Sultan High Tech Club an Elite force

The Sultan High School Tech Club is celebrating the success of its broadcast network TurkPride.TV, after earning an exclusive title reserved for less than 50 schools around the country.

This is the third consecutive year TurkPride.TV has landed on the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) High School Sports Network honor role, and the first year it’s been recognized as an Elite School. The Elite title is an honor reserved for only 41 schools across the country, and Sultan High School is the only school in Washington to earn that distinction. In the past, Sultan has celebrated Select School status, which is awarded to a larger number of schools.

It’s a competitive process, said Sultan School District Technology Coordinator Dave Moon. In order to qualify for Elite School status, the network must broadcast more than 40 live sporting events, cover a variety of five or more sports during the year and satisfy a host of other criteria.

TurkPride.TV live streams Sultan High basketball games, wrestling matches, volleyball, football and soccer games, broadcasting them for all to enjoy. Additionally, Tech Club members frequently volunteer to cover community events, such as the Sultan Education Foundation Police versus Fire fundraising softball game, the annual Sultan Lip Sync competition, the Sky Valley Community Awards Ceremony and many others. 

“We're one of the few schools that do community events on top of sports,” Moon said. “We love doing the community stuff.”

The students handle all aspects of the production themselves, including directing the live stream to feature the best footage, announcing, promoting on social media and numerous other tasks associated with both pre- and post-production.

TurkPride.TV is just one arm of the Sultan High School Tech Club, which focuses on implementing technologies for the purposes of enhancing club members’ educational experiences, while also having a great time. Over the summer they spent a day building and programming robots, much to the delight of Tech Club member Cora Beane.

Beane is going into her second full year as a Tech Club member. She said she loves the unity of the group and the way they all work together.

“There's a lot of really nice people here, and you learn to become friends with all of them,” Beane said. “Basically, we're a family. It's a nice, welcome environment.”

Moon founded the Sultan High School Tech Club when he first started working for the Sultan School District 17 years ago. Over the years, he has watched the club come full circle, he said. Benjamin Pederson, a 2001 Sultan High School graduate and one of the club’s founding members, now works with Moon in the technology department. Moon recruited Pederson to the club himself all those years ago, after discovering him at the school one day helping out with some computer-related issues.

Pederson said it started with his best friend — the two would help out at the school on weekends.

“His grandma worked here,” Pederson said. “She was the librarian, and we used to come in on weekends and help her fix computers.”

A new hire at the time, Moon walked in one day and saw what they were doing, and shortly thereafter the Tech Club was formed. Today, Moon handles the technology needs for the entire Sultan School District with help from Pederson and David Hockenson.  

Since the Tech Club is largely student-driven, Moon lets club members take the lead on selecting the projects they want to accomplish during the year, at times offering ideas and direction in terms of availability of resources and other logistical matters. He serves as the club’s official advisor, tasked with helping the students meet their goals for the year.

It’s a method that has been implemented with success, Moon said. TurkPride.TV was the result of one of those student-led projects. This year, Moon sees robots in the club’s future, and is hoping to build on the success of the robot-building day they had during the summer.

“We're looking to take that to the next level,” Moon said.

A few of the ideas he presented to Tech Club members to consider as projects for the year are improvements to the digital scoreboard he and his team crafted last year, the creation of a monitor wall utilizing a number of monitors that interface to form one contiguous display and to begin experimenting with software-driven interactive displays using a projector.

Moon came across the idea while traveling. The example he saw featured a virtual koi pond projected onto the floor; when people walked on it, the water formed virtual ripples and the fish responded to the placement of the footsteps. Moon said he was intrigued by its possibilities. 

“It's proprietary software that somebody developed, but you can write your own apps for that software,” Moon said. “So you could have it be anything you want.”

In addition to whatever major ideas the Tech Club decides to pursue, Tech Club members take on side projects as they come up, in the interest of serving their community. When Volunteers of America Director Calei Vaughn recently approached the club about technology needs up in Skykomish, club members were only too happy to oblige. Moon reached out to a PC recycling company, and arranged for them to receive the necessary equipment.

Tech Club members custom built four computer systems, complete with all the corresponding hardware, delivering them to Skykomish City Hall on Sept. 12.

“It was lots of fun,” Beane said. “They were pretty grateful.”

Moon said one of the club’s priorities this year is getting some updated equipment. The Tech Club has been primarily funded through scholarships and private donations, and Moon has become adept at stretching his resources as much as possible. Local businesses like the Monroe Les Schwab, Rico’s Pizza in Gold Bar and Windmill Espresso in Sultan have been strong and continual supporters over the years.

This year, Moon was excited to learn that he’s been given a modest budget, which he plans to dedicate toward new audio-visual equipment. The club’s video cameras, which were old and used to begin with, have started to fail. Without functioning cameras they can’t produce content for TurkPride.TV, so it’s imperative to get them replaced, he said.

“They were old when we got them,” Moon said. “We have to invest in a couple new cameras this year and we're investing in a couple new tripods because the tripods we have are so sloppy and old it affects the quality of the video.”  

Moon said he is grateful for the continued support of the Sultan School District sports teams, which help provide camera operators, so Tech Club members can focus on production. It’s truly a collaborative effort spearheaded by the kids, he said. Sultan High School Athletic Director Scott Sifferman has been tremendously supportive, he added.

