Imagine a quarterback throwing to the endzone, the emotion in their face, the instantaneous spiral of the ball flying through the air. The receiver is lining up to haul in the grab and adjusting their feet as they are launched in trajectory of the soon-to-be touchdown catch. What follows is the thunderous roar of the crowd and the celebrations of the players. All the action is captured by the camera.
Sports media is something that is essential to the athletic life of the school. Mason von Jess ’19, the head of media for athletics, expresses the importance of media for athletes.
“We have lots of alumni, parents, and community members that want to know what’s going on, and so that’s one way to make sure that people feel connected to each event even while they’re super busy and can’t be at every game themselves,” he said.
Mr. von Jess also explained how the media greatly benefited him when he was a student athlete here at the school. “I think just having as many photos or videos while you’re competing, that’s something that I appreciated as a student athlete. One of my goals is to help make sure that this coverage is provided to our current student athletes and future student athletes,” he said.
He also connected his work with media to his experience in athletics, sharing that his love for competition and teamwork drives his want to improve the school’s athletic media. “I really value great competition, especially team sports when athletes compete as a group and work towards a common goal. So this is my way of contributing to those values of not just one team but all of our teams at the school,” he said.
Mr. von Jess views his job as a team as every media faculty member works together to share the stories of Hotchkiss athletics. He said his main goal as a media coordinator is to make sure there is coverage for every sport and giving every team and athlete the opportunity to represent the school.
“The media plays a part in essentially retelling the story of the game for people who weren’t able to go there,” said Warren Edwards ’27.
Behind the scenes of Hotchkiss Athletics media, there are the photographers, including Warren Edwards ’27 and Mattias Liem ’29.
Edwards shared that though photography was always in the picture, as his father is a photographer, his passion for photography didn’t really begin until Covid hit. “At my old middle school, we would do a project in our history class every week. We would make a news segment, and we would talk about current events that were going on,” he said. “Then, when Covid hit, everything switched to online, and so part of our grade was how creative we were with how we recorded it or how we edited it.
That’s what really got me thinking; Hey, I really like doing this.”
Edwards said he values the creative outlet that photography provides, and his passion for it is shown in the photos he has taken, many of which are visible on the Hotchkiss Athletics Instagram. He does all of this through a media and live production company that he started in 2023.
Liem shared the process that goes into taking photos and what he can do to execute his idea of the best possible photo.
“There’s a lot of luck involved in it to be honest; a bunch of things can happen at once. There’s also a lot of preparation beforehand, kind of knowing what sport you’re doing and what kind of photos that could come out of that sport,” he said.
He expresses the overwhelming effect of luck in the photography progress and the importance of being at the right place at the right time. Edwards echoes this idea. He said, “after a while, you have to start to predict the game in a sense, and so that gets really tricky to also think about getting newer creative or different shots.”
Both Edwards and Liem said that it is important to have photography to showcase the work that not everyone gets to see. Edwards said, “The media plays a part in essentially retelling the story of the game for people who weren’t able to go there.”
Liem said, “Not everyone knows what sports people play, what they do, and how hard they work. So I think just being able to showcase that is incredibly rewarding.”
Sports photography is something that is essential for bringing people together. Whether it’s supporting a friend, savoring a memory, or capturing the moments that make the team, we tend to forget that without photography, Hotchkiss athletics wouldn’t be the same.