High School Football: First-time prep football media event to be held at Blue Wahoos Stadium
Johnny Mayes founded Marketable Sports as a way to showcase Northwest Florida high school athletes.
The first big venture occurs Saturday at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Taking advantage of an open weekend at the ballpark, Mayes and longtime high school coach David Wilson have arranged the first Panhandle Football Media Day Show with 24 high school teams represented from Panama City to Pensacola. The event from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. is open to the public and will be broadcast on the stadium videoboard from the Hancock-Whitney Club level where a studio will be set up for live stream broadcast.
“I have watched over the years, just a tremendous amount of talent in this area,” said Mayes, a Gulf Breeze businessman. “There is so much more talent that is overlooked here and that is the whole idea of what we are doing at Marketable Sports.
“It is to shine a spotlight on these athletes here.”
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It is part of two events at the stadium Saturday. The Blue Wahoos are hosting a Community Movie Night at 7 p.m. Saturday featuring the Disney animation film, “Princess and the Frog.”
For the Panhandle Football Media Day, each team will have its head coach and a couple players to appear on a studio setup from the stadium’s Hancock-Whitney Club level, and local area media representatives then interviewing the teams following the live video stream appearances.
The broadcast will be in partnership with Varsity Sports Network, a statewide service which has a Panhandle channel on its site, www.varsitysportsnet.org as well as https://marketablesports.live.
“The idea really did start with those guys at Varsity Sports Network,” Mayes said. “They did two of these in central Florida last year and I thought it would be great to have one here. I took over production for the Panhandle channel at Varsity Sports at the beginning of this year and immediately started working on this. And honestly, we are going to do this concept for other sports, too. Definitely have plans for basketball and growing it from there.
Mayes, a Blue Wahoos season-ticket holder, immediately inquired about using the expansive space that Blue Wahoos Stadium can provide in renting a venue for the inaugural football event.
“The original thought was to do it somewhere in-between Pensacola and Panama City, but I knew for our first event like this we needed to make a good impression and there is no way we’ll get everyone unless we do something big like hosting it at Blue Wahoos Stadium. That is an attraction of itself.”
The first scheduled teams are the Fort Walton Beach Vikings at 9:30 a.m., followed by Crestview at 9:40. There will be 15 area teams from that point till 1 p.m. Gulf Breeze and Lynn Haven-Mosley from Panama City are the final two teams scheduled at 3:20 and 3:30.
“Tommy Jo Whiddon (Mosley head coach) was one of the first to sign up, so that says a lot for a Panama City school to want to travel here on Saturday to make this happen,” Mayes said. “There is so much overlap now in scheduling with our teams in Pensacola going to play there and Panama City teams coming here, so to be able to have them is really cool.”
The event will also feature the Pensacola division director of the Southeastern Sports Officials Association to speak about new rules changes this season in high school football and the need for new officials to join the association. Rick Fountain, a Pensacola High graduate and dean of the college of business at UWF, who wrote a book on PHS football will appear on the show to discuss area prep football history.
“Having grown up here, living here since 1973, this area runs deep for me,”: Mayes said. “That’s why I came back here to raise my family here. I love this area. I think you are starting to see more of these players realize that, hey, maybe the path is a D-2 (NCAA Division II) or a D-3 school, but I’m still playing football at the next level and getting an education and that’s really what it’s all about.”
Mayes said both Varsity Sports Network and Marketable Sports have channels available on Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.
WANT TO WATCH?
WHAT: Panhandle Football Media Day
WHEN: Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium
ADMISSION: Free
FORMAT: 24 area high school teams will have interviews broadcast on stadium videoboard and livestreamed.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Community Movie Night, “Princess And The Frog.”
ADMISSION: $5, gates open at 6 p.m. and movie begins at 7 p.m.
SEATING: Open seating in stadium bowl and seating permitted on the field at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Blankets permitted, but no food, beverage or strollers will be allowed on the field.
CONCESSIONS: Will be open for the movie night
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Panhandle football media event set for Saturday at Blue Wahoos Stadium
