SE: How K-State Soccer Scheduled, Played and Broadcast a Big 12 Match in One Day

By: Austin Siegel

After waiting 317 days to return to Buser Family Park, K-State Soccer's first match of the season came together in about 24 hours.

"We had one day to prepare," head coach Mike Dibbini said. "Kudos to everyone for getting the game in. We really wanted to play, and we were tired of just going up against each other in practice. For our admin team and the Big 12 to pull this off, it was a really great opportunity."

The Wildcats faced defending Big 12 champions Oklahoma State on Saturday, dropping a 3-0 decision in a match that wasn't supposed to be played until Senior Day on November 6.

Making the season-opening match happen – right after a K-State football game – was a unique challenge, perhaps best summed up by K-State student Katherine Benhardt, the sideline reporter on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ call:

"Even though you're tired," she said. "You still have to bring it."

When positive tests and contact tracing forced Texas Tech to postpone their season-opening trip to Manhattan, the Wildcats found themselves with an open weekend in September.

The team originally planned to scrimmage on Friday, until Oklahoma State saw their first game of the season against Oklahoma postponed due to COVID-19 cases on the Sooners.

That's when the Wildcats and Cowgirls decided to try something that would have seemed unbelievable in any other season – scheduling a match against each other for the next day.

A collaborative group of K-State administrators worked together to ensure the match took place, including Director of Athletics Gene Taylor, Deputy Athletics Director Jill Shields and Associate AD for Student-Athlete Health, Wellness & Performance Matt Thomason.

"It was a total team effort," Dibbini said. "Matt and Jill had to step up with the direction of Gene Taylor. It was great working with the Big 12 and Oklahoma State staff. We literally found out on Friday morning, because Oklahoma State was supposed to play at OU that night."

Instead of making the hour-long trip to Norman, the Cowgirls remained in Stillwater on Friday and got in touch with the only other team in the Big 12 with an open weekend: Kansas State.

"Around 8:30 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. in the morning, I got a phone call and I honestly didn't think we were going to be able to pull that off," Dibbini said. "I was like, 'Oh, I mean we'll play if we can make it happen.' And then it was, 'Oh shoot, we really are playing,' and it became a reality."

The K-State Soccer coaching staff prepares to face Oklahoma State

The official announcement came on Friday afternoon, just one day before the teams would face each other in Manhattan at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.

For the team tasked with producing the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ broadcast of the match, it turned an already busy day – with the return of K-State Football at 11 a.m. – into a kind of marathon.

After broadcasting a pregame show, in-stadium updates and postgame press conference at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the production crew relocated a few hundred yards away to Buser Family Park.

Senior Director of Broadcast Services Brian Smoller handled football duties and was joined in the soccer booth by color commentator Oscar Montenegro, separated by plexiglass due to COVID-19.

"For me as a broadcaster it was a crash course getting prep done in a short amount of time for all teams involved, including coordinating with the OSU staff on lineups, notes and storylines," Smoller said.

He also teamed up with Benhardt, who achieved a personal milestone with socially distanced sideline reporting throughout the match.

"Exactly one year ago from Saturday was my first time shadowing a soccer broadcast," she said. "My friend [now K-State Soccer videographer] Alec Handlin and I took a picture holding the microphone, just trying it to manifest it. One year later, to look back at the work that I put in to get to this point and to see Alec and I now, it's pretty memorable."

Benhardt had a 6 a.m. call time on Saturday morning to work the videoboards for the K-State football game. She wrapped up her last postgame interview right around 9 p.m. that night.

While navigating the challenges of her first live broadcast, Benhardt also had to deal with COVID-19 precautions from wearing a mask on TV to doing interviews from six feet away.

"Once I got through the first interview, the first storyline that Brian threw to me, I felt a lot better about everything," she said. "Usually you have a week to prepare and media days, where you can spend time with players and coaches. This was just about what I could do to find stories."

For the soccer team, preparation began after Dibbini got the phone call from Shields that the Oklahoma State match was official, and the Cowgirls were headed to Manhattan.

Maddie Souder plays a pass against Oklahoma State

With 19 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, it was an important step for a K-State program that won't have the benefit of a non-conference schedule in 2020.

"When you're dealing with a team that's extremely young and hasn't had much success, you're going to have a lot of anxiety because you want to win so badly," Dibbini said. "We have the players. It's the intangible part, that mental and physical preparation, if we can get through that hurdle, then it's going to become easier."

It was a moment, if not a match or an opponent, that Dibbini had been preparing his team for throughout the summer.

"It's a COVID season," he said. "I just told my staff and my players to buckle up this year. We don't know what to expect and we need to get nine games in. If we're allowed to move things around like we did, because we want to play, then we have to be flexible and adapt."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: How K-State Soccer Scheduled, Played and Broadcast a Big 12 Match in One Day

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