As a play-by-play sportscaster of four years, senior Joran Palacio is finally getting his big break. As a finalist for a Student Production Award, Palacio is one of about 120 students nominated as part of the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

According to the Academy, the Student Production Awards are for high school and college students whose “videos [are] produced as part of a class, for which school credit is received.”

To be clear, a Student Production Award is not a Rocky Mountain Emmy. They are separate awards that are both awarded by the aforementioned National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. They both fall under the Rocky Mountain Southwest division of the Academy. A Rocky Mountain Emmy is just not for students.

“Just to be nominated- that’s a huge résumé builder,” says Palacio. “Play-by-play has been my dream since I stepped foot on the campus since my freshman year.”

In order to be nominated, a teacher or administrator must go online to the Rocky Mountain Emmy website and fill out an application for the nominee, along with a small fee.

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“They have a whole grading process with professionals that go and look at the videos,” says Multimedia and Film Teacher Brian Bernier. “It needs to make a certain standard just to get past the first round of grading, and then it goes to the second portion, and then from there they grade the finalists.”

According to Lara Gates, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter, each entry is graded by three judges on a 30 point scale: 10 for content, 10 for creativity, and 10 for execution.

The Academy is very selective about what is and is not award-worthy material. According to Bernier, “last year [in Palacio’s category], they didn’t have anything that met the criteria so they didn’t have a winner.” The award can be given to one, multiple or, as demonstrated last year, zero recipients in any given category.

“He should’ve won one last year,” says Bernier. “We submitted last year and something happened with the process, they never graded our file that we sent them.”

This year, the awards ceremony will be held at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale on Oct. 8.

When it comes down to brass tacks, Palacio’s talent as a sportscaster with Perry Sports 4 (PS4) is what has carried him this far throughout his four years. “[Palacio] truly takes an initiative with all of us here at PS4….with his hard work and undeniable talent,” says junior and fellow member Nikola Dramicanin.

“Any time a student here is doing well from Perry High School, that brings [us] attention,” Principal Dan Serrano shares. “10 years from now, he’s going to be big time.”