Troy football staffer sets higher standard with video staff

“I’m holding us to a higher standard.”

As Aaron Sisk works at his desk in the north endzone  complex of Veterans Memorial Stadium, that higher standard is evident in all the work he’s done.

The Moorhead, Minnesota native, whose official title with Troy Football is “Director of Football Video,” has followed the Troy football team through four years and two head coaches.   In this most recent season, Sisk was named the Collegiate Sports Video Association Sun Belt Video Coordinator of the Year.

“Getting the call from our conference liaison saying that I was the one who won was a bit of shock at first,” Sisk said about receiving the award. “I think all of us in the conferencedo a good job.

“For the rest of the conference to vote me as our coordinator of the year, that’s a big deal for me. We’re all doing the same thing, but they look at me as ‘he’s doing it better.’”

Despite Sisk being on the younger side, he’s already racked up plenty of impressive additions to his resume. The SBC Video Coordinator of the Year is just the most recent accomplishment.

In his office, sitting right behind his chair where he works, you can find memorabilia from one of his other impressive stops, the NFL.

“The NFL, which I knew it would be, is very different from college,” Sisk said about his year and half stint with the Miami Dolphins. “You come back [from break] and it’s right into draft prep.

“We had more full-time help. We had four full timers, and we had a full-time intern. We had four to five people every single day.”

Before Miami and the NFL, Sisk contributed at the SEC level, working as an assistant director of football video at Arkansas.

“If there were things we wanted to do or try, we could do it,” Sisk said about the SEC level. “We had 14-15 students there.”

Despite the stops in the NFL and SEC, arguably the most impressive culture Sisk worked in was the one he started out at, North Dakota State at the FCS level. In Sisk’s four years with the Bisons, he helped coordinate video for three national championships.

“It was kind of an accident,” Sisk said about joining the video crew at his alma mater. “I shot them an email, saying, ‘I’m looking to get my foot in the door of football wherever I can.’

“I was told I was going to be helping out with equipment. Their Director of Football Operations also handled equipment, I met him and he goes, ‘I’ve got too many kids right now, if you want, video needs some help.’ I’d never done it before, and I showed up to the first day of fall camp.”

Those experiences spread out across so many different levels of football help Sisk prepare his student managers for life, and a career, outside of Troy.

“What helps get them better is if they can see what the coaches are seeing,” said Sisk about improving the skills of his students, “If they can visualize what they’re doing, it makes them better at filming.

“The better they are at filming, the better it is for the coaches and for the players.”

Sisk also looks to motivate his managers and make them feel like a team inside the team.

“I really push staff and group camaraderie,” Sisk said. “You look at the season. You’re up here six days a week, three to four hours a day, seeing the same people and let’s be honest, people get sick of each other.

“I try to do a good job during the season, once a month, to do a video dinner at my house. Everybody comes over and me and my wife cook for everybody. Just to get them out of the work mindset.”

Despite graduating from North Dakota State University twice, Sisk knows where his feet are now, especially when it comes to post-season basketball. Specifically, a women’s basketball meeting between Troy and Sisk’s NDSU Bison.

“I’ve been at Troy for four years now,” Sisk said, with a laugh, about the game. “It’d be cool to see NDSU pull off the upset, but my loyalty lies with Troy.

“That’s where I’m at. Troy needed it more.”

Through the “off-season,” Sisk stays busy in his office in the North Endzone Complex as he prepares for year five as a Trojan.