- UMass Athletics website
Every Saturday afternoon last lacrosse season Mike and Melinda Rushing watched their son, Greg Rushing ’12, play for the Minutemen. Of course, they’ve been watching Greg on the lacrosse field for years, but his first season at UMass was different: the Rushings saw him via video streaming on their home computer in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“The live video was a pleasant surprise, because we didn’t know how we would keep in touch from here,” says Mike. “We were able to become familiar with all the kids on the team and then get more intimately involved and put a face to a helmet through the stories on the UMass athletics website.”
“We are one of the few schools in the country that video stream nearly all of our home athletic events,” says John Sinnett, associate media relations director for athletics. “We’ve been working on this for the last four years and now have wireless access points at most of our sport facilities. This includes the softball/soccer/track complex, where the wireless signal is actually beamed from the top of a Southwest residential tower.” In all, fans, parents, recruits, and alumni can watch more than 150 athletic events from football to hockey to basketball to swimming to track to tennis. “This offers a tremendous amount of exposure for UMass and for sports that aren’t normally televised,” says Sinnett. “As an added educational benefit, we also recruit students to work the games who are interested in learning how to broadcast or run the video camera.”
Fans can sign up to see streaming video, provided in partnership with CBS College Sports, through the new athletic department website (umassathletics.com), launched in July. The new site is streamlined and has additional feature content. Along with live video, fans can watch exclusive interviews, order tickets for games, buy custom framed photos, bid on auction items such as signed memorabilia, and keep up with all 21 UMass intercollegiate sports.
