The tense moment of opportunity not only came for 11 blue-and-gold-clad Marquette University High School Hilltoppers on a football field and for their anxious
Marquette University High School students Colin Cahill, Raleigh Bilansky and Ben Lyles-Schwarz, from left, work a Hilltopper Media Collective soccer broadcast. The student-led program gives students hands-on media experience while developing leadership, teamwork and confidence. (Submitted photo)
teammates on the sidelines.
It showed up in and through the voice of Ben Lyles-Schwarz, and the hard work of more than a half-dozen other MUHS students producing the Hilltoppers’ Aug. 28 game against Kenosha Bradford.
“Snap, hold, kick! It is good! Marquette wins it!” an exhausted Lyles-Schwarz joyfully exclaimed live on YouTube to cap a 31-30 win and the Hilltopper Media Collective’s 3 1/2-hour broadcast from Hart Park in Wauwatosa.
It was one example of the growth and teamwork fostered by the student-led, faculty-advised Hilltopper Media Collective since a chance conversation in spring 2024.
“Ronnie [Decker, another MUHS student] and I were recording a podcast in a library study room,” Lyles-Schwarz said. “‘Raph’ [Sean Raffaelli, MUHS faculty] comes in the room and hears us talking about sports, and he said, ‘There’s a broadcasting group forming.’ He didn’t really know either of us at the time.”
Tom Mussoline, who runs the MUHS Broadcasting Homeroom that launched the collective, said they weren’t planning to begin broadcasts until winter 2024-25. Then Marquette High hosted the 2024 Jesuit Soccer Classic, involving fellow Jesuit schools from Denver, Kansas City and Washington, D.C.
“We probably weren’t ready,” Mussoline said. “But we figured it out in the crunch time and we got it going, and it was a great broadcast.”
“Not every moment of every broadcast is great. Students make mistakes, and technology creates anxious moments.
“Our scoreboard program [for the broadcast] has been very reliable. It worked on the first two broadcasts this year. We tested it out a bunch during the summer. Our producer Rowen [Clarke] goes to load [it], and it just doesn’t work. We’re going in circles, restarting the computer,” Mussoline said.
“Sometimes, the simplest fixes are the best. It was just switching from ethernet to straight-up Wi-Fi and it worked.”
Student broadcasters face a different dynamic than their professional counterparts. If a classmate makes a mistake on the field, pitch, court or ice, they have to report it. Yet the broadcasts also give them a chance to build relationships with student-athletes.
Lyles-Schwarz experienced that with MUHS football quarterback and baseball pitcher Ben Schroeder, who delivered 316 passing yards and five touchdown throws in Marquette’s 69-45 win over Kettle Moraine High School on Sept. 4.
“I sat next to him last year in physics, [and] he’s in my Spanish class this year,” Lyles-Schwarz said.
“He’s not only just a great guy to talk to, he’s just a phenomenal overall human being. He’s also one of my associates for ‘intel’ on the team. I gave him a fist bump before we went out for the [game]. I’m like, ‘Get the win tonight.’ That connection is so cool.”
Some of the collective’s greatest growth happens away from the broadcasts, as students learn leadership, gain perspective and grow into young men.
“Just to see the growth of all the guys. I think of guys like Rowen and [graphics designer] Matthew Ray who, when coming in, they were kind of timid, shy guys… but they’ve broken out of their shells,” said Decker, Hilltopper Media Collective’s executive director.
“Being able to give people a place to express themselves and to grow out of their shell, that’s been something that I’ve tried to make a priority in my side of the homeroom. Making sure that I’m caring for the whole person and not just caring about what they can do for the homeroom.”
“I haven’t learned how to be a good broadcaster. I’ve learned how to be a good leader, being able to make good decisions,” Lyles-Schwarz said.
“Broadcasting comes secondary to me in this whole thing and being able to make decisions. We don’t always agree on everything. We’re learning that is totally OK, [and] it’s better for the program to have distinct points of view.”
The media collective, by design, is more than a sports platform. Mussoline and Raffaelli hope to give students experience covering other events and academic programs while showcasing the breadth of life at Marquette High.
“I’d love for us to focus a little bit more on other things besides sports. My dream for broadcasting is to get it into the curriculum at some point and start a course,” said Mussoline.
“We’ve been asked to do a lot of filming for things around school, be it assemblies, theater productions. It gets really hard to get people to do all that kind of stuff on short notice. I would love for us to be able to say, ‘Yes, let’s do this at [the] drop of a hat.”
The students and faculty advisors agree the Hilltopper Media Collective is helping develop men for others for the greater glory of God — from inside a broadcast booth.
“What we’re doing isn’t just good for us,” said Lyles-Schwarz. “It’s greater for the Marquette High community seeing our reach just continue to extend. It’s just so cool.”
