While watching sports from inside a stadium may be difficult this year, that doesn’t mean you still can’t watch your favorite Beaver Area teams triumph over their competition.

NFHS Network is a streaming service that allows you to watch high school sporting events as they happen.

The service is free to students with the creation of an account at nfhsnetwork.com, and allows you to access games from other schools, too. It’s never been easier to watch other schools lose!

Having such a service available is quite a convenience; however, it’s no substitute for the real thing.

Even Beaver Area’s Athletic Director Alan Alcalde believes that no live stream could replace the feeling of watching sports in-person.

“Being able to catch a game live and in-person is an experience that cannot be duplicated despite how far technology has come,” admitted Mr. Alcalde.

Nevertheless, the service is still good enough to stopgap until in-person viewing of sports is permitted again.

There also have been a few glitches with the service.

“We have dealt with some technical issues with our stadium camera which has been an inconvenience, but when it is operating well it provides our supporters a nice option to not miss a game,” stated Mr. Alcalde.

So far, reviews of the service have been mixed.

Freshman Erica Majors, who used the site to watch a football game, has so far enjoyed her experience with the service.

“The website works great, and I had no problems with the video quality," Majors said.

Mr. Alcalde has also used the service, but had less praise for it than Majors.

“The experience has been average,” he said.

As for when I used the website to watch a girls soccer game, I was disappointed by the lack of audio, but thought the video was good enough. There just isn’t any replacement for being there in person.

A camera will be installed in the gymnasium for the broadcast of winter sports.

To watch your Bobcats on NFHS Network, create an account at nfhsnetwork.com and search for “Beaver Area.”