St. Cloud Rox, Madison Mallards and Madison Night Mares are this year’s winners
Rochester, Minn. – The Northwoods League has announced that the St. Cloud Rox, Madison Mallards and Madison Night Mares are the organizations who have won the 2025 Northwoods League Best Video Production Game Coverage awards.
The Northwoods League Best Video Production Game Coverage award is presented to a team in each division, as well as each baseball and softball league that is considered to consistently produce the best viewing experience of their games. The award is given to the organization that constantly broadcasts with high quality and requires a production team working together to ensure that the camera work, graphics, announcing, audio and additional attention to detail are at an elite level.
“Congratulations to the Madison Mallards and Night Mares as well as the St. Cloud Rox for their outstanding video production in the Northwoods League! Their broadcasts brought every pitch, hit, and moment to life with creativity and precision, earning them the well-deserved Best Game Coverage award,” said Glen Showalter, President of the Great Plains Division. “Winning this award reflects the passion and teamwork behind every game—countless hours of preparation, continuous efforts to mastering the basics, seamless execution, and a relentless commitment to engaging fans. Madison and St. Cloud set the standard for excellence, and their dedication shines through in every broadcast. Hats off to both teams for delivering unforgettable experiences for NWL fans!”
The St. Cloud Rox were awarded the best game coverage in the Great Plains Division, and the Madison Mallards were awarded best game coverage in the Great Lakes Division for Northwoods League Baseball. The Madison Night Mares were awarded the best game coverage for Northwoods League Softball this season.
“Winning these awards is a direct reflection of the creativity, teamwork, passion, and hard work that is put in every day by our entire broadcast crew. As a previous video production intern, I can say the Northwoods League is the league for development not only on the player side but also the professional side. Every day my team would bring new and creative ideas on how to improve our broadcast and hold it to the highest standard it could be, and their hard work definitely paid off.” said Alan Lang, who leads both the Madison Night Mares and Madison Mallards Video Production.
Madison Night Mares and Madison Mallards broadcaster Ian Paprocki commented “There’s no doubt that the Northwoods League is a grind for players, but it’s also a grind for broadcasters and production teams. I’ve really embraced that, and I’ve been very fortunate to work with such a talented and dedicated broadcast team in Madison that embraces it as well. It’s been a really special experience for me.” The Madison video production team has now celebrated winning this award for the second-straight season. Paprocki was selected to be part of the broadcast team for the 2025 Northwoods League Home Run Challenge as well as being the play-by-play announcer for the 2025 Northwoods League All-Star Game.
The Northwoods League continued to partner with ESPN+, streaming over 170 games on the platform this season. The League saw over 1-million unique viewers tune in for live game coverage and totaled over 40-million minutes watched between the League’s NWL+ platform and ESPN+ throughout the summer.
The St. Cloud Rox have a long-standing tradition of quality video production from their organization, being a consistent winner of the Northwoods League video production awards in the past. Kyle Narod, the St. Cloud Video Production Supervisor stated, “I was excited to return for year two in St. Cloud. My main goal for this year was to come up with fun ways to welcome fans to the broadcast and help fill the dead time during pitching changes and mound visits. It started by wanting some extra b-roll to start the show and maybe a player interview here and there, but it grew into so much more. We were able to air daily player interviews, previous manager reports, highlight packages of Rox alumni playing in the majors, and player tributes for Father’s Day and Fan Appreciation! To make all of this come to fruition, it took a lot of people pulling in the same direction, and I’m extremely proud of our team. From scheduling times with players, to all the video editing, and ultimately finding the right time to play the segments live, there were a lot of moving parts that all fell into place. To see these passion projects recognized by the League was truly the perfect cherry on top for another season of Rox Solid Fun!”
Calvin Kasper, St. Cloud’s Promotions and Marketing Director also commented, “I couldn’t be prouder of our team. From the camera operators and directors to our creative staff, everyone played a part in making our broadcasts fun, fresh, and engaging. This award is really a testament to their hard work. We set out to try new things this season, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication from our staff. With returning team members, we hit our stride early and were able to push the broadcast further than ever before.”
In addition to games on ESPN, the Northwoods League offered its streaming service Free to the viewing public once again in 2025, which included games streamed live and on-demand.
Fans can watch Northwoods League games on their own televisions using Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku and Android TV, in addition to being able to watch them on their PC, mobile device or tablet.
Northwoods League teams recruit talented individuals for their video production teams every season, many of which are in excellent college broadcasting programs at top level colleges. These webcasting teams consist of directors, announcers, producers, and camera operators, all of which must work together to produce and stream quality games for the viewers.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Having completed its’ 32nd season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in history with 26 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, nearly 2400 NWL alums have been drafted and over 410 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TOR), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford and World Series Champion and Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, MLB All-Star, MLB Gold Glove, two-time Silver Slugger winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). League games are viewable live on Northwoods League+ (at watch.northwoodsleague.com) and ESPN+.
Leveraging the 32-year success of the Northwoods League, the first for-profit Summer Collegiate Baseball League, Northwoods League Softball (NWLS) is the first for-profit Women’s Summer Collegiate Softball League which began play in the Upper Midwest in the summer of 2024. The purpose of the League will be to develop players for their college, Olympic and future professional play. Teams will be promoted similar to minor league baseball teams, playing games in front of fans in a fun, friendly, family-oriented environment.