Cal-Hi Sports cameras returns to the sidelines for the 10th year

"The goal of the [original] show was to show teenagers achieving positive goals," he says, "and that's what we still do today."

Put the two shows together, and Braunstein kicks off his 20th season on the air with the same passion for high school sports that he had when he first started.

"It's been fun," he says of his many years working with young people. "I've met so many great kids over the years. We try to treat kids like adults. We treat them with respect and they treat us with respect."

As much as the shows and the kids have remained the same through the years, the process for the show's production has changed dramatically.

"We used to send it over the Internet to Atlanta, and it took 20 hours to send it to them," he explains. "Now we deliver the show digitally. It goes right into the server, and we FedEx the hard drive.

"And we just went HD last year," he adds, "so it's really important that we have a robust computer."

In addition, Cal-Hi has entered the social networking environment on Facebook and Twitter.

Braunstein's career has come a long way since he first had dreams of pulling together his love of sports and his interest in broadcasting.

Finding his passion

Braunstein was born in San Mateo, but he considers himself a San Jose native since his family moved here when he was just a toddler. For the past 38 years, he's lived in San Jose's Almaden Valley.

He attended Williams Elementary School, Bret Harte Middle School and Leland High School, and while he admits to only playing a little soccer, his avid interest in sports led him to broadcasting.

"My dad told me, 'Find something you have a passion for, and you'll be successful,' " he says. "Well, I loved sports, and I love broadcasting."

Following his graduation from Leland in 1976, he went on to attend De Anza and Foothill colleges before settling in at San Jose State University to pursue a degree in TV-radio-film.

From there he continued on to the University of Missouri where he earned a master's degree in journalism.

"We covered a lot of high school sports on the school station," he recalls. "I was on every night and in charge of high school sports."

That led to a job on a small market TV station in Laredo, Texas.

"It was KGNS-TV, the 'Good Neighbor Station,' " he says with a smile. "I got to make a whole of mistakes without many people seeing me. But I got to eat a lot of great Tex-Mex food."

To say that high school football is big in Texas is a big understatement, but after a year of a half of covering games in the 115-degree heat of the Lone Star State, Braunstein got the chance to come home as a news reporter and back-up sports broadcaster at KICU-Channel 36 in San Jose.

When sports director John Shrader left the station to join the team at KNBR radio, Braunstein took over the nightly sports desk.

"It was a lot of fun, and they were great people," says Braunstein of KICU. "We had local ownership and they cared about the community."

It wasn't long after that when Braunstein approached management with a brand-new idea.

"We started talking about starting a high school sports show," he recalls. "I thought that if we did it right, we could be successful."

He took the idea to KICU sales rep Robert Martinez, and the two went to work.

"Courtesy Chevrolet signed on to sponsor a show that didn't exist," says Braunstein, and in 1991 High School Sports Focus was born.

"We put it on and very quickly it was the most popular show on the station," he says. "It started as Football Focus until we realized that we needed to do this all year long."

New show begins

A change in ownership at KICU led to Braunstein's departure from the station, over some very controversial salary issues that had to ultimately be resolved through legal channels. So after nearly 20 years at the station and following his 10th season as the Sports Focus host, he left KICU ... on of all days, Sept. 11, 2001.

"Next, I had to have a tough talk with my wife and kids," he says. "I decided that I had such a passion for high school sports, I knew that I would regret it if I didn't give my own show a chance."

By Feb. 19, 2002, he had his new show on the air.

"It was a completely different thing to try to produce an entire show on the computer," he admits. "I was doing a lot of it out of my house, but I was working every minute of every day to get the show on the air--some days 24 hours straight."

But just as he was at KICU, Braunstein was an instant success.

"We were lucky enough to have many of the same sponsors from my old show come with us to the new show," he says. "That was huge."

Trouble was, there was already a high school sports highlights show on television--the High School Sports Focus show that he had created.

"I was competing with my old show," he says. "Turns out I did too good of a job creating the brand name for the old show, so I had to compete with that."

Braunstein is nothing if not competitive, though. Six years after Cal-Hi's debut, Sports Focus died.

"They took it off the air," he says. "The main reason is we just outworked them. We hired people with a passion for what they do. We worked hard to put on a quality, successful show and we put kids in a positive light."

Mike Carrozzo, the head football coach at Braunstein's former high school, Leland, agrees.

"When you think about all the options these kids have today, to sit home playing video games and watch TV, and these kids are all out here working hard, Cal-Hi Sports has the ability to show the great things that these kids are doing," says Carrozzo.

"It's a testament to what he does and what these kids are doing," he adds. "You see so much bad news about kids. This is the one channel where you get to see some good news about what kids are doing."

The Cal-Hi team

Braunstein is quick to point out that he doesn't do it all alone: It's truly a team effort.

Heading up his crew is Harris, a Braunstein protégé at San Jose State.

"Robert was my instructor there," says Harris, who begins his fourth year with Cal-Hi. "He was spearheading the broadcast journalism department when I was there. We worked well together, and after I graduated he called me and brought me on as a photographer."

"He's exceptional, and he has a great work ethic," says Braunstein of Harris, a 2001 graduate of Los Gatos High School who has spent time at KCAT, the Los Gatos cable channel, KRON-TV and KLIV radio.

"I grew up loving sports, and now I'm able to go to games and say that's my job," says Harris, still a newlywed after marrying Janelle in 2010. "So just being around sports, and the excitement that the kids get for having us there, it's great."

Rounding out the crew of regulars are Viñal, a former volleyball star at Presentation High School and a UC-Berkeley graduate; Lovus, another San Jose State grad; DeStefano, who went to Leigh High School and is now a San Jose State student; and Gahl, a University of Missouri graduate.

The crew works mostly during the school year, but Cal-Hi Sports is a year-round job for Braunstein, who spends his summer working in sales and signing up sponsors. He doesn't mind, though, since a "nice settlement" from KICU helped take over ownership of the show.

And now, with the operation going so smoothly, Braunstein is planning yet another bold move. He's planning a run next year for Nancy Pyle's District 10 seat on the San Jose City Council. Pyle is completing her second term on the council and is termed out.

Since the district includes the Almaden Valley, Braunstein figures it's a natural move for him, considering he and his wife have lived in the area for so many years.

Like her husband, Ann Braunstein grew up in the Almaden Valley and attended Leland High School. She teaches third grade at Booksin Elementary School in Willow Glen, where she was the teacher of the year three years ago. They have two children, Kelly, 22, a San Jose State student, and Daniel, 20, a student at West Valley College.

"I have a lot of ideas about what can be done and what should be done," he says. "I just feel that instead of sitting back and complaining about things, you should go out and try to make some changes yourself."

He won't be making many changes at Cal-Hi Sports, though. He likes things just the way they are. And apparently, so do the thousands of viewers who tune in each week to applaud the positive achievements of Bay Area high school athletes.

"Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area" airs on KOFY-TV20 each Sunday at 6 and 11 p.m. and on weekdays on Comcast Sportsnet throughout the school year.