Wrestling regionals will now be livestreamed on YouTube for friends and families to watch

In the past, the Delta High School wrestling team has not had a modern advantage with technology. Most times, this sport is sent off to the cyber sidelines and rarely discussed online, although previous student Nicole Koch was celebrated heavily in women’s wrestling, as well as some male wrestlers, by a plaque in the cafetorium.

But have you ever seen wrestling scores on MaxPreps or been able to watch a match from home, much like you can do in football and basketball tournaments? That is about to change.

In the form of the personalized QR code, a system that acts as an everyday barcode that one can scan with their smartphone, the regional wrestling tournament will be livestreamed on YouTube. The account belongs to Gunnison’s wrestling team.

This wrestling tournament is being hosted by Gunnison, a town tarnished by COVID-19 since March 2020, in Western Colorado University’s Paul Wright Gymnasium.

Jeremy McCormick, the athletic director of DHS, had sent this code to those that the tournament directly affects, including teachers and coaches. Historically, this is the first time that the Western region 3A bracket of high school wrestling has had a regional tournament live streamed.

“[The livestream] is a choice that the host school makes,” said McCormick. “It’s probably for COVID purposes.”

There is a system in Delta High School that records all sports games, including wrestling, and is available on a high school sports broadcasting network. “Here, we have used NFHS,” said McCormick.

NFHS (National Federation of High Schools) hosts a network for high school sports across the nation, and they offer a program that lets schools buy two of their gimble-esque Pixollot, a sort of tracking camera, to use for sports livestreams. The network hosts Delta High School’s diverse sports broadcasts and the camera provided by the company has the tracking feature.

“It sort of follows them around, [and since] it’s a big room you wouldn’t know what’s going on,” said McCormick.

Regardless of DHS’ own camera and broadcasting system, which some may argue is quite impressive, Gunnison has a livestream for a tournament that may have a standing camera, in which the view does not pan with movement. Families can watch the action and live results of the tournament by using the QR code that the school provided in their social media.

Multiple schools will participate at this meet including Alamosa, Pagosa Springs, Gunnison, Grand Valley and five others. The tournament will be held on Friday, February 11th and Saturday, February 12th (today and tomorrow) at 3:00 PM and 9:00 AM, respectively.