This year celebrates the 20th anniversary of Harford Cable Network’s Game of the week.
Every year and sports season, Don Morrison, Kelly Jara and many other employees of the Harford Cable Network work to bring the best high school sport games to you through your television. Each week, a new game is on television for you to enjoy.
In 1993, Mr. Morrison was hired to be the Director of Public Information for the school system in charge of school publicity. He wanted to get the word out about how great the Harford County schools were, but he couldn’t find a good way to do so. He figured commentating sports would be a great way to do that. It began as an advertisement for the school system. He combined his efforts with Kelly Jara and the Harford Cable Network in order to form the Game of the Week. He retired 5 years ago from his job but by then HCN Game of the Week had become popular. Morrison continued to do it.
There is a long process that goes into filming the games. At the beginning of each sports season, the team gets together and decides what games they want covered. With the exception of cross country, they do their best to make sure that all sports are covered. They also make sure that they cover all 10 Harford County Public schools. In order to cover the most interesting games they make sure to cover schools that are rivals or that are competitive with one another.
Once the games are selected, they can prepare to cover the game. A week before game day, Morrison contacts the school and coaches to remind them that their game will be covered. He also gets rosters and anything else he needs in order to commentate the game.
On game day, a team of 6 employees, led by Jara, prepare the mobile production van and drive out to the game’s location. They arrive at the sports venue 2 hours early in order to set up the equipment and cameras that are used. The games are filmed and commentated by Morrison and are usually displayed on the Harford Cable Network a few days after they are filmed.
Mr. Morrison openly displayed his appreciation for the Bel Air coaches and how cooperative they are through the whole process. “Bel Air coaches are, without exception, great people, and not only are they interested in wins, but they are interested in the kids. I love being around them because they are very easy to work with,” said Morrison.
Morrison enjoys commentating basketball and baseball because he played both of those sports in high school. This year he especially looked forward to seeing the Aberdeen vs. North Harford football game. Morrison also stated that he enjoys covering Bel Air games and he has seen many good matches against Bel Air in the past. He enjoyed the football team under the coaching of Bruce Riley who is currently a counselor at our school. He shared with us his opinion on best Bel Air season he has seen over the years, “The Bel Air football team in 1994 had a very great season led by quarterback Tony Belcastro who was only 5’8’’ but had exceptional talent. Throughout the season they had many overtime games and last minute wins,” he said.
Morrison said he really appreciates high school athletes and all of the effort they put into what they do. “I love dealing with high school athletes because give so much and they put so much effort into what they do. They work all day in school, they practice and have games, go home and do homework and still must maintain good grades in order for eligibility to play.”
On Friday, Nov. 8th at 7:00 p.m., the Harford Cable Network will be coming to Bel Air to cover the Bel Air vs. Fallston football game. Be sure to come support your Bobcats on Friday at the game! If you can’t attend, tune in to the Harford Cable Network on November 11th at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm.