It was all part of an August media day by TK photography and digital media students. Throughout the day, students conducted video interviews and hosted photo sessions for varsity soccer and football players. It’s work students hope get a lot of attention at home games when the finished videos and pictures are shown on the large scoreboard especially before the games.
“It felt like I was interviewing a professional athlete or something. It seems like what would happen in the real world and I like the idea of that. It was like a real job,” said Lambitz.
The day was a learning experience for all involved. While this August media day featured the soccer and football teams, students say they are already planning similar experiences for other teams.
Taylor Mack took turns taking photos of the players on the field. “This year I’m going to do an independent study and I want to focus on sports photography. This is a great way to learn and get some practice.”
The TKHS junior said learning about photography has given her a different perspective on how she notices the world around her. “I view everything a little differently now. Like, how it would look in a picture,” she said.
Senior Cayla Brouwer has already been working as a professional photographer taking senior and family photos. Brouwer showed players different poses she wanted them to imitate. Some were specific to each player’s position, while others were more general football stances. Her freshman assistant Landon Lambitz strategically positioned the smoke machine so it blew in just the right places for Brouwer to capture the perfect shot.
“I did this last year and it was a lot of fun. It's a great experience,” said Brouwer.
For sophomore Makayla Price, media day was one of her first opportunities to do anything like it. “I took digital media 1 just because I wanted it for an art credit I needed. But I totally fell in love with it. I love the technology part and I love being able to do media day for teams.”
She said she’s already learned a lot from this project. “Not everything will work out the way you want or expect it to, but that’s why we have editing and we learn to problem solve.” Price said she would like to possibly do some kind of sports media at a higher level in the future.
Digital media teacher Derek Dean and art and photography teacher Barb Maring helped coordinate, schedule and oversee the day-long event taking place before the school year officially began.
“It’s a great chance for my students to get some practical experience,” said Dean. “We really like using the big scoreboard screen to show some of the work and highlight the teams.”
Maring agreed. “This really helps students feel more comfortable about taking control of a photo shoot and communicating with the players to get the poses just the way they want them.”
But it wasn’t just a learning experience for the media students. The athletes said they also learned a lot from the day.
“It’s pretty cool. It feels more like we're college or pro and getting interviewed. It kind of shows us what it would be like,” said Dahley.
Senior Micah Dock said he appreciates what his fellow students are doing for the athletic teams. “When we were freshmen we didn’t have anything like this. I’m grateful for them doing all this. It feels like team bonding for all of us and just getting ready for the season. They’ve put a lot of time into all this and I really appreciate it.”