story with each broadcast.

Patrick Netherton, the longtime voice of the Demons, enters his 22nd season and will handle play-by-play calls of Northwestern football, volleyball, and both men’s and women’s basketball as the Demons begin the 2024-25 athletic home season.

Adam Hester has been added to take over play-by-play duties for NSU soccer with Jason Pugh, Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, set to return to the broadcast booth for Demon baseball.

“What the NSU New Media department has produced on ESPN+ is astounding,” Netherton said. “Led by David Antilley and James Stanfield, the quality of the broadcasts are the best at this level and on par with what much larger crews are putting out. That professionalism is reflected in how much the reach and viewership has grown in just two years.”

NSU’s first home production of the new season will take place Sunday, when soccer hosts Abilene Christian at 12 p.m. The first home volleyball match will take place two days later and Blaine McCorkle and NSU football’s home opener against Prairie View A&M the following Saturday, Sept. 7.

Antilley, a Northwestern alum with more than 30 years of teaching experience, along with a graduate of Northwestern’s department of new media, journalism and communication arts program, James Stanfield, have spearheaded ESPN productions on campus since day one and guided students within the department in hands-on training and production work.

Stanfield is a 2021 graduate of NSU’s communications department that has used the knowledge he gained from working with Antilley at NSU-TV to become the ESPN production coordinator for NSU athletics.

“We get to teach students now what they are going to use in digital sports broadcasting,” Stanfield said. “It’s on a much smaller scale but we are using the same stuff they are using on those national networks – ESPN, ESPN2, CBS, Fox, NBC. We are able to provide students with an even greater understanding of how those productions work than we were before we started with our Plus broadcasts.”

During the 2023-24 athletic year, NSU’s primarily student-based ESPN+ production crew, under Antilley and Stanfield’s supervision, produced 87 live sports broadcasts for seven Demon athletic programs.

Among those events were both of volleyball’s two record-breaking home attendance matches against UCLA on Aug. 28 and against McNeese on Nov. 4 that saw more than 1,000 fans in attendance for each match.

This past basketball season also produced the highest viewed single event since the start of NSU broadcasts on ESPN+ with more than 20,000 unique viewers watching Demon men’s basketball host McNeese on Jan. 8.

Five months later NSU was one of five college baseball games on ESPN+ to air on May 13 as the Demons clinched its spot in the Southland Conference Tournament with a 13-2 win against New Orleans.

“Because so many jobs within each production are open, and having so many opportunities with the amount of home events, students are able to get involved and get incredible practical experience very early on,” Netherton said. “If you want to be prepared for a career in sports media, Northwestern State provides the best opportunity you can find to get your feet wet early.”

Sports media students are the primary resource for roles within a given broadcast but positions are available for any communication major at Northwestern. Of the three concentrations in the department of new media, journalism and communication arts, two of them require students to take classes that lend themselves to work on ESPN+ campus production crews at NSU or any news or sports production company post graduation.

“The work our ESPN+ staff, primarily James Stanfield and Davey Antilley, have done has elevated our production to a level few comparable schools can match,” Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “Their tireless effort and coordination, coupled with the performance of our student workers and volunteers, has provided a compelling viewing experience for those who watch Northwestern State athletics on ESPN+. We are very pleased to be able to construct such a high-level broadcast to bring Demon athletics to a nationwide audience and to connect with our vast alumni base that is scattered throughout the country.”

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Not many people know this because it’s tacky to brag and “smarts” is not my calling card, but I was history student of the year in eighth grade and made an “A” in Spanish as a high school freshman even though I’d never been to Spain.

Just sayin…

The catch was, I mowed the yards of both my eighth-grade history and ninth-grade Spanish teachers. You do what you can.

My grades lagged in winter; I trace this back to a hatred of raking. But I started strong in the North Louisiana autumns that felt like summer, then rallied in the early spring and right on through Memorial Day and the school year’s final bell.

As the grass rose, so did my scores.

In college, it was a different ballgame. They make you grow up in college, or you basically fail your own self. Shoot yourself in your lazy, refuse-to-be-educated foot. My teachers, who were now deemed “professors,” wouldn’t tell me and my lawnmower where they lived.

They play hardball at the university level.

In the grownup world, it’s always something.

But this teacher’s pet/yardman has proof that I was a force to be reckoned with in pre-college. If I couldn’t cut it in the classroom, I could cut it on the lawn. You play to your strengths.

Witness my freshman yearbook, signed by “Senora Mullins” in her unmistakable hand, with a squiggly thing above the “n” in senora and everything: “You MUST be OK,” she wrote; “I still like you, even though you’re my neighbor!”

Why she used the capitals and exclamation point is anybody’s guess. Did she not like her previous neighbors? Did she fail their kid? With an “A,” I asked no questions. Just said “gracias” and moved along – even though her “You MUST be OK” line, which translated into street language means “You sort of get on my nerves,” hurt me.

You must be “OK”? Tacos are OK. Mi nombre es Tedro!, or something like that. Muy bueno, babe! Come on!

