HSSN offers expanded high school sports coverage (2024)

What started as a way to get a boost for high school football coverage has turned into the industry’s best.
The TribLIVE High School Sports Network has changed and grown in the more than two decades since it began covering high school sports in Western Pa.
The network began in 1997 as the Scholastic Sports Network when broadcaster Alex Panormious turned to the World Wide Web to enhance his coverage of North Hills High School football on a small radio station.
The station signal was not a strong one, and streaming the games online would expand the audience to unlimited proportions.
A few years later, internet provider Nauticom decided to form a broadcast network focusing on high school sports. The Nauticom Sports Network was born.
An effort to spread the network nationally did not work out, and Nauticom sold the network to Management Science Associates in early 2000.
The MSA Sports Network grew from a handful of radio stations to more than 20 throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania with original content and broadcasts also streamed online.
While the network thrived on the broadcast side, the website content had schedules, scores and standings but little original written content.
In summer 2017, Management Science Associates decided it wanted to partner or help find a new home for the sports network.
Trib Total Media was interested and made a move to bring the network under its umbrella.
"When MSA announced they were selling the network, we appreciated their rich history spanning 20 years in the high school sports market,” Trib Total Media and 535 Media President and CEO Jennifer Bertetto said. “They were a known and highly respected brand. Since 2015, Trib Total Media has been focused on rebranding our company as a local news source, and we felt an acquisition of the MSA Network would solidify our position with hyper local high school sports fans.”
The sale was finalized Oct. 5, 2017, and the TribLIVE High School Sports Network was born.
“We recognized the opportunity to marry our excellent high school sports coverage in print and online along with the broadcast elements present in MSA,” Bertetto said. “We knew this combination would give us, hands down, the most robust sports package in Western Pennsylvania.”
The network continued its coverage of high school sports in the WPIAL and District 6 with 18 radio stations and six schools or networks that stream broadcasts at TribHSSN.TribLive.com.
The biggest change in the network’s coverage as Trib HSSN is the expanded and improved video coverage of regular-season, postseason and championship events, with state-of-the-art technology.
"Our commitment is to bring the audience the most immediate and engaging coverage of high school sports,” TribLIVE HSSN general manager Justin LaBar said. “That commitment centers on our quality and volume of live video broadcasts.”
The network continues to have exclusive audio and streaming rights to WPIAL playoff and championship events.
For years, the sports network has streamed every WPIAL football and boys and girls basketball playoff game. This prompted WPIAL basketball steering committee member Dan O’Neil to say; “We have one of the biggest and most successful district basketball tournaments in the country, and a large part of that success goes to great coverage the network has provided over the years."
However, it’s not just the football and basketball players who get to be part of the Trib HSSN spotlight.
In the year and a half since TribLIVE HSSN launched, the WPIAL soccer, volleyball, swimming, diving, wrestling, hockey, lacrosse and baseball finals have had championship events streamed live and archived.
“The growth of the network since being purchased by Trib Total Media is astronomical,” LaBar said. “The total audience numbers MSA Sports Network would get for an entire year is often the amount of traffic we’re now getting for just one month.”
Speaking of growth, part of the rebranding and the new website has been the written content. Whereas the old network struggled with game stories and features, Trib HSSN is averaging about 180 stories each week in fresh content, according to Trib Total Media executive sports editor Kevin Smith.
The improvements and commitment to an already strong product have led to many happy sports fans and a happy partnership with the WPIAL.
“The WPIAL is very grateful for the partnership that we enjoy with TribLIVE High School Sports Network,” said WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley. “This partnership has provided extensive exposure for the student-athletes that have accepted the challenge of interscholastic athletics. From print coverage, audio broadcasts and now live video streaming, everyone interested in high school athletics have a first-class venue to keep up with their favorite teams.”

mediaRack is a digital content provider owned by 535media.

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