When alumnus Brooke Stobbe, ’12, was nearing her high school graduation, she began training another student to carry on the weekly video announcements, “FC Underground”. As a sophomore, Callista Fries has began hosting the segment alone to continue the tradition that began many years ago.

Though she resisted joining the journalism class at first, Fries was convinced to join by both Brooke and her dad, who is also the adviser, Greg Stobbe.

“At the beginning of spring 2012 I had no interest in joining publications class,” Fries said. “But my adviser {Greg Stobbe} did not take ‘no’ for an answer and sent Brooke to recruit me. Brooke is a very persuasive person. I began to tag along with Brooke while she filmed last school year and soon I became hooked.”

As a first-year journalism student, Fries realized the new skills she was learning by hosting “FC Underground” along with a weekly podcast called Live from Callyfornia.

“I never thought that joining Journalism would combine the characteristics of more than three classes,” Fries said. “I make films like Video Productions, I write a lot like most English classes and I act like drama students. I would never think to enroll in any of these other courses. But journalism has the best of all of them.”

At first, Fries was scared of the task of memorizing each announcement, but now those first few struggles have become a weekly routine, without much stress.

“The thought of having to remember the exact details of every announcement would terrify me, but Brooke helped me over come that fear,” Fries. “After nearly a semesters worth of doing ‘FC Underground’ on my own, the challenges I faced at the beginning of the year are now mostly a memory. While I used to struggle with being able to remember all the announcements during recording, the daily news has become a part of my routine.”

Even now, Fries knows the amount of work producing ‘FC Underground’ can be, but thinks she would not have joined if she had been aware of the time and effort involved.

“If I was aware of the amount of work needed to film and publish ‘FC Underground’, I definitely would not have joined,” Fries said. “But luckily, Brooke eased me into it. It began with just having to print the announcements but soon grew to having to decide which of the announcements deserved to be featured in the video. But when Brooke graduated, I was left a little in shock. I then had begin to start writing a script every week and having to choose different scenery for every shot.”

Stobbe returned to Fresno for the Thanksgiving break after moving to Phoenix to attend Arizona State University (ASU). She decided to stop in to congratulate Fries on the 20th edition of ‘Underground’ and happily became involved with the weekly show.

“I really enjoyed doing FC Underground with Callista again– I’ve missed it so much!” Stobbe said. “I’ve never missed a week, and watch it every Monday in my dorm room with my roommate, Chloe. It felt like the ‘good ‘ol days’ with her. After every clip I’d say ‘K, what’s next chief?’ like she would say to me when I was still leading the videos. I’ve missed doing silly videos with her, but I was proud and confident handing over the reigns, and she hasn’t let me down– she’s a fantastic girl both on and off the camera.”

With almost an entire semester behind her, Fries looks forward to more changes and improvements.

“I am very proud of myself to say I have almost completed my first semester on my own,” Fries. “But I am still looking forward to many improvements to be made. Next semester we plan on making ‘FC Underground’ a bit more formal and more like a news cast. But for an overall recap of this semester it was a success considering I was on my own.”

This is the 20th episode of “FC Underground, 2012-13” covering the week of Nov. 26-30, 2012. Sophomore Callista Fries is a first-year host and broadcasts the video news alone. FC Underground is a weekly segment hosted by Fries, filmed by senior Nathan Bender, and produced by senior videographer Juan Ruelas.

For these and other events, read The Feather Online announcements at the Daily News on the right menu bar.

The segments consist of news, interviews, profiles and comments on campus life. Each episode is between two and three minutes in length.

“FC Underground” first ran in the fall of 1997 and continued until the spring of 2001. In the fall of 2009, editor-in-chief Suzanna Quiring, ’10, resumed the series, which was then produced by Paige Powell, ’10. After Quiring and Powell graduated, Brooke Stobbe and David Casuga took up the job until the end the 2011-’12 school year. Now, Fries and Ruelas have continued the segments.

For the previous episode, watch last week’s episode: FC Underground No. 19