The morning air brushed against spectators’ faces with a brisk chill Saturday morning as the show began its biggest broadcast to date at the Junction.
The Sports Lounge, an all student-produced show about sports on a local and national level, featured both MSU President Robert “Doc” Foglesong and former MSU basketball player Shane Power in the Junction as tailgating festivities began that morning.
“We wanted to [include] something that embodies Mississippi State,” said Mike Schatz, a senior communication major from Philadelphia, Pa. who co-hosts the show.
The Junction seemed the perfect place to shoot this show.
This particular episode will be a great launching pad for the show next semester, co-host and senior communication major Rob McDougald said.
“We’re hoping, actually from this Junction experience, to get more exposure,” McDougald said.
Foglesong made an appearance for the first segment of the show, and later Power came and stayed for the rest of the show.
He discussed national college, professional sports and MSU sports with the hosts and reminisced about his past experiences playing Mississippi State basketball.
“These guys are really entertaining,” Power said. “I think it’s something that is really going to catch on here at State.”
The show has a great atmosphere, he added.
“Sports is a big part of my life, and anytime you get to sit around and talk about big issues of sports with guys who are knowledgeable, it’s great,” Power said. “It’s like a buffet of great college athletics.”
The atmosphere at the Junction embodied what the hosts were looking for, McDougald said.
“You can’t beat doing a show in front of a live audience,” he said. “People were actually stopping and listening to what we were saying [as we talked with guests].”
McDougald said the best part is talking about sports with those knowledgeable about the subject.
“You’re dealing with a bunch of really witty [and] really funny guys who have good sports knowledge,” McDougald said. “There’s no way we couldn’t have good chemistry.”
McDougald said hosting a sports show has been an opportunity he could only hope for.
Teaching and coaching major Michael Draper of Tupelo also hosts the show, and he agreed with McDougald on the opportunities the show provides.
“This would be a dream to be on a sports show [like this one],” Draper said.
Draper and Schatz conceived the idea of The Sports Lounge over the summer, and when the semester began, they shot three shows in the studio.
“The main point of the show is for this to be something students do three and four years down the road,” Draper said.
Schatz added that the people working on this wanted to produce something that none of them had ever seen before.
For the next semester, Draper hopes to do at least ten shows, if not more, to keep a consistent cycle of shows on the University channel, he said.
“We’re looking to do one every week,” Draper added.
When people see this show, the show set in The Junction, they should know that it is completely student-based, director Matt Bryan, a senior broadcasting major from New Orleans, said.
“I think we have the perfect crew,” he said.
The show should air on the University television channel within the next two weeks, Bryan added.
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