Newsletter
JONFINEPRODUCTIONS.COM NEWSLETTER 2/7/25
CHANGE IN VENUE…. Denham Springs HS Basketball will play at the old Jackets Gym, in all likelihood for the rest of the season. The Grady Hornsby Gymnasium gym has been closed for renovations due to a buckled floor.
REGULAR SEASON HOME FINALE....Coach Rudy Smith’s Denham Springs HS Girls Basketball team plays host to Live Oak HS tonight on Senior Night. We go on the air with Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup at 5:45 pm. You can catch all the action on 91.9 FM, on the net at JonFineProductions.com and on YouTube @dsjacketvision. Josh Ward and Mitch Covington are on the call. I will be interviewing the first lady of Yellow Jackets Basketball, (the wife of Rudy and mom of senior star Taylor) Fran Smith on Sport N Center Jackets Warmup.
BOYS BASKETBALL ON THE AIR…We are broadcasting 3 select boys basketball (and playoffs), debuting this Tuesday, February 11, when coach Cab (Kevin Caballero’s) team plays host to Dutchtown HS, with Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup coming your way at 6:15 pm. I will be interviewing former Jackets coach Wynn Wingate.
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FINE IDEAS by Jon Fine
There is a lot of excitement about Sunday’s Super Bowl in New Orleans. The local sports scene? Not so much.
Last making the playoffs in 2020, the New Orleans Saints went 5-12 in 2024 and are 50+ million dollars over the Salary Cap. Who Dat Say they Gonna coach them Saints? Adding insult to injury, it seems as if the Saints can’t find anyone who wants to coach them in 2025.
The New Orleans Pelicans are 12-39, on a 7-game bender. In its 23-year history, New Orleans NBA basketball teams (Jazz, Hornets, then Pelicans) have a grand total of one division title (2007-08).
And it gets worse. The teams’ upper-level management (the Saints and Pelicans are jointly owned) was recently found to have allegedly collaborated with the New Orleans Diocese in providing them with strategy to contest sexual abuse charges leveled against pastors in the Church.
Well, there is always LSU Men’s Basketball…..er…. now 12-10, 1-8 in the SEC (where their losses mean more?) and on a 5-game losing streak. Matt McMahon is in his third season as head coach. Maybe Tigers Women’s coach Kim Mulkey can lend him Aneesah Morrow to also suit up for the men? (Just kidding….I think!)
In all fairness, there is better news from the non-revenue sports of Gymnastics, Women’s Basketball and then, prospectively Baseball.
And there is always football? Yes, it looks promising for 2025 LSU Football. Yet… if recent reports about alleged malpractice by LSU Football…in the way it handled former defensive back Greg Brooks Jr’s presumptive (by LSU) vertigo, which resulted in an alleged 39 day period before he was evaluated by a neurologist, resulting in the diagnoses of brain cancer, precipitating a botched surgery (by an unqualified surgeon the Brooks allege), that has seemingly cured the cancer but now has Brooks unable to speak clearly along with other major physical ailments. The Brooks family claims that coach Brian Kelley has shown what might be referred to as callous indifference to Brooks….if all of this is substantiated in a lawsuit filed by the Brooks family against LSU, heads should roll, with Kelley leading the way to the guillotine.
Well, one way to cope with all this local sports malady is with a healthy sense of humor. Not sure who I stole this from, but….it was reported that a few months back, then Saints coach Dennis Allen stated that he wished he could see the Superdome with a raucous atmosphere with loud, supportive fans. So, someone bought him tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.
DSHS HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS: The Denham Springs High School Athletic Hall of Fame and title sponsor Hood Dental Care are accepting nominations for its next class of inductees from February 1 through March 31, 2025. Hall of Fame Nomination Guidelines are available to the public on the DSHS website at www.denhamspringshs.org or by picking up a copy at the school office. For more information, contact Julie Jacobsen at julie [dot] jacobsen [at] lpsb [dot] org or (225) 405-6838.
