Merrimack College seniors Griffin Castergine ’25, Jack Dollase ’25 and Demonn Frazier ’25 had their first taste of primetime during their live pregame coverage of a Merrimack men’s basketball home game against Rider University on Feb. 28.
The production was part of the sports media internship program led by Merrimack College Media Center Director Chuck Scott. The program typically focuses on creating post-game recap videos for various sporting events, but this instance marked their first live production streamed on the Merrimack College TV (MCTV) YouTube channel.
“This was brought up to get the word out about what kind of things (students in the internship) can do if given the opportunities,” explained Dollase.
As producer, Dollase was responsible for creating a script outline and rundown sheets, developing ideas for, and editing, pre-recorded packages and helping set up equipment on the day of the shoot.
Castergine and Frazier, meanwhile, served as the on-air talent. Andrew Daume ’26, president of MCTV, who was also on hand to help the production, said he was really impressed with how the hosts carried the show.
“They used up their intro script early,” he continued, “For about eight minutes, they just had to spitball and they did a pretty impressive job. It’s hard to improvise when you’re live, and they really kept it together.”
“Chuck was taking a hands-off approach,” explained Dollase. “He was glad that we stepped up and made it work. He really wanted this to be our own thing and I really appreciated that.”
The show featured two interviews – the first, conducted live by Frazier, was with assistant men’s basketball coach Jimmy Langhurst.
“The interview went really well,” said Castergine. “(Langhurst) is really good on camera, very well spoken and gave a lot of very long, good answers.”
The second interview was a pre-recorded sit-down Dollase did with point guard Adam “Budd” Clark ’27.
“I didn’t think I was going to be the one on camera but it makes sense knowing the other two guys were doing the live show,” Dollase said. “What we got, I feel, was solid. I was just worried I was looking down at my questions too much.”
Despite their on-air appearances, both Dollase and Castergine said they prefer to work more behind the scenes.
“I’m considering grad school next year, maybe a two-year production program,” explained Dollase. “Digital content production, I think, is the one I’m most interested in. I think I’m better off filling up my resume and portfolio right now.”
Castergine, meanwhile, said he’s currently focusing on networking to make his sports media dreams come true.
“I’m trying to get my foot in the door wherever I can,” he explained. “I’d love to work at a corporate sports media company like NBC, NESN or ESPN. It’s such a competitive field, so you need that network. I’m trying to meet as many people as possible that could one day lead to a new opportunity.”
