[COLD OPEN — the 2025 title animation with "2025" crudely painted over in
a slightly different orange to read "2026." Tiger paw wipes left to right. Audio pops on the second
beat, as it does every year.]
[SFX: the horn sting. It is too loud. It has been too loud since 2019.]
[TITLE CARD: TIGER TELEVISION · SEASON 12 · WELCOME BACK TIGERS]
[STUDIO. Two anchors at the desk. The desk is a folding table with a printed
vinyl front that has started to peel at the left corner.]
MICHAEL PEARCE JR.ANCHOR · SPORTS
Pearce
Good morning Fenton, and welcome
to the first Tiger Television of the twenty-six school year. I'm Michael Pearce.
DF
Frost
And I'm Delaney Frost. This is my
first year at the desk, so if I mess up, that's why.
Pearce
She's been practicing since June.
She's not going to mess up.
DF
Frost
I have been practicing since June.
That part's true and I wish he hadn't said it.
[LOWER THIRD: DELANEY FROST | ANCHOR · SCHOOL NEWS]
DF
Frost
Okay. Announcements. Schedules
went out over the weekend on the portal. If your schedule has a study hall in fourth hour and you
did not request a study hall in fourth hour, that is a known issue and Mrs. Delp says do not come
to the office about it, she already knows.
DF
Frost
Fall sports pictures are Tuesday
the twenty-fifth in the auxiliary gym starting at 2:45. Bring your form. If you do not bring your
form you will still get your picture taken but Mrs. Delp says — and I'm reading this exactly as she
wrote it — "you will not like how that conversation goes."
Pearce
She wrote that?
DF
Frost
Cafeteria: the new point of sale
system is in, which means you tap instead of typing your number. If it beeps twice it did not go
through. If it beeps twice and you walk away, that's stealing. That's from Mr. Cavanaugh, not from
me.
[B-ROLL: the cafeteria line at 11:20. A freshman taps the reader four times
in a row. It beeps twice each time. Nobody helps him.]
DF
Frost
Marching band starts full field
rehearsals Monday, 6 to 8:30, and Mr. Perkins wants everyone to know that the show this year is
called "Nocturne" and that it is, quote, actually difficult, so show up.
Pearce
Weather this week: hot Thursday,
like ninety, then it breaks Friday and Friday night is supposed to be around seventy-one at
kickoff. Which for late August is basically a gift.
Pearce
Delaney.
DF
Frost
I'm setting you up. Go.
[TRANSITION: paw wipe. SFX sting. TITLE CARD: TIGER SPORTS — presented by
Fenton Wing & Grill, "Home of the Tiger Bucket."]
TIGER SPORTSFOOTBALL · WEEK 1 PREVIEW
Pearce
Fenton football opens the season a
week from Friday, August twenty-eighth, at home against Clio. Seven o'clock. And I want to actually
say the thing out loud, because I think we've all been walking around not saying it.
Pearce
Last year this team went
undefeated in the regular season. Nine and zero. That had not happened here in longer than anyone
at this desk has been alive. Then Nick Mansour got hurt in week nine and we lost in the second
round and everybody kind of agreed to stop talking about it.
[FULL SCREEN GRAPHIC: 2025 REGULAR SEASON — 9–0. Below it: N. MANSOUR, JR.
SEASON — 35 PASS TD (SCHOOL RECORD) · 0 INT · 75% COMP · 850 RUSH YDS. The "0 INT" is in a slightly
different font because whoever built the graphic ran out of the licensed one.]
Pearce
Thirty-five touchdowns, zero
interceptions. I want to sit on that for one second. Zero. All season. He was a first-year player.
He had never played football before in his life, at any level, ever.
DF
Frost
Is that not normal?
Pearce
Delaney, that is so far from
normal that when I told my uncle he thought I was lying.
Pearce
Eight hundred and fifty rushing
yards and zero rushing touchdowns, too, which is its own weird thing — that's because Shane Kolinski
gets it inside the five. Every time. That's the whole reason.
[B-ROLL: Kolinski in the weight room. He notices the camera. He flexes. He
holds the flex for considerably too long.]
Pearce
We caught up with Coach Setzke
after Monday's practice.
[FIELD PACKAGE. Setzke, hat, whistle, walking. He does not stop walking during the
interview and the camera operator visibly struggles.]
JEFF SETZKEHEAD COACH · FENTON FOOTBALL
Setzke
We're not defending anything.
Last year's over. We have eleven new starters somewhere on this football team and we open against a
Clio team that's a lot faster than people think.
Pearce (off-camera)
What are your
expectations for Nick this year?
Setzke
Play well. Take care of the
football. He's our quarterback.
