BRUNSWICK — Puck drop is minutes away, so the Brunswick High Sports Network is going through its final preparations before its boys hockey broadcast goes live.

Equipment charged and set up? Check. Rosters printed and game notes added? Yep. Scoreboard connected and stream link posted to YouTube? Done.

Robert Bowen, Caz Kosinski, Oscar Gartside and Brandon Wear stand in the Watson Arena concourse, all holding their breath as they watch the SportCam app slowly load. Slowly.

Eventually, the iPad screen goes through, and the group that leads a student-run sports broadcasting outfit lets out a collective sigh of relief. High-fives and smiles go around the makeshift production booth, a folding table that’s easy to walk right past and dismiss as an oddly-placed study hall with the amount of papers, laptops and backpacks strewn about.

Wear, a Brunswick alum who has filmed for the boys hockey program since 2016, works the iPad camera. Gartside, a junior, controls the stream’s scoreboard from his phone. Bowen and Kosinski, BHSN’s co-president and vice president, alternate play-by-play and color commentating duties with a pair of wired Apple earbuds.

The set-up for the broadcasting organization is simple, but it by no means prevents the crew’s inside knowledge and genuine enthusiasm of Brunswick sports from shining through. Or for others to notice.

Before a Brunswick/Freeport boys hockey game in mid-January against Gorham/Massabesic starts, a player’s mother walks over to Kosinski to compliment their work and relay the message that her parents enjoy watching from their home in Massachusetts.

As soon as the national anthem ends and sticks slap the ice, the channel’s stream officially begins. Bowen carefully holds the wired microphone, takes a deep breath and turns on his broadcasting voice.

‘Is this going to go anywhere?’

When Bowen, now a senior, first thought of providing commentary on Brunswick sporting events during the fall 2023, he was just trying to come up with a way to satisfy his community service graduation requirement.

Bowen knew that when his parents and grandparents couldn’t make it to his older brother’s hockey games, they would watch one of Wear’s Facebook live streams. It was fine, but with no voiceover or scoreboard, it wasn’t always clear what was happening on the ice.

He also thought back to a 2022 football game at Gardiner, when injuries to Brunswick’s first- and second-string QBs forced the 5-foot-6, 100-pound freshman under center. Bowen’s parents didn’t make the trip, so they watched him play via a live stream from Munzing Media, instead.

“When they showed it to me after the game, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s this commentator from Gardiner who said my name — Robert Bowen — when I went into the game,’ and I just thought that was so cool,” he said. “I really just wanted to take that feeling and give it to as many people as possible.”

So Bowen asked a friend, Brady Marzakis, to join him, and the tandem started calling boys hockey games that winter to a handful of parents and grandparents.

Rick Wilson, Brunswick High’s community outreach coordinator, remembers the first season.

“‘Aw, this is kind of cute,'” Wilson thought. “But wondering, also, ‘Is this going to go anywhere? Or is it going to be back next year?'”

Then he listened to a call.

“I was frankly blown away when I heard their play-by-play,” Wilson said. “I thought they fill the space, not only fill the space well, in the broadcast, but (they are) really enthusiastic, articulate, at times funny, and they’ve just gotten better and better.”

Now in its third winter season, Brunswick High Sports Network is busy most nights of the week.

The entire operation has grown, as there is a pool of about 20 students that BHSN can call upon for help in announcing, filming, stat-keeping or game prep. Highlights and postgame interviews are posted on Instagram, and coverage has expanded to include boys and girls hockey, boys and girls basketball, some postseason soccer, and even a wrestling meet. Home and away games are circled on the calendar, and if there’s a night with multiple games in different locations, the crew will split up, ready for the next stream once the first one ends.

“Overall, people want us to do more than we possibly can,” said senior co-president Ethan Patterson.

“I get people coming up to me in the hallways all the time saying, ‘What are you guys covering tonight?’ Or players from teams asking, ‘Are we covering their games?'” Kosinski said. “If not, they’re always quite disappointed. And if we are, they’re always quite excited.”

This winter, streams have usually drawn 30-50 simultaneous viewers. A boys basketball game on Jan. 23 at then-undefeated Camden Hills surpassed the century mark, rivaling the 120-person audience during the 2025 Class A North boys soccer semifinal against Lewiston and the 138 people tuning into last year’s girls hockey state championship game against Cheverus.

“Everyone whom I have spoken with is a fan,” said Brunswick Athletic Director Kaili Phillips, adding that she has also heard positive things from opposing schools. “I know families and teachers who play the games at home on their TVs, mine included. Students love watching the postgame interviews and seeing highlights posted and (rewatching) games to see their performance or that of their friends.”

Leaving a legacy

BHSN is not an official school club, but as the school’s first opportunity for students interested in sports broadcasting, there is a fair amount of cooperation with school officials.

Phillips and the athletic department help spread the word about BHSN streams, and Wilson has helped the students make a connection with notable New England broadcaster and Mt. Ararat alum Dale Arnold, who gave critiques and advice.

“Students are so creative and ambitious that it’s important to hear their ideas, give them guardrails and get out of their way,” Phillips said.

The core trio laughs when they are asked about managing a balance between school, sports, sleep, college prep and BHSN, saying the time commitment is worth it, especially when they hear from grateful parents.

As the winter season begins to wind down, BHSN is looking toward the future. Bowen, Kosinski and a number of their “employees” play a spring sport, so their availability for game coverage will shrink. They are also looking past this spring, as many members are set to graduate. This past semester, the upperclassmen have made a conscious effort to recruit and include more underclassmen on calls or behind the scenes.

“I think it’s all of our dreams that we make a valiant return to Brunswick in 15 years and find that the Brunswick High School Sports Network is still operating at a very high level,” said Kosinski, next year’s president. “Obviously, none of us have that much time left with the high school, so we’ve got to really try and make it happen.”