Creek County’s largest locally-produced news outlet is partnering up with Kellyville’s KVRising.com to simulcast a number of Kellyville sports games on SapulpaTimes.com
KVRising.com has begun making waves in Green Country as owner Robby Jones has turned a hobby into a passion for the good of what he calls “The Pony Nation.”
Though online broadcasting for high school sports is becoming more and more common, few people expected such a luxury to come to a school like Kellyville. The district reportedly covers the most amount of land in the state, but remains a 3A school in student body size, though they do play sports at several different classes, depending on participation.
In addition to simulcasting the games, KVRising.com has agreed to write stories for Sapulpa Times that would recap the games, as well as the occasional human interest story—that may or may not be sports-related.
Jones says that the parents and fans of the Pony Nation have been really supportive, if not surprised. When one potential investor found out that Jones was still needing funds to purchase the equipment, he single-handedly covered the remaining costs himself.
According to Jones, the man saw the opportunity right in front of him. “He just told me, ‘you need to go get your equipment. You’re about to have the biggest opportunity you’ve had in years, and you’re going to miss it,’” Jones said. “So I took his money and went and got our equipment. Donations and the business community is what will continue to drive this for years to come.”
That “opportunity” that the man was referring to is likely the Lady Ponies Slow Pitch Softball team, which just won the regional championship, and is headed to the state championship on Wednesday.
In addition to Softball, Jones says they’re going to work hard to cover as many different events as they can, including football, cheerleading, baseball, basketball and track. Jones says they want to focus on away games and “games that start before 5:00pm” so that parents who can’t be there to see the game can still watch it online.
Aside from covering the games, KVRising.com will also be doing interviews with players and coaches. In the future, they hope to be able to cover even more events, like FFA, Band and possibly Junior High and Elementary-level sports.
Micah Choquette, owner of Sapulpa Times, says that partnering up with Jones makes sense because “he’s doing what we’re doing.”
“Robby and his team at KVRising.com are on the same wavelength as Sapulpa Times—we’re both about just telling good stories about the town we live in. We’re just really excited that Sapulpa Times is going to get the opportunity to share those stories with a greater audience, and bring more attention to the great players that are coming out of this school.”
Kellyville coverage from KVRising.com is expected to start at some point in the next few weeks. Stay tuned to Sapulpa Times for more updates.
What about Sapulpa?
For those who are wondering when Sapulpa is going to get their turn at bat for regular sports coverage from Sapulpa Times, don’t worry—we hear you! Sapulpa Times is actively working to solve this issue, and our hope is to be able to bring more well-rounded sports coverage for our hometown by the time fall sports arrive. We’ll keep you posted!
