For some Williston students, game day prep means getting a full night of sleep, eating a hearty breakfast, and completing pre-game stretches. For the school’s growing team of student photographers, this prep entails charging camera batteries, bringing the correct lens, and formatting memory cards, all to capture the green and blue’s best moments on the field.
It seems every time someone opens Instagram, they are hit with a new carousel of perfectly edited and framed photos. These come from a new crop of student photographers dedicated to capturing the Wildcats in action.
Jade Morris, Williston’s Athletic Director, explained that the focus on student photographers came from the Athletics department’s goal of better representing Williston sports through the student’s point of view.
Steve Hoyt, a Williston coach, supporting Morris’ goal, notes the positive impact of having students at the center of the school’s content.
“It allows [a new kind of] expression at our school … how we represent the Williston brand,” he said. “These are student thoughts and ideas and stuff that they want to [put out].”
Teagan Duffy, a 2024 Williston alumna and a current student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took photos for Williston’s Athletics department during her three years on campus, alongside fellow alums Carter Cleary ’25 and Aaron Hammer ’24.
Teagan started doing photography as her afternoon program during her first winter season on campus. She notes that it “got [her] outside … doing stuff,” and helped her “be creative in the dead of winter when everyone [was] kind of not having a great time.” She noted that at first it was difficult to get comfortable taking photos at games.
“It was nerve-wracking to be this … girl up on a ladder, peeking over the plexiglass in the rink,” she said.
[Editor’s note: Teagan is the author’s sister.]
Teagan highlighted the impact of having multiple different photographers’ perspectives on campus, and how fun it has been to see Williston through a current student’s view.
“It’s very clear that each person who [takes photos] has their own creative spin, which I think is really interesting to watch,” she said.
The Willistonian talked with four current student photographers who have devoted time to capturing Williston’s best athletes.
Theo Houle, a junior from Canton, Conn. known as @_tjflicks, started taking photos at his previous school, Avon Old Farms, before deciding to continue his passion at Williston.
Theo showed up to the first home football game this year, and started taking photos when he ran into Hoyt, who he knew before attending Williston, and who helped him get involved with sports media on campus.
“[Mr. Hoyt] saw me and talked to me about doing the media stuff … we just [got] started,” he said.
Will Nadeau, a sophomore from Quebec, known as @nadz_pics12 on Instagram, is still at the beginning of his photography career. He was “not interested in sports media before Williston,” but seeing other photographers made him want to get involved.
“I did it for fun on the side of my hockey season and did not post my pictures anywhere,” he said. After his winter season ended, Will “wanted to get involved a little bit more and decided to join the creative team.” He has been sharing his photos with the school and its athletes for the past three months. When “Williston Teams collaborates on my posts … it helps get more likes,” he added.
Jimmy McLaughlin, a sophomore from Dover, Mass., known as @j4m_media to his clients, has been a sports videographer for about a year now. After coming to Williston in December, he decided to pursue it as his afternoon program.
Jimmy noted the impact that photographing Williston sports has had on his social media following.
It “has grown hugely… being able to post with individual teams as well as the official Williston Teams account gets lots of eyes on my work,” he said.
Cam Callahan, a sophomore from Westhampton, Mass., takes photos outside of Williston in addition to photographing game days on campus. He has been taking pictures for two years now; Cam promotes his work through his social media, @camtakesflics, and networking with individual athletes. Cam notes that “working with Williston has definitely promoted [his] work more.”
The job of a sports photographer extends well beyond the actual game. All the Wildcat photographers stated they spend multiple hours on shooting and processing combined.
Will said “for one shoot, I spend about two or three hours out on the field shooting, then three-four hours editing and uploading to social media. Most of the work is done behind the scenes.”
Theo and Cam agree with Will that spending multiple hours on one game’s content is often the standard. Jimmy’s work can be more varied, taking less or more time depending on the form of content.
“For me, it depends on the project I’m working on” he said. “Game highlights for a team may only take 30 minutes or so, but individual highlight reels/mixtapes can take days.”
While the photographers love any chance to catch the Wildcats in action, they each have their favorite teams to cover.
Will and Cam share an interest in photographing boys lacrosse games.
Cam “played [lacrosse] for years and now [knows] where to be” to get the right photos. Will enjoys the fast pace of the game in comparison to other sports.
“There are [so] many goals in a game, so you can get good pictures of celebrations,” he said. “I also like the helmets, because it allows me to get detailed, close up shots.”
Jimmy prefers teams that give him a challenge, such as swimming and diving.
“I was asked to make a video for them during my first couple of weeks here, and it presented a unique challenge for me,” he said. “I created something I was really happy with, and it was a nice change of pace.”
Teagan loved shooting for boys basketball and girls hockey during her time at Williston.
“I was always able to get really good shots because … the games were …really competitive, which made for good photos,” she said.
Theo enjoys football games the most.
“I think you get can get the most variety of shots,” he said. “You get action shots…there’s a wide range.”
While Theo is not sure if he will continue photography beyond high school, he thinks the foundation he has created could take him far.
“I know with what I’ve learned and what I’ve set up here that I could [continue sports media beyond high school] if I wanted to,” he said.
Hoyt is hopeful for the opportunities Williston is providing for students in sports media.
“It provides [students] an opportunity to get some experience and develop some professionalism if this is something [they] want to pursue [later on],” he said. “Sports has been kind of an easy on ramp for some of these kids … they go to games, they shoot, and they post, and it’s pretty straightforward … it’s been a lot of fun to kind of get these kids going that way.”
Jimmy is grateful for his experience in sports media at Williston and hopes to continue his passion in college.
“Ideally, I’d be working and filming games for a college athletic department,” he said, noting that the athletic “staff has been incredible” and “the access to teams is unmatched … it really does feel like [shooting] college athletics in that sense.”
