With over 400 Instagram followers as of April, it’s hard to miss the steady rise of one of Bellarmine’s newest clubs. The Belly Sports Network brings a fresh perspective to student sports journalism at Bellarmine. Their content consists of peer to peer interviews with student athletes intermixed with videos summarizing the top sports moments of the week, dubbed the “Friday Rundown”. The various featured interviewers, including main faces Cal Tsuneyoshi and Darien May, indicate the club’s leaders are just as thrilled about the content as their large following. Behind the effortless presentation is a team of students working hard to lift Lion athletes to the forefront of Bellarmine’s community.
For friends Darien May, Ethan Vlad, and Jack Merriam, the idea of a Belly Sports Analysis Club manifested at the end of their sophomore year and came into fruition during their junior year. Though initially part of a plan to gain their required service hours, within the first months of the 2024 school year, the club began to garner new membership and attention with their post-game interviews of student athletes.
Vlad, one of the co-founders, said, “It was just more of a community thing. I wanted to gather a bunch of people up who liked sports and found the same [enjoyment] in it that I did.” Vlad was inspired by his work with Seattle’s RAVE Foundation, a summer program he’s been involved in for three years that teaches the major categories of sports media in partnership with the Seattle Sounders. Through the program, his perception of involvement in sports shifted and he gained the journalistic experience needed to run Belly Sports Network. “At one point, I realized that I had this passion for soccer, but that I wasn’t going to be able to fulfill [the passion] by playing at a higher level,” Vlad continued, “A big message I want to convey is that sometimes […] if you have […] passion for something, especially a sport, you don’t have to give up on your dreams. There’s other ways you can still be interactive.”
Vlad’s goal of fostering a community was fulfilled rapidly, with one of the club’s most popular interviews, a Q&A with varsity basketball player Jaela Jones on the state championship, amassing over 4,000 views. Internally, the club has grown from a handful of founding members to a team of more than 25 students who help film, interview, edit, and design promotional posts. The hard work put into making the club a reality has doubtlessly paid off, reaching even beyond campus. Most notably, the club’s leaders were recently invited to the Seattle Mariners baseball stadium to go behind the scenes and learn from professional sports journalists on how to boost their skills. Opportunities and connections like this are proof of the Network’s reach and impact in the local community.
With the spotlight on them increasing, the club has been changing and progressing in countless ways. Starting with a rename from Belly Sports Analysis Club to Belly Sports Network (BPSN—yes, like ESPN), the club kicked off a rebrand in the spring. Along with the new name, “Making longer, more entertaining content was the goal,” according to May. This manifested with the initiation of Friday Rundowns, Highlights of the Week, and an audience-voted Player of the Week. Before the Network’s creation, Merriam expressed, “Achievements just get left at the team stage. There’s a lot of individual talent that isn’t expressed.” But now, with features like Player of the Week, the BPSN allows the talent of student athletes to be celebrated more than ever before. If a player has an amazing play, contributes meaningfully to a win, or scores the highest points in a game, they will undoubtedly get the recognition they deserve.
Looking to the future, the BPSN team has no shortage of fresh ideas to expand their club. Some possible new content, according to Merriam and Vlad, includes more in-depth game analysis, full game filming, and getting more high-tech equipment to improve quality. And although the club has only been active for a year, the positive impacts of BPSN are innumerable. As Merriam says,“People are getting more access to the games,” which allows athletes to shine and promotes more connection between students who share a love for sports.
For Tsuneyoshi and May, an important impact has been the recognition given to different teams and players, especially for girls sports which are oftentimes overlooked. Needless to say, the Belly Sports Network represents a fresh form of student leadership for Bellarmine by allowing students to pursue their passion for sports while uplifting peers for their achievements.
