Valparaiso’s JT Hoyo, a 2004 Portage High School graduate, has found his passion covering high school athletics as a videographer, broadcaster and public address announcer. Hoyo creates game highlight films for football and basketball and posts them to his Facebook page, Region Sportsdesk.
Hoyo started the project several years back when he and a friend began filming a weekly football show to preview the biggest local high school matchups. After one season of doing the shows, he expanded to filming and editing highlights.
“At the beginning of the 2010 football season, my friend and I went down to Rensselaer and did a season preview and from there I decided to put together videos from one of the better games each week,” Hoyo said. “When basketball season came around, I decided to give basketball a shot too. I put out my first basketball video and it easily had 500 views, so I knew it was something that could take off for me.”
After several years of filming, editing and posting game videos, Hoyo recently added recruiting videos to his repertoire. He puts together clips to help athletes obtain their goals of playing at the next level. He has made videos for many different athletes across the state, including several Valparaiso High School basketball players.
“I get people every week asking me if I will put something together for them,” Hoyo said.
In addition to his video work at Region Sportsdesk, Hoyo can be heard calling various sporting events with Mid America Broadcasting on sportsjuice.com. He was contacted by an MAB employee after posting his first football preview show.
“He got a hold of me, we came out to one of the weekly [sports talk] shows and I stuck around. I could see that the people know what they’re talking about and have a passion for it.”
Mid America Broadcasting’s crew includes Bob Potosky, Rich Sapper, Andy Wielgus and Hank Kilander, among others. They provide online broadcasts of high school football, volleyball, basketball, softball and baseball in addition to a weekly sports talk show on Wednesday nights in Crown Point and an online monthly magazine.
Last fall, MAB expanded to two crews covering football on Friday nights with Hoyo serving as the lead broadcaster for one of the games. He and Wielgus called several of the Indiana High School Athletic Association football state finals games.
“That was very, very exciting for me,” Hoyo said. “I’ve kind of always been a closet announcer, so to speak, so when I actually got the chance to get out there and do it, I jumped at the opportunity.”
There have been several instances where Hoyo combines the two entities, putting the audio from an MAB broadcast over a Region Sportsdesk video.
Hoyo proved that he was a jack of all trades last summer when he shifted from behind the camera to in front of it. He acted in an independent film called Basic Cable, which was shot in Crown Point. Hoyo held one of the lead roles as a character named Austin Peay.
“He was a very funny guy,” he said. “We’re landscapers and we’re also criminals, but we’re not very good criminals. It’s a full length feature film, it’s hilarious and I think it’s pretty good for an independent, amateur film. It was something that I did last summer; we filmed it in about two weeks and it was a lot of fun.”
Hoyo, who also serves as the public address announcer for Oregon-Davis girls basketball, enjoyed the change of pace of being in front of the camera rather than the microphone.
“It’s kind of just me getting my foot in the door and seeing what happens. It was just something that a couple of my friends put together and wanted me to be a part of.”
Over 4500 people are friends with Hoyo’s Region Sportsdesk page on Facebook. Join them to check out his recruiting videos or see them on Youtube by checking on the Region Sportsdesk page. More information on Mid America Broadcasting can be found by visiting midamericabroadcasting.com or liking their page on Facebook.