From Sports Page 1

livestreaming options for any high school sports.

“I had all this gear when I moved here and I saw that they were rebroadcasting some high school events on the local cable access channel,” Westhuis said. “I met a couple of people who were videoing basketball games. I said to them, ‘Why don’t we do it live?’ And we tried it the following year.

That year was the 2013-14 high school basketball season. Westhuis began by calling boys basketball, then they added volleyball to the rotation, football was eventually added and suddenly, a litany of RFHS sports were being broadcast for anyone to watch remotely. One of the biggest things for Westhuis is consistency in their broadcasts.

“We’re doing about 130 games a year now,” Westhuis said. “When I started back in Colorado, I thought, if you only do like three games a year and just dabble in it, it’s never going to take off. People won’t know when it’s on. I said, even if it’s not good, do as many games as possible so it’s always on. For most sports, we do both home and away.”

The aforementioned broadcasts, from approximately 2013 to 2018, were all done on a platform called “The Cube” which was a livestreaming service provided by a Coloradobased company. In May 2018, River Falls Sports switched platforms and made its first broadcast on YouTube.

That broadcast paved the way for 562 broadcasts that have come after it. In the four years of River Falls Sports, each broadcast averages approximately 1,500 unique viewers. In total, the channel has just over 143,000 hours watched by consumers and there have been 603,000 total views for the entire channel. As of Jan. 17, the channel has over 3,300 subscribers and in the last 28 days alone, the channel has over 34,000 views. Because of the success of the channel, Westhuis is often recognized and thanked for the work that he and his team do to promote high school athletics.

“We always have people that come up to us and tell us they love it,” Westhuis said. “My style is personal and relatable. We call our fans the Legion of Loyal Listeners. Because we have this family-style environment, I’ll see someone, and they’ll start talking to me like they know me and will call me by my first name.”

The River Falls Sports channel doesn’t only broadcast to River Falls or even Wisconsin. According to Westhuis, for every sports broadcast, there are usually people watching in at least half of the states in the country.

While Westhuis is responsible for the origin of broadcasting operation, he has over two dozen volunteers that assist with everything from on-air commentary, to technical support to other behind-the-scenes aspects of the team. Westhuis spoke highly of his team of volunteers.

“Nobody paid for this service, it’s all 100% volunteer time and effort,” Westhuis said. “We do this for the greater good of the community. Nobody is in this for money or any other reason other than to give back and it’s showing because we don’t ask for anything. We’re just providing a service and it’s kind of taking off.”

Objectively speaking, River Falls Sports provides the best livestreamed high school sports content in all of Pierce County. No other school broadcasts as many sports as often and with complete commentary as that of River Falls. According to Westhuis, he and his broadcast team have lofty goals.

“I don’t have this goal written down, but my goal is to be the best local sports broadcasting team in the country,” Westhuis said. “What we have going is pretty unique. This team of people is committed, always early, do what they say they’re going to do, what we have going, it’s unique and is growing.”

Part of the reason that the channel is growing at such a rapid pace is due to the level of production in the overall product. The team uses multiple cameras, camera operators, play-by-play and color commentary hosts, as well as mic’d up coaches that provide amazing insight during timeouts in which fans can hear exactly what the coach is telling his or her players.

That equipment is expensive and because they are a non-profit organization, they have sponsors, the biggest of which is the First National Bank of River Falls. According to Westhuis, First National Bank has been pivotal in the channel’s success.

“They sponsor us and give us enough money to buy extra sets of gear and replacement gear,” Westhuis said. “I did a four-year deal with them initially. When that ran out, we did a second four-year deal which was like, I won’t say how much it is, but it’s like four times as much as the first deal.”

With professional equipment and energetic hometown broadcasters, the channel has cruised past 3,000 subscribers and there is still a lot of room to grow. According to YouTube’s analytics for the channel, only 30% of regular viewers are subscribed, meaning that thousands of people are regularly watching the content and haven’t hit the subscribe button yet.

As the audience has grown over the years, so have the fundraising efforts of the broadcast team. In the last two years alone, River Falls Sports has raised $10,000 each year that has been given back to other non-profit organizations in the River Falls community.

The fundraising efforts were part of an initiative started by four members of the broadcast team in Westhuis, Mike Kealy, Rob Doerre and Jeff Meyer. The fundraising program is called “Man-Up” and encouraged 100 men to donate $100 that would be donated to a local non-profit organization.

The fundraising effort was an instant success. Well over 100 men and many women donated money to the Man-Up cause and at the end of the year, they had reached the aforementioned $10,000 figure. All of that money was donated to the Sunshine Fund at the high school.

“It’s a group of high school kids and adult mentors that give money to families in need within the district,” Westhuis said. “People who have accidents or health issues, they give money to families of students or staff in the district that need help. We gave them all the money last year.”

This season was another successful year for the fundraiser. Once again, the broadcast crew raised $10,000 that was distributed within the River Falls community. Instead of one big donation, River Falls Sports donated $3,350 to three non-profit organizations in River Falls: Our Neighbors Place, Rhino’s Foundation and Turning Point.

“That’s the one thing this whole volunteer deal does,” Westhuis said. “I realized we were reaching a lot of people and was like, ‘Why don’t we try to give some money back?’ We chose three that we think are important and do a lot of good in the community. They were very appreciative.”

When reflecting on what he wants his legacy to be once he no longer can or wants to broadcast, Westhuis was very clear about what he wants when that day comes.

“My personal goal is to make this, River Falls Sports broadcasting, a non-profit organization in our community, something that can live past me,” Westhuis said. “So that it can have equipment, it can have funding, so someday if I can’t do this or won’t do this, it can live past me and be a fixture in our community. It’s not for money, it’s not for me to get on Fox Sports North, it’s all for the community. By focusing on that, it will be organic.”

Whenever Westhuis decides to sign off of a broadcast for the final time, there is no doubt that River Falls Sports will continue to thrive because of the hard work that he has put in over the last nine years. A full list of the volunteers can be found below.