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SPORTS PUBLICATIONS GALORE....ArrestedDevelopmentM
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Be sure to check out Tommy Krysan on Sports Shorts Daily, Monday - Wednesday - Friday at 9:00am on YouTube, Facebook and X. TK and Ronnie Rantz mix it up on Hot Sports Topics!Be sure to listen to Sports Shorts Radio, Saturday's from 10:00am - 12:00noon on: 104.5 ESPN Radio in Baton Rouge, 103.7 ESPN Lafayette, 104.1 ESPN Lake Charles. For more information please email Tommy Krysan: tommykrysan [at] gmail [dot] com (tommykrysan [at] gmail [dot] com)
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PRESS RELEASE
DENHAM SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL IS ON THE AIR!
Jon Fine (Sports) Productions will be airing a select slate of Denham Springs HS Boys and Girls Basketball games and all playoff games in 2025!
These broadcasts can be seen on YouTube @dsjacket vision (please Subscribe), on Family Radio-91.9 FM Baton Rouge and on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com (click Listen Live on the Denham Springs HS PBP page). Sport-n-Center Jackets Warm-Up gets the broadcasts underway 45 minutes before tipoff. The first broadcast is Friday, January 24 when the Jackets Girls entertain Walker HS.
Josh Ward is the play-by-play announcer of the Jackets. Ward will be joined by Mitch Covington as the color commentator. Producer Jon Fine will contribute to the pre-game, half-time and post-game programming. This trio has announced Denham Springs HS Football games for several seasons.
Fine said that with the success of the Denham Springs Football Broadcasts, which expanded to accommodate @dsjacketvision during the 2024 season, it was an ideal time to add Boys and Girls Basketball to the lineup. “What a response we had @dsjacket vision in the fall! With interest surging in Basketball at Denham, it seemed like a propitious moment to have Denham Springs Boys and Girls Basketball games on both radio and YouTube.”
Working with the accommodating Jackets coaching staffs also was a major positive. “Football coach Brett Beard has been incredible to work with. We eagerly await joining forces with (Jackets Boys Basketball) coach Cab (Kevin Caballero) and (Lady Jackets Basketball) coach (Rudy) Smith and their staffs to make these broadcasts a success.”
Jackets play-by-play announcer Josh Ward, a Denham Springs HS graduate, was a Yellow Jackets assistant basketball coach. He is an executive at Guaranty Broadcasting.
Mitch Covington, a 3-sport star at Denham Springs HS, would later serve as a Jackets assistant football coach. He is presently the head football coach of Denham Springs Junior High School Football.. He is a graduate of McNeese State, where he played baseball.
Jon Fine co-hosted and produced daily 2-hour drive-time radio sports-talk programs in the Greater Baton Rouge area for close to 20 years. His programs (first SportsTalk, which changed its name to SportsGumbo), aired, at times, in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Monroe and Alexandria, in addition to the Baton Rouge market. His company, Jon Fine Productions, has produced numerous Denham Springs HS and area HS sports programming on television, radio and internet. Fine presently has an EBay store—
Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup gets things started. The broadcasting schedule:
Fri, 1/24 GIRLS VS WALKER 4:45 pm
Fri, 1/31 GIRLS VS EAST ASCENSION 5:45 pm
Fri, 2/7 GIRLS VS LIVE OAK 5:45 pm
Tues, 2/11 BOYS VS DUTCHTOWN 6:15 pm
Fri, 2/14 BOYS VS PRAIRIEVILLE 6:15 pm
Fri, 2/21 BOYS VS ST AMANT 6:15 pm
PLAYOFF GAMES TO BE DETERMINED
For more information on Denham Springs HS Sports programming and Jon Fine Productions, please visit JonFineProductions.com.
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DENHAM SPRINGS HS BROADCASTS ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9 FM, BATON ROUGE, on the net at JonFineProductions.com and on YouTube—please subscribe @dsjacketvision.
JON IS THE OWNER OF AN EBAY STORE.
FOR MORE INFO, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: JONFINEPRODUCTIONS.COM