Troy Athletics announces first-of-its-kind creative lottery for high schoolers

Max Crews works his camera on the field during the Louisiana game. Troy Athletics photo

Troy Athletics announced a new initiative to get high school videographers and photographers involved on the sidelines at Troy football games last week.

The Student Creative Credential Program allows high school creatives within a 50-mile radius of Troy to enter a lottery for a chance to win sideline media credentials. Three creatives will be picked for each of the last three home football games this season.

“It gives an opportunity to some high school kids to be able to get experience, shoot a DI game and have a mentor,” said Troy Executive Associate Athletic Director for Communications, Branding and Creative Content Adam Prendergast, “It’s a chance for those kids to get an opportunity to shoot a college football game in this environment but also allows us to control the numbers.”

The program popped into Prendergast’s head on the bus to an away football game at Utah State. The associate athletic director in charge of creative content didn’t like how many media requests had to be denied this season. Still, he wanted a way for students to gain experience.

“We probably rejected 50-60 credential requests this year just because of the sheer volume of them coming in,” Prendergast said. “It didn’t sit well with me that we were having to turn these people down, especially the high school kids.

“You want to be someone that gives opportunities and gives chances to people.”

The lottery requires students to attend school within 50 miles of Troy while also having good academic standing at their high school. In addition, students must have adequate gear, must share photos with Troy Athletics and must dress appropriately, according to the Troy Athletics press release.

In addition to giving high school students more experience, Prendergast also hopes this program helps grow the already flowing pipeline of student creatives to Troy.

“Hopefully it’s a pathway that we get some of these high school students on campus,” Prendergast said. “A pathway for students that might not traditionally have come to Troy, and they can see what a Troy football game is all about.”

Although the lottery is currently for the last three football games of the season, Prendergast hopes the success of the program leads to it being reimplemented for basketball and baseball seasons.

“There’s not many places in baseball as we discovered at the super regional,” Prendergast said. “And for basketball, there’s baseline space but not a whole lot of space either.

“I would love to expand it out, and we’ll see how it goes.”

The program looks to give students an opportunity, something Troy has built a reputation for doing..

“I’m all about giving people an opportunity to grow and succeed,” Prendergast said. “That’s what makes Troy, Troy.