“I Thought It’d Be Five People… Now It’s Fifty.” How One Student Scaled a Broadcast Program

Blair Cartwright

Hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of Talking Preps. I’m pleased to be joined by Brendan Flatow, who is our 2025 Mascot Media Broadcast MVP. First off, welcome. Second, congratulations. From Springside Hill Chestnut Academy just outside Philadelphia, Brendan—welcome to Talking Preps.

Brendan Flatow

Thank you for having me on.

Blair Cartwright

You bet, and congratulations. Well, let’s just go ahead and show the reaction video. This was the video from our Broadcast Awards where we announced the MVP, and this is what it looked like in Brendan’s classroom.

Blair Cartwright

You had no idea that was coming, did you?

Brendan Flatow

Not really, no. I wasn’t really expecting it, but we were in class—there were only six people in the class that was in there—and all my friends came to watch it, and their teachers let them out of class. So it was pretty cool that they were able to be there.

Blair Cartwright

That’s very nice. Now, you started GameTime Sports on your own to stream your school sports. How did that come about? How did you get the idea to start it?

Brendan Flatow

So, I was always really interested in broadcasting—especially sports broadcasting—because I’m a big Phillies fan and follow all the Philly sports teams. I would always watch those broadcasts. I got really interested in it.

And then during COVID, people couldn’t go to the local town games. So I would go, and I would bring my phone and a tripod. I set up an Instagram account, and I would Instagram livestream the games so that people could watch them because they couldn’t go. So that’s how I got started with it.

Then, my sophomore year, we have this program called the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at our school. You get a capstone project in 10th grade and you can develop whatever you want. Some people do nonprofits, some people make music, some people start a business.

I decided to go and start a broadcasting program at our school, since unless you were at the games, there really wasn’t a way to watch them. And sports are a pretty big thing at our school—we have a lot of success with them. So I figured it would be really good if people could watch the games, and thought it would be fun for people to be able to get on the broadcasting side of it as well.

Blair Cartwright

How was the initial response, and what was your biggest challenge in getting started? How did you overcome that challenge?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, so the response when I started was pretty good. Everybody was pretty excited that they were going to be able to watch the games from outside the school. But I think the biggest challenge was—since this hadn’t been a thing before—these fields and gyms weren’t really set up for it.

One thing I was running into was I didn’t have Wi-Fi outside, and inside there wasn’t a good place to set up a broadcast booth. So I worked with the athletic department and the tech department at our school, and they installed—actually right behind me—an Ethernet place where I could plug in. We run 300-foot cords to each one of the fields, so we can run our broadcast from all the outdoor fields.

Then indoors, we set up a broadcast booth in each one of our gyms, and for the indoor fields they have Hudl cameras, so we can tap into those as well as our cameras that we set up.

 

Blair Cartwright

Now, this is quite an operation you undertook. At what point did you realize, “Hey, I can’t do this all by myself—I need some help”? And how did you go about getting help to do it?

Brendan Flatow

I knew very early on that it was gonna be difficult to do by myself. So I started recruiting people who I thought would. I started by recruiting my friends, actually. And some of them were interested in it, some of them not as much.

So, I started going through the whole school. We do these assemblies every Monday morning, and I stood up in front of the assemblies and said, “If you want to join our team, you can join it.” We have a sports credit requirement, so everybody at their school is required to get two credits.

It doesn’t have to be sports, but it can be—so people can now get a credit for this. That was a big thing drawing them toward this. Because before, it was, “Yeah, I want to do that, but I also have to play this sport to fulfill my requirements.” And now that we can do that, it’s big for getting people to join the team.

But I mean, it’s very difficult, especially since we broadcast every home varsity game, and we have a varsity team for every sport that exists at this school. So it’s a lot of games.

Blair Cartwright

Man, how many? How many games—like this past year—how many games did you broadcast and how many hours? Because it’s not just showing up and turning it on. I mean, there’s a lot more that goes into it. How much time did you put into each broadcast?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, it’s a lot. So I think even the ones that I wasn’t calling, I was helping the people who were on my team—because not everybody knows how to do all the research. I’ve learned some tricks as I’ve continued to do it.

So I was helping with even the games I wasn’t calling. I’d say for each broadcast, I probably put in about three hours of prep work. And that’s not including making the game day graphics or the hype videos or anything like that.

In addition to basketball, I also ran all the in-arena stuff. So I was playing the music, managing the video board, and all that stuff. There was a lot of prep that went into each one of those broadcasts.

I’d say this past year we’ve probably done over 100 games. The year before, we did a little bit less than that, but we still got some good coverage. And now state playoffs are rolling around for our spring teams.

Blair Cartwright

Nice. Now, you also sold advertising to help get equipment. How big a challenge was that? I mean, I imagine it’s hard enough just recruiting people to do it, and then on top of that, selling advertising to get equipment. Talk about that process, what that was like, and what you learned from it.

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, I learned a lot from that process. But I think one of the things that worked best for me was actually going and talking to people in person, because I did not have much success early on trying to sell the advertisements when it was just me emailing them. They were probably thinking, “Who is this guy, and what is he talking about?”

