The winning submission was a completely student-run broadcast of a Robert Morris University (RMU) Women’s Hockey game from last season.
RMU students were nominated alongside IUP and Marywood University in August and took home the trophy on Saturday night at the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Gala in downtown Pittsburgh. RMU was nominated for one of the collegiate award categories, with the rest being for professional news stations.
“We decided early in the year last school year that we wanted to submit one of our broadcasts for the Emmy, it was just a matter of finding a date that we could have an all-student broadcast, talent included,” sophomore Student Producer Zack Jones admits. “So really, even though we put on multiple shows a week, we only had one shot to get what we wanted since athletics typically wants pro talent for their hockey games.”
The student crew was made up of the following:
Zack Jones, Producer, ’26; Cameron Macariola, Replay, ’24; Cameron Wickline, Director/Technical Director, ’26; Nate Fanell, Graphics Operator, ’26, Maranda Kuzemka, Camera, ’24; Michael Deemer, Camera, ’25; Samantha Dutch, Camera, ’24; Nathan Kingston, Camera, ’25; Nick Huth, Camera, ’25; Sam Goldberg, Play-by-Play, ’24; Matt Simkovic, Color Commentator, ’24.
Zack Jones continued to sing the praises of the team, noting that every piece of the show was student-made.
“Nate Fanell built a package for us so absolutely everything on the broadcast was made or ran by a student. I truly can’t sing enough praises about Nate, we simply did not win without him and his incredible work. We were pretty confident we were going to win, we’re extremely proud of the shows we do and our submission was no different. even still, the win felt incredibly surreal and walking up to the stage while our submission played for everyone is certainly something I won’t forget anytime soon.”
Dylan McKenna, the Director EIC of the Live Sports Broadcast highlights his students saying,
“It goes without saying that I am so proud of the students that work so hard to bring RMU Athletics to thousands of viewers every weekend. Working in live sports production is a demanding job, especially at this level of college athletics. This is an incredible group that was recognized this past weekend for their hard work and dedication to the program and I can not wait to see what these students do next both at RMU and beyond.”
All of the members of the crew are excited to keep producing award-winning television through this season and hope to enter another submission this coming Spring for next year’s awards.
