UTM Athletics Wins Award for Excellence

The Ohio Valley Conference recently unveiled its OVC Program of Excellence awards for the 2021-22 school year and the University of Tennessee at Martin was one of five winners.

The OVC Program of Excellence honors contributions by member institutions for production of athletic events on ESPN+. This year marks the first time the awards have been bestowed since the 2017-18 academic year.

OVC member institutions submitted nominations for each of the five award categories as those nominations were viewed and judged by the OVC Assessment and Accountability Subcommittee, who determined the individual winners.

The five categories for the 2021-22 version of the awards were Open, In-Game Feature, Pre-Produced Feature, Call of the Game and Wrap. The Skyhawks were awarded with the Call of the Game award for its April 23 ESPN+ broadcast of a baseball contest against Tennessee Tech.

Davis Gregory provided the play-by-play call of a home run by UT Martin shortstop Casey Harford, his third round-tripper of the contest in a 24-17 Skyhawk victory. Mac Doran, the Skyhawks’ ESPN+ production coordinator, produced the game on-site while UT Martin department of communications instructor Rodney Freed directed the game from the campus studio located in Gooch Hall. Carson Brigance, Grayson Brinkley and Nick Williamson served as camera operators for the game. The call can be heard here: https://twitter.com/UTMSports/status/1518043605436358657?s=20&t=LIitlH_G7-xw5L3lZRm7Sg.

Skyhawk Athletics puts on approximately 75 live productions for ESPN+ each year, covering home events for UT Martin football, soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s basketball, softball, baseball and rodeo.

The 2022-23 academic year is the fifth season of the OVC’s deal with ESPN+, the multi-sport, direct-to-consumer video service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) or as part of a bundle with Disney+ and ad-supported Hulu ($13.99/month). ESPN+ is an integrated part of the ESPN App (on mobile and connected devices) and ESPN.com. More information can be found at www.OVCSports.com/ESPN.