“If it wasn't for the support of the coaches, we wouldn't be as far as we are,” Moon said. 

This is the third consecutive year TurkPride.TV has landed on the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) High School Sports Network honor role, and the first year it’s been recognized as an Elite School. The Elite title is an honor reserved for only 41 schools across the country, and Sultan High School is the only school in Washington to earn that distinction. In the past, Sultan has celebrated Select School status, which is awarded to a larger number of schools.

It’s a competitive process, said Sultan School District Technology Coordinator Dave Moon. In order to qualify for Elite School status, the network must broadcast more than 40 live sporting events, cover a variety of five or more sports during the year and satisfy a host of other criteria.

TurkPride.TV live streams Sultan High basketball games, wrestling matches, volleyball, football and soccer games, broadcasting them for all to enjoy. Additionally, Tech Club members frequently volunteer to cover community events, such as the Sultan Education Foundation Police versus Fire fundraising softball game, the annual Sultan Lip Sync competition, the Sky Valley Community Awards Ceremony and many others. 

“We're one of the few schools that do community events on top of sports,” Moon said. “We love doing the community stuff.”

The students handle all aspects of the production themselves, including directing the live stream to feature the best footage, announcing, promoting on social media and numerous other tasks associated with both pre- and post-production.

TurkPride.TV is just one arm of the Sultan High School Tech Club, which focuses on implementing technologies for the purposes of enhancing club members’ educational experiences, while also having a great time. Over the summer they spent a day building and programming robots, much to the delight of Tech Club member Cora Beane.

Beane is going into her second full year as a Tech Club member. She said she loves the unity of the group and the way they all work together.

“There's a lot of really nice people here, and you learn to become friends with all of them,” Beane said. “Basically, we're a family. It's a nice, welcome environment.”

Moon founded the Sultan High School Tech Club when he first started working for the Sultan School District 17 years ago. Over the years, he has watched the club come full circle, he said. Benjamin Pederson, a 2001 Sultan High School graduate and one of the club’s founding members, now works with Moon in the technology department. Moon recruited Pederson to the club himself all those years ago, after discovering him at the school one day helping out with some computer-related issues.

Pederson said it started with his best friend — the two would help out at the school on weekends.

“His grandma worked here,” Pederson said. “She was the librarian, and we used to come in on weekends and help her fix computers.”

A new hire at the time, Moon walked in one day and saw what they were doing, and shortly thereafter the Tech Club was formed. Today, Moon handles the technology needs for the entire Sultan School District with help from Pederson and David Hockenson.  

Since the Tech Club is largely student-driven, Moon lets club members take the lead on selecting the projects they want to accomplish during the year, at times offering ideas and direction in terms of availability of resources and other logistical matters. He serves as the club’s official advisor, tasked with helping the students meet their goals for the year.

It’s a method that has been implemented with success, Moon said. TurkPride.TV was the result of one of those student-led projects. This year, Moon sees robots in the club’s future, and is hoping to build on the success of the robot-building day they had during the summer.

“We're looking to take that to the next level,” Moon said.

A few of the ideas he presented to Tech Club members to consider as projects for the year are improvements to the digital scoreboard he and his team crafted last year, the creation of a monitor wall utilizing a number of monitors that interface to form one contiguous display and to begin experimenting with software-driven interactive displays using a projector.

Moon came across the idea while traveling. The example he saw featured a virtual koi pond projected onto the floor; when people walked on it, the water formed virtual ripples and the fish responded to the placement of the footsteps. Moon said he was intrigued by its possibilities. 

“It's proprietary software that somebody developed, but you can write your own apps for that software,” Moon said. “So you could have it be anything you want.”

In addition to whatever major ideas the Tech Club decides to pursue, Tech Club members take on side projects as they come up, in the interest of serving their community. When Volunteers of America Director Calei Vaughn recently approached the club about technology needs up in Skykomish, club members were only too happy to oblige. Moon reached out to a PC recycling company, and arranged for them to receive the necessary equipment.

Tech Club members custom built four computer systems, complete with all the corresponding hardware, delivering them to Skykomish City Hall on Sept. 12.

“It was lots of fun,” Beane said. “They were pretty grateful.”

Moon said one of the club’s priorities this year is getting some updated equipment. The Tech Club has been primarily funded through scholarships and private donations, and Moon has become adept at stretching his resources as much as possible. Local businesses like the Monroe Les Schwab, Rico’s Pizza in Gold Bar and Windmill Espresso in Sultan have been strong and continual supporters over the years.

This year, Moon was excited to learn that he’s been given a modest budget, which he plans to dedicate toward new audio-visual equipment. The club’s video cameras, which were old and used to begin with, have started to fail. Without functioning cameras they can’t produce content for TurkPride.TV, so it’s imperative to get them replaced, he said.

“They were old when we got them,” Moon said. “We have to invest in a couple new cameras this year and we're investing in a couple new tripods because the tripods we have are so sloppy and old it affects the quality of the video.”  

Moon said he is grateful for the continued support of the Sultan School District sports teams, which help provide camera operators, so Tech Club members can focus on production. It’s truly a collaborative effort spearheaded by the kids, he said. Sultan High School Athletic Director Scott Sifferman has been tremendously supportive, he added.

“If it wasn't for the support of the coaches, we wouldn't be as far as we are,” Moon said.