LOGAN — After nearly four decades of bringing high school athletics into homes throughout Cache Valley, The Valley Channel is preparing to broadcast its final edition of “The Game of the Week,” ending a 39-year tradition of showcasing local athletes, schools and communities.
The program’s final broadcast will feature Friday’s Ridgeline-Highland 4A state football playoff matchup, bringing to a close a television tradition that began Nov. 20, 1987.
For station owner Earl Rouse, the program was never primarily about making money or even covering sports. It was about giving local students an opportunity to be recognized.
Earl Rouse sets up cameras for a television shoot in 1989.
“In the beginning, people said, ‘there’s no money in this; you won’t get sponsors.’ I said, ‘I’m not doing it for money, I’m doing it for the kids.’”
That philosophy helped sustain a program that would eventually cover nearly 1,000 high school sporting events, including regular-season contests, state tournaments and championship games.
“Everybody told me in the beginning that it wouldn’t be possible, but I did it. Producing television is very expensive, but I found a way to do it.”
The first broadcast featured the 1987 Class 3A state football championship between Mountain Crest and Sky View at what was then Romney Stadium on the campus of Utah State University. Cache Valley broadcasting personality Al Lewis and then-Logan High School football coach Perry Christensen called the historic matchup.
Over the years, “The Game of the Week” became a familiar part of the local sports landscape, providing television coverage of athletic events that otherwise might never have been broadcast.
Dave Bennett and Mike Plowman handled much of the announcing during the program’s early years. In 2004, Eric Olsen took over play-by-play duties, working alongside longtime color analyst Leigh Vaughn and several guest commentators, including Olympic medalists Shannon Miller and John Roethlisberger.
Olsen said Rouse’s commitment to local athletes extended well beyond the games themselves.
“Earl Rouse understood that these moments mattered. To the athletes, families, and the community,” said veteran play-by-play announcer Eric Olsen in a release. “For nearly 40 years, Earl put the Cache Valley first, giving thousands of local kids recognition, helping them build highlight tapes to earn college scholarships. It has been an honor to be part of that legacy.”
While high school athletics became the program’s signature offering, The Valley Channel’s coverage extended well beyond prep sports.
The station also produced more than 100 collegiate sporting events, featuring Utah State University football, basketball, hockey, volleyball and gymnastics.
Its cameras captured numerous community traditions, including the Cache Valley Cruise-In, demolition derbies, parades, Trash Car racing, marathons and rodeos.
Rouse said the station’s approach to sports coverage was always rooted in its connection to the community.
“I’ve always felt shooting high school sports isn’t about sports,” he explained. “We’re not a mini-ESPN. We’re about our community, the people in our community and what happens in our community. Covering high school sports did that, just in the sports arena.”
That community-centered approach focused its attention on local students, their families and the schools they represented.
Looking back on the program’s nearly four-decade history, Rouse offered a simple assessment.
“It’s been a lot of fun and a good experience.”
Although “The Game of the Week” is ending, The Valley Channel itself is not going away.
The station will continue broadcasting on Xfinity Channel 17, shifting its attention toward other aspects of life in Cache Valley, including local events, culture and community programming.
“The Valley Channel is still on cable, channel 17,” Rouse explained, “and my focus now is on showcasing Cache Valley.”
For generations of local athletes and their families, the program’s conclusion marks the end of a broadcasting tradition that helped preserve countless moments in Cache Valley sports history.
And for Rouse, the mission that inspired the first broadcast in 1987 remains central to the station’s future: telling the stories of the people who call Cache Valley home.