“OK” is for losers.

I learned later that, from women, you take your OK’s where you can get them and learn to like it. Just part of my education, none of which would have happened without Mrs. Mullins and her tireless Sisterhood of The Classroom Teachers.

They have flooded my mind and always do with the first refreshing chill of September, these women who smelled like hand lotion and hairspray and lunchroom rolls and chalk. You’ve thought of them too, maybe not for long but always for at least a moment. Might as well try not to blink as to try and dodge the autumnal world of a long-ago yesterday. For the length of one daydream, we all go back to school this time of year. 

How did they do it? Day after day. Lunch room duty. Ball game. Sponsorship of the Interact Club. Raising three children at home and 150 at school. Yet always, The Teacher suited up.

When you see one this year, give them a nod. A fist bump. Maybe five bucks! Be an encourager. They have a long way to go and deal with short attention spans, and the best ones leave it all on the field. I praise my exhausted teachers who were, for me, a cut above.

Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu

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The Bakowski Bridge of Lights on the Texas Street Bridge in Shreveport will host GLO FEST on Friday, September 6 from 7-10pm. There will be Food Trucks, Arts Vendors, Kids Activities and Live Performances. This will become a monthly event on every first Friday at Riverview Park.

Northwestern State University’s Job Location and Development Office will sponsor its annual Part-time Job Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 10 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the Friedman Student Union Ballroom. Students should bring a resume and be prepared for a possible interview. Participating employers include the Ben D. Johnson Educational Center, Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, Fastenal Company, Raising Cane’s, Chick-Fil-A Natchitoches FSR, Louisiana National Guard at NSU, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Natchitoches Army Recruiting, Boys & Girls Clubs of Acadiana, Dark Woods Adventure Park, the Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, Probilt Construction, Waskom Brown & Associates. Parish of Caddo and Cane River Children’s Services.

Adeline’s Bed & Breakfast located at 340 Hand Cemetery Road in Coushatta will host an Open House October 12 from 5-8pm. Enjoy an evening of charm and hospitality while touring beautiful rooms and learn more about their services. Refreshments will be served.

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Mary Colley “Toot” Lawrence
May 19, 1945 – September 1, 2024
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at 11am at Rockett-Nettles Funeral Home Chapel in Coushatta

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Wishing everyone a Happy Labor Day! The Red River Parish Journal will proudly resume publishing on Wednesday morning at 6:55 a.m.

Did you know the Labor Day holiday grew out of the late 19th century organized labor movement, and it quickly became a national holiday as the labor movement assumed a prominent role in American society?

Here’s how it all started, with 10 interesting facts supplied by the Labor Department, the Library Of Congress, the National Constitution Center and other sources.

1. The idea first became public in 1882. In September 1882, the unions of New York City decided to have a parade to celebrate their members being in unions, and to show support for all unions. At least 20,000 people were there, and the workers had to give up a day’s pay to attend. There was also a lot of beer involved in the event.

2. The New York parade inspired other unions. Other regions started having parades, and by 1887, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado made Labor Day a state holiday.

3. How did the Haymarket Affair influence Labor Day? On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a union rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, which led to violence that killed seven police officers and four others. The incident also led to May 1 being celebrated in most nations as Workers Day. The U.S. government chose Labor Day instead to avoid a celebration on May 1 and New York’s unions had already picked the first Monday in September for their holiday.

4. Two people with similar names are credited with that first New York City event. Matthew Maguire, a machinist, and Peter McGuire, a carpenter, have been linked to the 1882 parade. The men were from rival unions; in 2011, Linda Stinson, a former U.S. Department of Labor’s historian, said she didn’t know which man should be credited – partially because people over the years confused them because of their similar-sounding names.

5. Grover Cleveland helped make Labor Day a national holiday. After violence related to the Pullman railroad strike, President Cleveland and lawmakers in Washington wanted a federal holiday to celebrate labor – and not a holiday celebrated on May 1. Cleveland signed an act in 1894 establishing the federal holiday; most states had already passed laws establishing a Labor Day holiday by that point. Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to make Labor Day a federal legal holiday on the first Monday of September. It was approved on June 28, 1894.

6. The holiday has evolved over the years. In the late 19th century, celebrations focused on parades in urban areas. Now the holiday is a celebration that honors organized labor with fewer parades, and more activities. It also marks the perceived end of the summer season.

7. Can you wear white after Labor Day? This old tradition goes back to the late Victorian era, where it was a fashion faux pas to wear any white clothing after the summer officially ended on Labor Day. The tradition isn’t really followed anymore. EmilyPost.com explains the logic behind the fashion trend – white indicated you were still in vacation mode at your summer cottage.

8. Labor Day is the unofficial end of Hot Dog season. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says that between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs.

9. How many people are union members today? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 14.8 million union members in the workforce in 2017. There were 17.7 million in 1983.

10. What is the biggest union today? The National Education Association has about 3 million people who are members, including inactive and lifetime members.

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