Even though senior Kyle Ross has had a few setbacks, he has grown into a driven student with a spark of talent for broadcasting that just keeps brightening.

Ross has previously attended Carman-Ainsworth and Linden school districts, but finally settled at Kearsley in the eighth grade after the death of his mother.

When first moving to the district, he lived with his sister, but after joining football he started becoming close with senior Gabriel Amaya and his family, whom he then moved in with.

“Kyle and I are really close,” Amaya said. “Kyle is like the brother I have never had.”

Soon after moving in, Ross started watching Gabriel’s father, Mr. Fernando Amaya Jr., announce for football games and disc jockey for different types of events, which started to peak an interest for him.

Ross then began to help Mr. Amaya at these events.

“I began to announce for Mr. Fernando Amaya Jr. in my freshman year,” Ross said. “I thought it was so fun, so I began to do it more often.”

Around this time, Ross also started working out at Davison High School, where he was introduced to the school’s broadcasting teacher, Mr. Randy Scott.

Automatically, broadcasting gained his interest, so he started working closely with Scott to learn about it.

Scott said that Ross was “very dedicated” to it in a June 2015 article in The Eclipse.

Kearsley previously had a broadcasting class called K-NEWS, but it was shut down after 2012 due to lack of participation.

But with all of Ross’ newly-found interest for broadcasting, he was inspired to bring something similar to K-NEWS back to the district in the form of a club called the Kearsley Broadcasting Network.

He, with the help of a few other students, had KBN up and running in no time, and it quickly started becoming a success.

Senior Joey Angliss, KBN member, is proud of Ross and all of the hard work he has put into the program.

“He is a good leader of the group,” Angliss said. “Even though we hit our rough patches, I could not imagine a better head of the program.”

Due to his success of bringing broadcasting back to the district, near the end of September Ross landed an internship with the local hockey team, the Flint Firebirds.

Ross’ dedication to KBN caught the attention of Mr. Jeremy Torrey, the general manager of the Dort Federal Event Center (previously known as the Perani Arena), who then told the director of broadcasting and communications for the Firebirds, Mr. Dominic Hennig, about him.

Hennig then set up an interview with Ross about the internship program.

Weeks later, Ross started participating in it.

“Usually you knock on opportunity’s door,” Ross said. “In my case, opportunities knocked on my door.”

The internship program allows Ross to help run the audio, video, and stream equipment during the Firebirds’ home games, along with any other behind-the-scenes operations when it comes to broadcasting the games.

His internship ends with the team’s last home game in March 2016.

After graduating, Ross plans to continue his involvement with broadcasting and making more connections in the field.

He is determined to eventually pursue a degree in broadcasting or cinematic arts at Central Michigan University.

“Everyone who has been a part of my life and supported me at Kearsley, I would like to thank them,” Ross said. “Without the students, staff, and the Amaya family, I would not have become who I am today.”