Courtesy Washington Post

(March 10, 2009) Sadly, the four Maryland state high school basketball championship games scheduled Saturday at the Comcast Center in College Park will not be televised on any local or cable television outlets. But if you can't get to the gym to watch up close and personal, there is now a viable alternative: catching all the action on your home computer not long after the final buzzer sounds.

Thanks to Brian Bassett, an ambitious video and computer whiz who grew up in Howard County, and his dedicated band of production volunteers, all four games can be seen free of charge in their entirety on his Scholastic Sports Net Web site at www.watchssn.com. In addition to pictures provided by four cameras located around the arena, each game also will include a professional play-by-play call from a veteran local broadcaster who will be courtside for all four games.

Bassett, 32 and a two-year varsity starter at wide receiver for Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, always has had a passion for high school athletics. After graduating from Frostburg State, he's been working for the Howard County school system producing educational programming. Eight years ago, he started going to games at county high schools with a video camera to put together highlight packages for a local community sports show, FYI Sports, that also aired on the school system channel.

"It was me and a camera," Bassett said. "I went out and did the highlights. We began in Howard County, and I tried to get a few playoff and state championship games. When we did put them on, it generated a lot of interest, and we just kept plugging away, and we've had the Web site now for about three years. We're all doing this on a volunteer basis, but we see a lot of potential in it."

This year, the potential became palpable when Bassett went to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) and paid the governing body a nominal fee for the rights to produce programming from state playoff and championship games in all the boys' and girls' sports, an agreement that will run through the 2010 season. Some of that coverage will include extensive highlight packages, along with the game telecasts that will be provided Saturday from the state basketball title games in all four divisions.

"We were impressed with Brian's earnestness and his professionalism," said Ned Sparks, executive director of the MPSSAA. "He's really interested in high school sports and trying to give them as much exposure as he can. Our feeling is that things have changed dramatically in the way people are getting their information through the Web. We felt if we could put our events on the Web, why not put something in place for the whole year and get all of our sports that kind of exposure.

"We really liked what Brian had been doing. It's a start-up, but they do great work. He's also one of our kids, a product of our schools, so why not deal with him. Instead of him calling me before every state championship to do it, we made a long-term commitment through next year, which is appealing for both of us and really provides a service to people who may not be able to get to the events."

Bassett has put together an all-volunteer crew to help him produce the game telecasts and then get them ready to stream on to the Web site. Games are done live to tape and are usually available for viewing about 90 minutes after they end. They're also archived on the site, available any time and accessible around the world, a wonderful gift to parents, relatives or friends who may be serving abroad in the military or working a night shift and unable to get to the arena.

The production also has become a family affair. That professional local broadcaster handling the play-by-play is Steve Bassett, Brian's father and a former sports anchor at Channel 7 who also has called a number of games regionally and nationally for cable and over-the-air networks.

Steve Bassett operates his own communications consulting firm these days but said he welcomes the opportunity to clear his pipes and do some play-by-play on the side. He's also mentoring his current color man, 24-year-old Jimmy Osborne, who would like to break into the game broadcasting business himself.

"He's two years out of college and getting a lot of experience doing this," Brian Bassett said of Osborne. "It's hard to get this kind of experience without a job, and it's hard to get a job without experience. We've also got high school and college students working behind the camera, learning the business with practical experience. It's a win-win situation for everyone."

"Brian saw a void, and now he's trying to fill it," Steve Bassett said. "It's a great idea, and he's taken advantage of the emerging technology to provide this platform. For me, I just enjoy doing the games. It keeps my hand in broadcasting, and I really do enjoy mentoring these younger kids. It's also fun to work with Brian."

Clearly, it's become a labor of love for everyone involved, and the Web site also is attracting large numbers of users. In a stretch from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31, 2008, SSN had just over 250,0 00 game views, almost double the previous 12 months, with a total of 132,000 game views.

Brian Bassett has paid out of his own pocket for much of the equipment he's gathered over the last few years. The fledgling company also pays some expenses with advertising revenue he believes will increase dramatically now that SSN has the contract to do all the state high school title games through 2010, as well as regular season events throughout the state.

"I think the more people come to the site, the more our traffic will be driven up and hopefully, more advertisers will come on board," he said. "Right now it's a part-time thing. I guess you could call it a hobby. But I hope it can turn into something much more."

Still, he's not quite ready to quit his day job with the Howard County school system. But Brian Bassett would like to think the dramatic increase in page views since the site went up bodes we ll for SSN eventually to become a viable business.

"I think we're going down the right road," he said. "We've definitely created a product people want to see. We've thrown a lot of darts out there the last few years. Some have hit, some have missed. But producing these games, we're doing what we do best, and people definitely seem to like it."