In Chestnut Hill, where our school is based, we have a really cool town and a lot of stores on Main Street—or “the Avenue,” as we call it.

In Chestnut Hill, where our school is based, we have a really cool town and a lot of stores on Main Street—or “the Avenue,” as we call it. So I would walk down, I would go in all the stores. I would bring all the data that we have, because I feel like the numbers kind of spoke more to those people. They see me and they’re like, “Oh, this is a high school kid—this is pretty good, this is pretty cool what he’s doing. But what’s the benefit to me?”

But if I show them the numbers and the amount of people who are watching—and the amount of people who are watching that live in this area—it’s a lot more effective to try to get them to purchase the advertisement.

So I would go in, and usually I would bring one person with me every time. I would pitch GameTime Sports—what we do, why it would benefit them—and we were able to get a lot of local businesses to hop on board.

Blair Cartwright

This is impressive. How did you find time to do all this? I mean, this was a massive undertaking.

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, it was. And I’m not really sure how I found time. A lot of it came late at night after I did my homework, because I still had to go to school. And then I’m also playing on the baseball team, so I had to give time to working out for baseball.

So I kind of structured my days. On the days where I didn’t have a broadcast, I would go to the gym, do my workout for baseball, then I would go home, do my homework real quick, and then spend a couple of hours prepping.

Blair Cartwright

Did you have any idea it would turn into this when you started this? I mean, I know you had big expectations, but this has got to be beyond what you expected, right?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. I think it really has, honestly. I thought that it was just going to be a streaming service for people to be able to watch games—for players to go back and rewatch their games and kind of relive it.

I mean, I think—because I’m on the baseball team, so I have my games broadcasted—I think it’s pretty cool when you hear your name, or when you get a hit, and then you can go back and listen to what the announcer’s reaction was.

So I kind of felt like it was just gonna be popular with the students and the students’ parents and grandparents, because they were able to watch the games from home. But I wasn’t expecting it to get any recognition beyond that. And it’s become a fairly big thing at the school—a lot of people know about it, and a lot of people want to join our team.

I was not expecting that. I was expecting it to be maybe a team of five people, not fifty.

Blair Cartwright

Fifty, that is amazing. And then you go out, you’re selling advertising, buying equipment. I would imagine that was very hard in the beginning, but now you’re a pro. Did you have any idea that it was going to evolve into that? And what did you learn from doing that?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, I learned a lot. When I started this, I had an idea that I wanted to do it, and I knew nothing about the technology or anything.

So during my capstone project, I had a teacher named Mr. BW. He’s the video production and songwriting teacher at our school, but he knows a lot about this kind of stuff. He was able to teach me a lot and help me figure out what equipment I needed, how to use it, and all that. So he was really helpful with getting it started.

Then I learned a lot more about broadcasting. I interviewed a few experts. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Dave Sims—he does radio for the Yankees now. I got to interview him because he actually went to my school. He came and visited with our baseball team, and I got to talk to him after he talked to our  team, so that was pretty cool. That was pretty cool. And then a local radio host, Joe DeCamara—I got to interview him as well and kind of pick his brain about broadcasting stuff. So I was able to learn a lot from those.

Blair Cartwright

Wow, that’s impressive. Now, you mentioned you play baseball. How’s the season gone for you so far this year?

 

 

Brendan Flatow

This season’s going fine. I hurt my knee during the middle part of the season, and I was able to come back pretty recently. Now we’re in our state playoffs. We have our first state playoff game today, so hoping to get the win. We have a tough team coming in, but it’s a home game, so we’re expecting a big crowd to wipe out. So it’ll be pretty cool.

Blair Cartwright

And since it’s a home game, you’ll be able to broadcast? Or do the playoff regulations prevent that from happening?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, no. We will be able to broadcast. We’ve actually gotten a lot of—like, a lot of teams in our league know about us and know what we’re doing.

Our girls’ soccer team made it to the state championship this fall, and we actually got to broadcast that game. So that was pretty cool. But yeah, all the home games going into the playoffs—they let us broadcast them.

Blair Cartwright

Awesome. All right, so this is your senior year. What’s next for you? Is broadcasting part of the plan?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. So I’m going to go to Duquesne University next fall in Pittsburgh. When I was up visiting there, I got to talk to some of the people who work in their broadcasting department at the school, and I’m pretty excited for the opportunities that I’m going to be able to have there.

We were talking about maybe doing something with a TV show and then trying to work in broadcasting some of the sports they have at Duquesne. I’m really excited. I really like the school, and the people were great when I visited.

 

 

Blair Cartwright

Awesome. Now what is the ultimate goal? Do you have one—what you would ultimately like to do when you get out of college with the degree?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. I think ultimately, my goal would be to broadcast baseball, because baseball’s kind of my sport. I love baseball. I’m like a baseball nerd.

I think broadcasting baseball would be really cool—and maybe one day make it into professional baseball. But honestly, I think any sport that I would have the opportunity to broadcast professionally, I would take. Or maybe I’ll really like the TV show thing and get into that as well.

