At the beginning of the Hawkins County School year in 2023, there was a search for a few people interested in providing play-by-play radio coverage for Volunteer High School Falcon Football and potentially some Falcon and Lady Falcon Basketball through the group Volunteer Sports Network. Volunteer Sports Network was created in 2012 by Jim Whalen as a way to provide radio coverage to different athletic programs at Volunteer High School. Over the past decade or so there have been numerous Volunteers to help provide radio coverage to the school, primarily covering Football and Basketball. 

 

In August of 2023, Volunteer High School Alumni's Frank Sorah and Josh Sawyer made their debut as radio hosts for Volunteer Sports Network. They started out covering Falcon Football and were approached by Athletic Director Jeremy Bailey to see if there was an interest in covering Lady Falcons Volleyball as they made their way through a historical season. By this time, Hannah Sawyer, had also become a part of the group as a Producer helping with the Social Media Accounts, Scheduling, Equipment Setup and Takedown, Communications, and more. As the group became more involved with the school learning the ins and outs of different sports, meeting the athletes, building a relationship with the Falcon Community including those within the Athletics Department and outside of it - they saw there was more potential for Volunteer Sports Network. They could not do it on their own though, they eventually reached out for assistance from some high school students. 

 

The high school students assisting the two hosts and producer started to learn the ins and outs of Volunteer Sports Network. They learned more about the different sports, website management, social media and personal relations, journalism, photography, videography, and spent countless hours volunteering their free time while managing other responsibilities within and outside of the school. During a 3 month period, these two students put in well over 100 hours of community service hours with Volunteer Sports Network. They are projected to clear 200 hours each individually before the end of the 2023-2024 Calendar Year. 

 

In March of 2024, Frank Sorah, Josh Sawyer, and Hannah Sawyer made the decision to officially make Volunteer Sports Network a non-profit organization with the goal of bringing more opportunities to students at Volunteer High School. They knew once the organization became official they wanted to provide an opportunity for students who are involved and interested in broadcasting and its different aspects that could benefit their future outside of high school while providing a motivation to be involved in extracurricular activities at their school. 

 

So as of today, April 24th, 2024, Volunteer Sports Network is announcing our official Scholarship and Sports Media Award... Introducing the Courtney-Housewright Scholarship and Sports Media Award. Recognizing students who have shown immense passion and dedication for all aspects of Sports Media. Named after two students who dedicated themselves and their passion for sports media to contributing in building Volunteer Sports Network into a lasting non-profit organization. 

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Thank you to Lake Courtney and Elijah Housewright for your hard work, dedicated service, passion, and everything you each have done to grow this organization.