The DAF Media broadcasting and camera crews in action at Darien Blue Wave ice hockey and basketball games.
DAF Media is taking high school broadcasting to a whole new level
For fans who miss a Darien High School sporting event, DAF Media is like a lifeline. Family and friends can cheer on their favorite athletes by watching live or on-demand broadcasts with student commentators, instant replays, sophisticated graphics and post-game interviews.
DAF Media, started in 2017 by the Darien Athletic Foundation and the Darien Foundation, is run by more than 50 student volunteers who produce sports and hometown broadcasts on a free YouTube channel. The network has covered more than 800 events, ranging from soccer, lacrosse, basketball and baseball games to graduations, band concerts, Darien’s Got Talent and the local Memorial Day parade.
Bruce Ferguson—one of DAF Media’s original founders, who oversees the network for the Darien Athletic Foundation Board—brings his tech experience to the operation and helps with training. “I am the person behind the scenes who has researched, tested and procured the technology we use to produce our broadcasts,” explains Ferguson. “I do the initial training of the DAF Media members and volunteers who then ‘rinse and repeat’ to learn and become experts in the particular equipment and software.”
Ferguson works closely with Damian Andrew, an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster who manages day-to-day operations and helps mentor the students. The former sports director and anchor at News 12 Connecticut jokes that DAF Media is an “audio-visual club on steroids because it’s not your grandparents’ AV club.”
“Our student volunteers work with state-of-the-art equipment being used by professionals in the field,” says Andrew. “Seven years ago, we started out doing one-camera broadcasts with an announcer. Now, our productions involve multiple cameras, a robust graphics package and the ability to provide viewers with instant replay.”
Although other area high schools record games, they often have one fixed camera. “They may not have all the bells and whistles we do,” explains Andrew. “DAF Media is doing more than what some Division 3 and even Division 1 schools are doing with their broadcasts.”
DHS Blue Wave fans aren’t the only ones who appreciate the high-quality content. DAF Media has received ten student production awards from the New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), an organization best known for the prestigious Emmy® Awards.
One NATAS award winner, Braden Schenck, won for On-Air Talent two years in a row. He is a 2023 Darien High School graduate who joined DAF Media his freshman year and worked more than 350 games while at DHS. Now a sophomore at Virginia Tech majoring in sports media and analytics, Schenck is a commentator for the ACC Network Extra and calls games for the Cape Cod Baseball League. He credits DAF Media for having a huge impact on his life.
“My passion for sports broadcasting and all my foundations began with DAF Media,” says Schenck. “I was fortunate to be part of DAF and have a mentor like Damian show me a career path that I didn’t know existed when I joined.”
Another recent graduate, Liam Tomaszewski, plans to follow a similar path. “DAF Media has given me the opportunity to work in a professional sports broadcasting setting you can’t find anywhere else at a high-school level,” says Tomaszewski. “I attend College of the Holy Cross, and they have some student-run sports broadcasting I am going to help with this year.”
As an advisor, Andrew appreciates how “DAF Media attracts really awesome kids and brings the community together.” Ferguson says he enjoys “watching students’ skills and confidence grow” as they work with the team.
“I love that DAF Media is a multifaceted organization,” says Ferguson. “It provides great opportunities for students to be part of a fast-moving, fun and productive extracurricular organization that inconspicuously teaches lifelong learning skills—communication, com–puter networking, graphic design, organization and time-management.”
While DAF Media can’t broadcast every event, they cover all varsity sports and the big games. The most-watched broadcast is the Turkey Bowl, an annual football game between Darien and New Canaan High School on Thanksgiving Day. “We treat it like our Super Bowl in terms of production,” says Andrew. “We get thousands of views on YouTube for this broadcast alone.”
DAF Media also provides photography coverage. Originally started by Mark Maybell, whose photos still grace local businesses, this legacy is continued by DAF board member and photographer Katharine Calderwood. In addition to game-day coverage, she collaborates with DHS student photographers to run Media Days—a new initiative that raises awareness of DAF Media and supports the operating budget.
“I love working with the students to capture the unique personality of each athlete,” says Calderwood. “While some athletes will compete in college, for many, these photographs mark the culmination of years of dedication in youth sports and the lifelong friendships built.”
Another unique aspect of DAF Media is that it follows the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) model, where there is no advertising. To do this, Ferguson coordinates fundraising efforts with the Darien Foundation, which was integral to the program’s launch. “The Darien Foundation saw the vision and graciously joined us and stuck with us through the pandemic and beyond,” says Ferguson, who continues to rely on the public’s support. “We are a 501c3 organization, so donations are tax deductible.”
Ferguson is excited about the next chapter. “This year, we will introduce 4K video streams, which means much higher resolution when watching on a big screen TV,” he explains. “We are also building out our DAF Media van so that we can perform a lot of the switching, graphics and instant replay directly from the van. We are always innovating!”