Blair Cartwright

Well, that’s good. Keep your options open. No reason why you can’t do it all. Any thoughts of maybe one day running a network like Fox or ESPN?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, maybe. If that opportunity presents itself, I think that would be pretty cool. That would definitely be a big goal.

I’m also pretty interested in sports journalism. I write for the newspaper at SCH, so maybe I’m going to do some classes related to that in college too. Maybe I’ll get involved in that as well.

Blair Cartwright

Nice. So what advice would you have for someone out there who’s watching this? Just thinking, man. You know, I kind of would like to get into sports casting or broadcasting in general. What? What would you tell them to do?

Brendan Flatow

I actually get asked this question a lot, I feel like, by a lot of people around school.

I would say: find—there’s gotta be something somewhere, or someone somewhere, who will help you with this. Find that person. Find some student. And if you have a passion for it, don’t give up on it. It might take a while. I mean, it took me almost a full year to get this started. But if you stick with it and you keep doing it, you’ll get to where you want to be. There are places to broadcast high school sports. You just gotta find them.

Blair Cartwright

As you’ve gone through this process, what have you learned about yourself—leadership, just the various lessons you’ve learned in doing this?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. I think one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is how to run a team.

When it was just five people, I knew how to run a team of five people. But fifty people started to get a little bit difficult. I had a lot of people helping me with it, and I think I’ve gotten pretty good at leading.

It’s kind of translated to baseball a little bit—I try to be a leader there as well. I probably wasn’t the best leader when I started this, but I think I’ve grown a lot as a leader.

I was pretty shy when I started GameTime Sports .and I’m not really anymore. So I feel like it kind of helped bring me out of my comfort zone.

Before I started GameTime Sports, there was no way I was speaking in assembly in front of the whole school. But now—I’m done with school now—I was doing that pretty routinely. So I think it kind of brought me out of my comfort zone. I think that’s good as well.

Blair Cartwright

And now what happens with GameTime Sports as you move on to Pittsburgh? I would assume you’re leaving it in good hands—and boy, they’ve got some big shoes to fill.

 

 

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. So the plan for GameTime Sports is going to be like—so we do it at SCH, but also people can hire us to broadcast in the local area. We partner with a summer club baseball team and go to some of their tournaments, so I’m going to continue doing that with the team.

I’m also going to do some stuff from Pittsburgh—maybe a TV show and air it on the GameTime Sports YouTube channel.

At school, we have a system with a President and Lead Broadcasters who run the team, and then we have all the broadcasters who just get assigned a game and go do it. We have a team of five people who are going to lead it—three seniors, a junior, and a sophomore—so I think it’s in good hands.

They’ve kind of been running it this spring because I obviously haven’t been able to broadcast baseball. They’ve been doing really well this spring, so I’m confident they’ll be able to carry it over into next year.

Blair Cartwright

Dynamite. And you mentioned your YouTube channel—what’s the name of the channel so people can check it out and watch the baseball this summer?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. Our YouTube channel is @gametime.sports, and that’s the same handle for our Instagram page.

If you want to know when we’re broadcasting and how to get the link for it, our Instagram page is definitely the way to go. We post the link on there every day, and whenever we post a YouTube video, we also put it on our Instagram story.

You’ll never miss a video if you’re following us on Instagram.

 

Blair Cartwright

I mean, you’ve really embraced the technology. What’s the biggest challenge in doing all this?

Brendan Flatow

I think the biggest challenge is that it doesn’t always work. I mean, the amount of technical difficulties that we have—it’s a good thing too, because I’m learning a lot more. Every time the technology doesn’t work, I have to learn how to fix it. So I’m learning a lot more.

Like, my friend was having computer troubles the other day—it wasn’t even broadcast related—and I looked at it and was like, “Oh yeah, this is what’s wrong.” But if you asked me two years ago, I would have had no idea.

Blair Cartwright

So now I would imagine you’re the guy everybody turns to when there’s a technical issue?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah.

Blair Cartwright

Which can be good and bad, right?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah. On that baseball pack, as my phone starts ringing, they’re saying their laptop won’t turn on. I’m like, “I don’t know about that.”

Blair Cartwright

Well, congratulations again. Fantastic job. What you’ve done is amazing, and you did all this—I mean, it was on your own. This was not part of a class. And the community really embraced it. How important was the community support in getting this going? Because this doesn’t take off if people don’t get involved, right?

Brendan Flatow

Yeah, I mean, it’s huge. If we don’t have viewers, then we don’t have a broadcast. The community really embraced it. I think the sports community here being so strong has really helped. I mean, at our school, sports are a huge thing. But also in the community—in the Philadelphia area—sports are huge. Everybody plays sports.

So just having the whole community, everybody wanting to be in sports, and then them looking at what we’re doing and recognizing that we’re doing a good job and wanting to tune in—I think it’s really been important for our success.

Blair Cartwright

Awesome. Well, continued success and best of luck to the rest of your broadcast crew. I’m sure we will hear from you again, and we look forward to it. Congratulations and thank you once again for taking the time to visit with us today.

Brendan Flatow

Thank you. Thank you for having me on today.

Blair Cartwright

You bet. Congratulations.