APEX - APEX -- As Middle Creek's football team adjusts and improves on the field this season, another team of Mustangs will be doing the same in the broadcast booth.

The Sports Block, which started two years ago, is a group of Middle Creek students learning about broadcast journalism. They use the Internet as a platform for a multimedia sports report: videotaped interviews, audio podcasts of games and a blog.

The participants get hands-on experience and instruction on two aspects of broadcast journalism, from the technical know-how to the communications skills needed to talk to an audience. The school is offering a few classes where they can learn some of the more technical side, but The Sports Block itself is more of an extracurricular activity, said Luis Maldanado, one of the teachers involved in the program.

"I just want to get into sportscasting," said senior Tony Christo, who hopes to attend N.C. State next year. "I know sports. I love sports."

Christo said he gets an adrenaline rush from broadcasting.

"Once you start out in the first quarter, it feels like anxiety," he said. "But five minutes into it, it's a rush."

The programming isn't live just yet.

"That's my dream, that we can someday broadcast live on the Internet," Maldanado said. "We're not there yet."

Maldanado provides the students with the technical know-how to use the equipment.

Wes Petty, another adviser, coaches the students in the art of broadcast communication. Petty is also the girls basketball coach at Middle Creek.

During last Friday's home game against Apex it was apparent that there are some rough edges that need to be worked out. After all, last year's talented group of seniors has headed off to college, ushering in a less- experienced class.

But the students were eager.

Heather Robb, a member of Middle Creek's softball squad, offered up play-by-play, while Christo provided analysis. They both wore headphones, and their microphones were wired into the computer that senior Gibson Reynolds operated in his role as producer.

In fact, all but statisticians Dan Maloney and Courtney Sezer were wearing headphones. That included Petty and Maldanado, who stood nearby as the broadcast was recorded. Sezer and Maloney fed their handwritten statistics to Robb and Christo.

Petty used hand gestures to communicate silently to Robb and Christo. Sometimes he would whisper in their ear.

"Go to break, get to halftime, clock, down number, count off yards, say what a player is doing," Christo said as he explained the hand signals. "It's real simple, but it gets confusing at times."

During station breaks, Petty would give them more explicit advice.

Robb, taking her first shot at doing play-by-play, often repeated phrases.

"Heather, in two minutes, 13 times you said, 'We have,' " Petty said during one break, drawing giggles from Christo and Robb. "You're doing OK. You gotta get the 'We have,' out."

Robb said she plans to study communications at UNC-Greensboro next year. She aspires to work at ESPN some- day.

"I want to do major league baseball," said Robb, who couldn't come up with the name of her favorite sideline reporter. "I want her job."

During the game, a few former students dropped in -- it was homecoming weekend. Ryan Grover and Ryan Magnuson, who helped launch The Sports Block, popped in and were received with hugs and handshakes by their two former teachers and friends.

Both are studying communications at their respective colleges. Grover is at East Carolina and Magnuson at N.C. State.

"It certainly gave us a nice jumping pad," Grover said of The Sports Block.

By the time they graduated last spring, their broadcasts were smoother and more polished.

"The experience definitely helped with dealing with the pressure," Grover said.

In fact, most of his former students are studying broadcasting in college now, Maldanado said.

Just the presence of Grover and Magnuson was a source of pride.

"When they come back -- we talk all the time -- it feels like they're my kids," Maldanado said. "I'm so proud of them, because they're going on to do things that they learned in my class."

And like any coach who tries to teach his players skills that will serve the athletes off the field, Maldanado said he tries to prepare his students for college life.

"I know when I went to school, I didn't know, and I had to learn the hard way," Maldanado said. "I try to make it easier on them. ... My job isn't just to teach them skills, it's to teach them life."

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