Center Grove football fans flock to the west side bleachers every Friday, while the student section fills to the brim before the game even starts. Yet, behind the scenes of every game, there is a student who helps film, set up and decipher plays. With the precision of a well-oiled machine, senior Grant Embrey captures every snap of the ball for CG Sports Network, a locally-owned business run by Kevin Conrad.

Embrey plays a pivotal role in allowing this machine of football film to function. From the beginning of his high school career, Embrey has been helping CG Sports Network bring games and other sporting events to parents and students who are unable to attend the games live. 

“My dad was really good friends with Kevin [Conrad], and for a long time he’s been helping out with the broadcast,” Embrey said. “They needed a spotter in there, who basically says who ran the ball and how many yards they ran and stuff like that. So when I was a freshman, my dad asked me if I wanted to help out with that. I thought it was a good opportunity because I liked to watch the games anyway.” 

As a part of the broadcast team for CG Sports Network, it is Embrey’s job to make sure that games are filmed, and filmed correctly.

“The guy who’s now our producer was a cameraman, and when our old producer left, they asked me to do the camera. I wasn’t so good with passes and punts and stuff like that, especially when Tayven [Jackson] started, and he would be throwing a lot of passes, and I just wasn’t ready for it. I’ve gotten a lot better at that,” Embrey said.

Throughout his time as a broadcaster, Embrey has adjusted to many changes for the broadcast. He has gone through different producers, different tripods and different cameras, but also different games and environments. As equipment breaks down or new equipment comes out, Embrey and the team of broadcasters work together in order to create an experience for the fans at home. 

“We used to have an older tripod that made it a lot more difficult to get the movements I wanted to, as well as not having a zoom feature,” Embrey said. “Now I can re-adjust how I look at the field every play. One thing that’s difficult though is a lot of places that we travel to film don’t have necessarily the nicest setup, but we always work through that. One memorable thing last year was they didn’t have space for me inside and it was raining, so Kevin bought these big squares of plastic sheeting that I was inside filming from, and I looked really funny up on top of the pressbox.”

Every game that Embrey films can be found via links from the CG Sports Network Twitter and Instagram accounts, which will direct viewers to a pay-per-view service. This has allowed many people to watch the Trojans, whether it be from their couch, on their phone or even all the way across the United States.

“I just like to help document all my friends’ achievements, as well as help people at home be able to watch,” Embrey said, “It’s really special. Kevin sometimes talks about different stories he hears from people who are in Hawaii or Colorado, and they get to watch their grandkids’ games. I think that’s really special. I’ve definitely had people be like ‘I really appreciate everything you guys do’ because this isn’t a very common thing for a high school team to have, and it expands the reach a lot more. Especially during COVID, it was a really big thing because they weren’t allowing guests, so the vast majority of Center Grove fans were watching our broadcast which was really cool.”