BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today we continue the 2020-21 season of Samford Sports Wrap Up, Presented by Alabama Power, a series highlighting Samford's coaches and staff throughout the academic year. Today's ninth edition will feature Director of Video and Broadcast Services Jonathan McAfoos, being interviewed by football player Robert Burke.
 
McAfoos has been at Samford for five years, and he is in charge of all athletic broadcasts. He talked about his background prior to coming to Samford.
 
"I've really been in sports media since I was 18 or 19 years old," McAfoos said. "I'm from western Pennsylvania and went to a small Division III liberal arts school just outside of Pittsburgh called Westminster College. I studied broadcast communications, they've got a really great broadcast program. I got a lot of experience there, both on camera and behind the camera. I did a lot of play-by-play in the athletic department. I did a lot of making packages, directing and things of that nature behind the camera.


 
"I got a lot of great experience, and I did journalism and writing and reporting for a little while," McAfoos said. "And then I started working in minor league baseball for a couple of years, because I wanted to be more in the video side. I was the production assistant for a team in Iowa, an affiliate of the Houston Astros, which was an amazing experience. I got to do postgame interviews after every game. I did our pregame show every home game, I did all of our video pieces, all of our commercials and promotional items. And then I came here to work for the Birmingham Barons during the 2015 season. Then right as I was ending that year, an opportunity came up to come to Samford."
 
McAfoos started at Samford in later summer of 2015. He said he was attracted to coming to Samford because he saw an opportunity for growth in the department.
 
"I was kind of torn between staying with the Barons or coming to Samford, but ultimately Samford was really appealing because it was an opportunity to kind of come in and build something from the ground up," McAfoos said. "There wasn't really a focus on TV production. We had radio and I think the SoCon Digital Network had been around for one year and then prior to that they had done Samford Sports TV, but there really wasn't a focus on TV production and the SoCon contract with ESPN had just started."
 
McAfoos said the first year he was here was trying, but he is proud of what he and his staff of students have built since that time.
 
"I got hired 11 days before our first ESPN production," McAfoos said. "That first year was kind of like just treading water and trying to get the games on the air, which we did, but we've come such a long way since then. We've grown our broadcast department a lot over the last few years. We've taken some big steps every year, so I'm looking forward to the next couple of years as well, continuing to grow, but it's been a great experience so far. I'm really happy that I ended up here and just kind of walked into a great situation."
 
McAfoos elaborated on his day-to-day duties in the athletics department.
 
"Really it's overseeing all aspects of our live production," McAfoos said. "I do things, obviously like this, all of our coaches' shows, our student-athlete shows, anything video-wise that's kind of package style or interview based. And then, obviously all of our live productions, so anything that is on our ESPN platforms, and in the past, the SoCon Digital Network, although we've kind of phased that out of our production lineup.
 
"It's really overseeing all aspects of live production, and that includes hiring, managing, training all of our student workers, all of our contracted workers, so our on-air broadcast talent, working with our play-by-play guys, color guys, sideline reporters and all of that," McAfoos said. "It stays busy because once we get going we have events every day and this year it's going to be probably multiple events every day once we get going."
 
McAfoos said that although his department has grown tremendously over the last five years, he wants to see it continue to grow as time goes on.
 
"We want to improve every year," McAfoos said. "And I think we've come a long way in that regard. Really when I started we pretty much just had two cameras, and we were borrowing cameras from UAB and the Birmingham Barons and the JMC Department just to be able to put an ESPN product on the air that first year. Now we've got two full control set ups. So, we've come a long way, but we want to continue to grow."
 
McAfoos also said the student and contact worker staff he works with is the most important thing in making their broadcasts as high-quality as they can be.
 
"It's all about the people and what they bring," McAfoos said. "We couldn't do what we do without everybody pulling on the same rope. I'm probably most proud of the culture we've created in the broadcast department, because I think everyone has a really good time together, and then when it's time to go, everyone takes their job very seriously. I think that's what led us to having such a good, high quality product on the air every night."