The statewide volleyball tournament unfolded on the gym floor Friday, but for a team of kids from the Bering Strait School District, the real action was 25 feet in the air, on a second-story indoor track circling the room.
They hunched over mixing boards, edited video, uploaded sound bites and adjusted live feeds from cameras that filmed from each corner of the room. Occasionally, one dashed away, a digital camera in hand, to capture some special image for their Web site.
These tech-savvy, gadget-wielding kids are part of the Student Broadcast Team. Back home they produce weekly newscasts, do lifestyle stories and cover sporting events -- from regional tournaments to the Iditarod.
If a job involves a camera and a computer, they're all over it.
"Before I joined, I didn't know nothing about technology or computers," said Hunter Dill, 11, from Unalakleet. "Now I know how to do things the average person doesn't. I think that's pretty cool."
Besides having fun, these kids are learning. They write scripts and plan interviews, draft text for the teleprompters and master the range of super-techy toys that bring their ideas to digital life.
Most go to school in Unalakleet, a largely Native village of about 700, roughly 150 miles southeast of Nome. Students from outlying villages like Saint Michael, Stebbins, Savoonga, Wales, Brevig Mission and Golovin help too, submitting stories about their lives and towns.
A natural conclusion: A project like this surely helps kids in isolated rural villages feel more connected to the bigger world.
But the students see it the other way around: Rather than broadcasting as a way of getting out, they feel they're inviting people into their world.
A map on their Web site is covered with dozens of red dots, each representing viewers around the globe. The map was the idea of adviser Bill Bryson.
"Bill wanted us to see we have a real audience and people are watching, said Mia Concilus, 11. "We do like to do big news stories, but we try to do things that affect our district, our villages, our schools."
Mia got involved with the broadcasting club from the get-go, about two years ago. Her favorite story was on bird flu.
"I researched it for a long time, and it was really fun to meet the scientists," she said. "I learn a lot from this whole thing."
She scored a coup last year as the only journalist covering the Iditarod to get an interview with the first musher into Unalakleet, eventual winner Jeff King.
"We knew he was coming in, so we had a camera filming him," Mia said. "We let him rest and eat and stuff. Then I was like, 'I was wondering if we could have an interview for our broadcasting team?' And he said yes."
The NBC team had to hover behind the Bering Strait kids as Mia interviewed a "very nice, but tired" King. When she finished, King declined further interviews. Score one for the kids.
The students impress Bryson, the adviser. He always hoped the project would go global, and it has, he said.
Schools across Alaska and the country watch the team's weekly broadcasts and twice-daily Iditarod updates. Families in remote villages like Wales and Diomede say they wouldn't be able to see their children at district sports tournaments without the broadcasts.
"We've had e-mails from parents (stationed) overseas who were able to watch their kids play sports on the Web," Bryson said. "It's pretty amazing, watching these kids work."
Some of their efforts count as schoolwork. The students can get credit for educational requirements like writing, communications and social skills.
"And we learn other stuff, like how to use an audio mixer, and a video mixer, and how to work wire casts," said Jennie Katchatag, a Unalakleet 11-year-old. "We take turns doing everything so we can learn it all."
And they need little supervision. At Dimond High on Friday, Bryson basically stuck to the sidelines, typing away on his laptop, while the students ran the show.
"Anybody does anything," Hunter said. "Any position open, anyone fills it. It's cool for us because it's something new. And it's exciting because we're here in Anchorage because of broadcasting, and we're showing this tournament live to everyone in the world."
Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.
