Sports Show a Golden Opportunity for Local Teens

Like many die-hard sports fans, Noah Brown and Jake Sobiech watch football games religiously, track the statistics of players and teams and argue over sports trivia with their friends.

But unlike your average sports nuts, the two travel once a week to the Eagan-TV television studios on the Thomson Reuters campus, where they and a small army of friends write, produce and film their own weekly sports show—"Offside Sports".

Sobiech, a 15-year-old Eastview High School student from Eagan, came up with the idea for a sports show after volunteering to help Eagan-TV record the annual students vs. staff basketball game.

While he was still a middle school student, Sobiech took several camera, video editing and studio classes at Eagan-TV, where he met Danny Debner, an student one of the show's current regular volunteers. Sobiech also recruited Brown, a fellow football aficionado he met and became friends with in sixth grade.

Each Tuesday, Sobiech, Brown and a rotating cast of volunteers meet at 5 p.m. at the studios. Once they've arrived, the group sets up the studio and preps the tech room, then spends time brainstorming discussion topics for the 30-minute-long show.

The show—part commentary and part analysis, with a bit of goofiness thrown in—airs daily on Channel 15 in Eagan. Brown estimates that they've filmed more than 40 episodes since the show's debut late in 2010.

“It's just fun, I’m able to talk about sports, which I love, and analyze the game," said Nick Brown, Noah's 16-year-old brother and a regular volunteer on the show.

But the friendly conversations and sports banter are just one facet of the experience for the show's crew. Several of Offside Sports' volunteer staff, including Eastview freshman Mason Donnohue, say the show has given them vital, hands-on experience film and production experience.

Donnohue, an amateur film-maker, does much of the technical, behind-the-camera work for the show, and said he eventually wants to pursue a career as a movie director.

"It’s a really fun thing to do and having to do it on a regular basis gives us more of a chance evolve in this sort thing and get better at it," Brown said. "I just love being able to talk about sports, and sports have really become a huge part of my life over the last few years."

To view an episode of "Offside Sports," visit the show's Facebook page.