The air–horn blows, and the student section chants as the Prosper Eagle football team scores touchdowns on Friday nights at Children’s Health Stadium. The Jumbotron flashes instant replays, various camera shots, and crowd shots to bring life to the crowd. All of these operations perform through the work of the Prosper ISD stadium crew program.
“My favorite part is just being on the field when I’m using a camera, it feels like I’m in the game,” junior Cali Swick said. “I just love capturing those special moments on the jumbotron, for the whole stadium to see, so that they can feel like they’re in those memories too. It feels nice capturing all those smiles on people’s faces as well as all the celebrations.”
The program is led by AV Director, Michael Logan, who is in charge of all the graphics, what goes up on the Jumbotron, training students, and scheduling crew members to run the games.
“I am very proud that the stadium events are 100% student run,” Logan said. “While an advisor is there making sure everything gets done how it should, the students are the ones doing all of the work, pushing all the buttons, doing all the camera work, and so it’s truly a student run broadcast.”
There are numerous roles for students to fulfill at stadium events including field cameras, wireless cameras, technical director, shading, and audio.
“I generally get scheduled as the tech director, so I show up around 3:00, then I help take down cameras, make sure we can see every camera, make sure everybody’s on their comms, and make sure everything is running smoothly,” sophomore Dylan Mize said. “During the game, I’m the one calling the shots and deciding what’s going up on the Jumbotron for everyone to see.”
The stadium crew program incorporates students from all Prosper ISD high schools, Prosper High School, Rock Hill High School, and Walnut Grove High School.
“The work environment is an odd mix of serious and fun,” Logan said. “We have high standards to uphold, and I have high expectations for the students, but at the same time, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a blast working with all the kids from other high schools and getting to form those relationships with the other students in the other broadcast programs.”
The stadium crew operates professional technical equipment on the field and in the control room in the press box to perform the best broadcast stream to their ability. Students control the Jumbotron which switches between various camera shots, audio playing from the speakers, and the visual appearance of graphics on the Jumbotron.
“I think the biggest challenge doing stadium crew is learning all the equipment because it is very complicated,” Swick said. “If one thing is wrong, it messes up everything, so you have to make sure that you understand what each cable goes to, how all the cameras work, and ensure everything in the control room works perfectly.”
Students working at Children’s Health Stadium have the opportunity to get recognition on platforms even larger than the school district.
“One of the first times Fox 4 used my footage on air was a proud moment,” Bradston Swick said. “One of the anchors made a little comment saying that the camera operator got juked because I messed up a little bit but after seeing that, I was like it’s not the biggest deal and at the end of the day I was really proud of myself.”
Gaining video production experience outside and inside of the classroom, stadium crew students are all in their respective high school’s broadcast or video production courses.
“My favorite part of running stadium crew is forming relationships with the students,” Logan said. “Both at our high school that are not in my class, but also the other high school students and seeing them get to know each other and work together and get to know each other as friends and co workers rather than competitors.”
Logan alongside stadium crew alumni have been able to see first–hand the real–world outcomes of participating in this program.
“I’ve seen a lot of benefits come from these kids working in the stadium crew,” Logan said. “They often get to work with the Frisco Roughriders or the All Americans while they’re still in high school and I see that translate into the college level as well. So, the stadium enables them to have many more opportunities outside the classroom, which will boost their career.”
From learning advanced equipment to learning how to work as a team, this group of PISD students works week after week to provide superior coverage of all events at Children’s Health Stadium.
“Stadium crew definitely teaches you to communicate, because we’re all a team. If stuff’s going down on the field or on the film deck it needs to be communicated,” Bradston Swick said. “I feel like I’ve been able to learn how I can communicate issues better with other people, and solve issues and work as a team with other people because in the end, none of this can be done unless everybody’s working together.”
