An exciting new addition to the Ramaz Athletics department is the Rampod. After nearly two years of the Athletic Department being sidelined due to the pandemic, it is finally up and running again thanks to the leadership of Coach Ari Witkes. Since sports teams are back, Coach Witkes has started a podcast highlighting star athletes who display excellent performance both on and off the court. “Students are chosen by performance. Not only by who scored the most points. Sometimes it could be the kid who motivated the team to win or did something we don’t see on the scoreboard,” Coach Witkes explained.

Each episode is around fifteen minutes long and contains three or four student interviews filmed in front of a Ramaz-themed background. After they are filmed, the footage is edited and produced by Adrian Rosenfeld ’24. Adrian has the editing down to a science and says it only takes him twenty-five minutes to put all the footage together each episode. The Rampod is a branch of the Ramaz sports network, which is run by Rosenfeld ‘24 and Coach Witkes. Ramaz Sports network is responsible for live streaming all of Ramaz’s home games, and now making the Rampod. Witkes told The Rampage, “Seeing Adrian’s strengths all over the place, I figured he’d be a great person to start and end with… he’s a good partner to have.” 

The goal is to have an episode released every week but it all depends on which games went on that week. When released the Rampod is linked in that week’s Zmail, Ramaz’s weekly email newsletter. Additionally, there is a section on the Ramaz website for the Rampod. On the website it says, “The Rampod highlights student athletes who have excelled for their respective teams and stood out. We interview them and get to know them and how the season is going. We also have a highlight reel of our plays of the week and bring in special guests.” 

The Rampod is about bringing sports off the court as well and having the athletes reach a larger audience. Coach Witkes noted, “I wanted to have a podcast where we could highlight all the athletes amongst the school’s different teams and showcase them individually for all their achievements and accomplishments.” 

As for the future of the Rampod, Coach Witkes hopes to expand past sports. They’ve already highlighted the Robotics team for their second place performance at their competition. “I  have actually been approached by teachers in different departments to have different departments. We really want to expand this to highlight all the different areas. It can start with sports but then we can get into the arts department, drama department and all the different areas,” said Coach Witkes. This idea was shown in the latest episode of the Rampod which featured students who participated in Ramjam which took place earlier this month.