“Welcome, sports fans, to the first installment of Naperville Sports Weekly”. 19 years ago, under the soft glow of studio lights, then NCTV17 Sports Director Jeff Mahoney took to the airwaves, not only introducing a new program but also setting the stage for student-athletes to shine. “It was the thought that our community, Naperville, had a lot of wonderful high school athletes, and it was worth really diving in and showcasing them in a way that had never been done before,” said former Sports Director Will Armistead.
“Every athlete has a story to tell…”
When Naperville Sports Weekly kicked off in the fall of 2007, it broke the traditional broadcast mold. It wasn’t a spotlight reserved only for the best and brightest, but for all athletes with equal coverage and equal pride. “To make a compelling show for the entire community, we needed to go past the football field and the volleyball court in the basketball courts. Every athlete has a story to tell, and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t missing any of those stories, ” Armistead added.
Naperville parent Anju Khanna said, “I find that sports is very important in Naperville, and NCTV17 captures all the sports, not just one, whether you’re doing well or not well as a team, special moments for parents like us who get to see their kids on TV. How many parents get to say that?”
“Some of the greatest stories, you know, were of chess matches or wrestling or gymnastics. Not to exclude anybody, to include everyone,” Jeff Mahoney shared.
In the beginning, Building trust took legwork, but it wouldn’t take long before the show began to make a name for itself in the community. “In that first season and into the second season, it seemed like we really needed to introduce ourselves over and over and over: “Hi, I’m Will. I’m with NSW, and we’d love to cover, you know, this soccer match; we’d love to cover water polo.” After that first season, or two, we’d show up, and spectators and parents and players and coaches would say, ‘Hey, Naperville Sports Weekly is here’. And that’s something that helped us get excited for every event, in every match that we were covering,” said Armistead.
Seeing themselves on television was not only exciting for the student athletes, but also practical. Rachel Bostick, current girls soccer head coach at Metea Valley, said, “You were on TV as an athlete in high school, and I think that was really, really a cool thing, especially for someone who was trying to compete at a higher level, because then you had clips that you could send to coaches.”
A variety of sports coverage
Naperville resident Mike Crossett stated, “The ability to be interviewed at the high school level, that’s an opportunity that a lot of kids don’t get in a lot of other communities.” “You were pulling them for interviews so often that you almost became friends with them. Being able to talk to a player sometimes when they had the best experience, and sometimes when they may not have had the best experience. But knowing that I had that relationship with them, to be able to get them to talk on camera about their performance was really awesome,” said former NSW host Allie Kaleta.
Over the years, the NSW crew has captured nearly 40 different sports, serving as a living, breathing time capsule for young athletes in their prime. Principal of Waubonsie Valley High School, Jason Stipp, mentions how important the experience of playing sports is for student-athletes. “98% of our high school athletes will be done after high school. So this will be the last time that many students will compete and train at this intense level. This isn’t about just winning. This isn’t about playing at the next level. This is about making friends and creating memories that they’ll have forever.”
Those core memories started stacking up immediately with season one. “I had the good fortune of covering Naperville North football in 2007 in that very first fall season. And I covered a team that went on to win state in my first three months of working at the TV station. I didn’t realize it then, but after 5 years and 10 years, what I’ve come to realize is that that was probably my most memorable moment in covering high school sports,” Armistead said.
Long before Green Bay Packers’ Jaden Reed was catching touchdowns in the NFL, or Nicky Lopez was turning double plays in the MLB, or before Casey Kruer was defending on the international soccer pitch, NCTV17’s cameras were there getting the first glimpse of greatness.
In total, the show has highlighted 110 individual state champions and 67 championship teams. But behind every action-packed highlight was a skeleton crew, working long after the stadium lights went down.
“There were Friday nights where we would all get back at 11 p.m. and the energy would be so high in that room because of all the great competition that we got to see… so much work went into it. There was no sleep to be had on weekends during the fall, but that’s also one of the best parts of the job,” shared Kaleta.
All for the community
While sets have evolved, graphics have changed, and a number of hosts have stepped into the studio. The heart of Naperville Sports Weekly remains the same. That’s the commitment to giving local athletes their moment to shine on screen. Current Metea Valley student, Sushanth Shanmugam, expressed his thanks for the coverage from the crew: “We put in a lot of hard work into what we do at the high school level, and to be able to see NCTV17, coming out to cover us, I think they’re doing an amazing job, and I’m very thankful.”
“It’s really cool, I think when you see like the kids get excited when NCTV video cameras show up and they see the badge or you have the polo on like kids are like okay they’re coming to film our game,” Bostick added.
“These students are seeing their value. They’re recognized for what they do. I just want to say thank you,” said Brian Dunn, head coach of boys bowling at Naperville Central.
Armistead shares his gratitude in being part of the show’s history: “Knowing that the show is still running 20 years later makes me incredibly proud to have been a part of its inception in 2007. That just speaks to the passion that the community has for high school sports, and it speaks to the passion of those individuals who have had the honor of working on NSW across 20 very successful years.”
