Column: How Southern Section football became must-see TV

Kevin Rooney, the football coach and athletic director at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, was on vacation in Lake Tahoe during the summer of 1997 when he received a call asking if he’d be willing to allow his team’s game against Bishop Alemany to be part of the first high school sports telecast by Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. I think I sacked Casey seven or nine times between three years.” It’s been 28 seasons of Southern Section TV games even though the channel names have changed so many times that it could be a sports category for $400 on “Jeopardy!” In the latest change, Bally Sports is now FanDuel Sports Network, the naming rights bought by an online gambling company, which is a major reason the contract with the Southern Section that ends in May probably won’t be renewed and will switch to Spectrum. Announcers, commentators and sideline reporters have included Jim Watson, John Jackson, Lindsey Soto, Chris McGee, Chris Rix and Petros Papadakis, who won a 2020 Emmy with former Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson for their introduction of a 2019 broadcast in which Papadakis played a sports-radio talk show host receiving a call from “Bruce in Santa Ana.” Rollinson asks, “Are you ready for high school football?” The person who started the package was John Hefner, now the executive producer of FanDuel Sports Network West and SoCal. The coolest thing was I’d see the same players in college and they’d go on to play pro ball and they’d remember me for hugging their mom.” Behind-the-scene happenings in putting on the weekly high school football game of the week via David Otta productions.