Program celebrates one year
Daily LFSN show ‘Game On’ continues after 261 episodes on faith and sports
A long-anticipated vision became reality last year on Feb. 3, as the Liberty Flames Sports Network (LFSN) launched the first ever daily sports and faith show called “Game On.”
Reporting— LFSN is the leading sports network for the Flames. Photo credit: Courtney Russo
It started as a vision and an empty Sears building with only three staff members, but in six months, the building was turned into a state-of-the-art studio complete with offices and a team of anchors and reporters.
“It’s one big, 30-minute-a-day miracle,” Andy Freeman, “Game On” senior producer, said. “It’s truly a God thing, everything coming together.”
Dean of the School of Communication & Creative Arts Dr. Norman Mintle and Liberty Athletic Director Jeff Barber wanted to “communicate about sports and faith in a daily format” through the show, according to Freeman.
“In Christian and family TV, there are not a whole lot of sports,” Freeman said. “We wanted to put something up that had a national quality to it that felt, looked and competed with Fox Sports and ESPN. But the difference is, we wanted to be able to talk freely about our faith.”
In order to have a show, a production team is required, and Freeman is quite fond of how his team was put together. Freeman brought aboard three different anchors to host the show.
The first anchor, Matt Warner, came from an ABC affiliate in Springfield, Missouri, after seeing a job posting for a sports anchor at Liberty and thinking, “What the heck is that?”
Next came Clement Townsend from Mobile, Alabama, after receiving a Facebook message from Freeman that spawned from mutual “likes,” specifically gospel music.
“When you get a job inquiry by Facebook, you kind of hesitate but (Freeman and I) continued to talk,” Townsend said. “Matt and I both worked on local news, and faith is not talked about. It was an opportunity I just had to jump on.”
The final anchor, Lyndsay Keith, went to graduate school at Liberty University, but was working on the political scene when she was first contacted about “Game On.” Keith said that around the end of October, there was still no job, but they eventually made one available and she ended up joining the team.
“We got within a week or two of not having (Keith) with us, but God had other plans,” Freeman said.
The team aired its 261st episode Monday, Feb. 2, marking the one-year anniversary of the show, a feat that the production celebrated.
“It’ll be business as usual in some regards,” Freeman said before the episode released. “While we will celebrate and look at it, we’ll have little winks and smiles, but it won’t be the entire show celebrating ourselves.”
“Game On” has grown exponentially in its first year and hopes to continue to grow in the second.
“We don’t want to be ESPN, but we want to be at that level where Christian athletes know who we are and they can’t wait to do an interview with us,” Keith said. “We want to be the brand for Christian athletes to share their story.”
The plan for “Game On” is to grow to be more of a story-based show much like ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” a show about sports that focuses on the faith aspect.
“Athletes tell us they never get to talk about their faith,” Keith said. “There is nobody out there doing what ‘Game On’ is doing at this level. When people do find out about us, they’re just like, ‘Whoa.’”
The team of anchors and everyone involved in production for “Game on,” all share one common goal.
“We want to be the show as it pertains to sports and Jesus,” Townsend said. “If people watch ‘Game On,’ we want them to hear about Jesus and have their faith strengthened.”
Because “Game On” is on the Liberty Flames Sports Network, it offers opportunities for Liberty communication students to learn from on-the-job training.
“The vision of (the show) is to create opportunities where students are not only learning in the classroom but learning by doing,” Russ Martin, Executive Producer of Broadcast Communications at Liberty, said. “About 40 percent of the actual jobs that are done on a day-to-day basis are done by students.”
“Game On” can be watched locally on WTLU and nationwide on NRB, CTN and many other networks.
“We are inspiring culture through a unique integration of sports and faith,” Martin said. “‘Game On’ puts Liberty on a national level. We can use sports to talk about faith with people you normally couldn’t.”
SCHMIEG is a sports reporter.