Pearce (off-camera)
Are you — is there
any concern about him physically after the —
Setzke
He's cleared. Doctor cleared him
in March. Next question.
Pearce (off-camera)
That was my last
one.
Setzke
Good. [He keeps
walking.]
[CUT. Different location — the equipment room doorway. Shaffer, sitting on a
cooler, entirely willing to stay as long as anyone wants.]
PAUL SHAFFEROFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
PS
Shaffer
What I'd tell you is he's a
different kid in the huddle than he was in August of last year. Not as a player — as a, you know, as
a leader of eleven guys. Last year those guys were following him because he was right. Now I think
a few of 'em are following him because they like him. That's a different thing and it takes
longer.
Pearce (off-camera)
Do you think college
coaches are going to figure out how good he is?
PS
Shaffer
[laughs] Buddy, I hope
so. I've been coaching in this league a long time and I have never had a kid I wanted somebody to
come watch this bad. Nobody's come. I'll say that plain. Nobody's called me.
PS
Shaffer
Chase Lynch has people calling.
Eastern's been out. That's great, that kid's earned it. Nobody's called about Nick.
[Long pause in the raw footage. The editor left about a second and a half of it
in, which was the right call.]
PS
Shaffer
It'll happen or it won't. He's
still gonna play.
[TRANSITION: paw wipe.]
Pearce
We also grabbed Nick for a couple
minutes. He does not love doing this.
[STUDIO-ADJACENT. Mansour on a stool in front of the pull-down backdrop, which
does not fully pull down and leaves a strip of the choir room visible at the top of frame.]
NICK MANSOURSENIOR · QUARTERBACK
Pearce
How's the body?
NM
Mansour
Good. Cleared in March. It's
not — people ask like it's still a thing and it's not still a thing. I got a scan, they said the
kidney's fine, I go to practice.
Pearce
Is it weird being back out
there?
NM
Mansour
A little. I haven't been hit
since October. That's a long time to not get hit and then just decide you're going to start getting
hit again on a Friday.
Pearce
What's the biggest difference in
the offense this year?
NM
Mansour
Zach. Zach West. Everybody's
going to be looking at Kevin, obviously, and they should, Kevin's the best player we have. But Zach
is six-three and he can actually run and people in this league are going to keep putting a
five-eight kid on him because that's who they have. That's — sorry, is that too much? That's
probably too much to say on TV.
Pearce
No, that's great, that's exactly
what I want.
NM
Mansour
Okay. Then yes. Zach.
Pearce
Last one. Everybody in this
school thinks you spent the summer on college visits. Did you?
NM
Mansour
[laughs] I worked at
Meijer.
Pearce
That's it?
NM
Mansour
I worked at Meijer, I lifted, I
played a lot of piano, and I threw with Kev and Aaron on Sundays. That's the summer. That's
genuinely the whole summer.
[Pearce, off camera, audibly starts to ask a follow-up and then doesn't.]
[TRANSITION: paw wipe. TITLE CARD: HALLWAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK]
DF
Frost
Every week we go out and ask you
guys something. This week: what's your prediction for the football team?
[MONTAGE — north hallway, between third and fourth hour. Cuts are fast.]
Senior, unidentified
Undefeated. Again.
Easy.
Sophomore, unidentified
Um. Good?
Junior, unidentified
Six and three.
Everyone's going to be mad at me for saying that but Goodrich is Goodrich.
Freshman, unidentified
Who's
Goodrich?
Hannah Swain
We're going to be great and
the student section is going to be the best it's ever been. Orange out. Week one. Tell them, don't
wear black, it looks terrible on camera and it's not the theme.
Tommy Quinn
I have no idea. I'm in band.
I watch the games from the end zone through a sousaphone. [pause] I think he's going to be
really good, though. Like — I've known him since we were nine. I still don't totally understand
what's happening.
[TRANSITION: paw wipe.]
DF
Frost
That's it for us. Volleyball opens
Thursday at Linden, girls golf is at Coyote Preserve on Monday, and if you want to be on Tiger
Television, Ms. Ruvalcaba has an open period sixth hour and she says, quote, "please, anyone."
Pearce
For Delaney Frost, I'm Michael
Pearce. Go Tigers.
[They hold the smile for four full seconds because nobody in the booth hit the
button. Frost's smile does not survive the fourth second.]
[CLOSING GRAPHIC: TIGER TELEVISION · A PRODUCTION OF FHS BROADCAST
JOURNALISM II · "IN MEMORY OF MR. DELANO" — which has been on the end card since 2021 and which
most current students have never asked about.]
ROAD TO GLORY
RTG-01 · Underdog Run · Week 0
