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Photos courtesy of Abby Jaillet.
Isabella Marsh, one of the athletics interns at Vestavia Hills High School, works in the press box during a girls flag football semifinal game against Lee in November 2023.
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Photos courtesy of Abby Jaillet.
Campbell Price, an athletic intern at Vestavia Hills High School, shoots video during a football game against Tuscaloosa County High.
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Photos courtesy of Abby Jaillet.
Baker Stewart, one of the graphics interns for the athletic department, works on designs during class.
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Photo courtesy of Abby Jaillet.
Skylar Scott, an athletics intern at Vestavia Hills High School, shoots photos of three of the Rebel cheerleaders.
Look up at the scoreboard during a Vestavia Hills High School football game, and you’re likely to see a crowd shot from Johnny Johnston’s camera.
Take a look at the baseline during a Rebels’ basketball game, and you may see Campbell Price gathering footage for her next video.
Scroll the Vestavia Hills athletics social media pages, and you might come across a hype video put together by Brooks Bennett or a gameday graphic designed by Skylar Scott.
What do the four of them have in common? They are all students at Vestavia Hills High who this year have found a way to play a major role in the school’s various athletics programs. They are part of the initial 17-student class of the Vestavia Hills High School athletics internship program.
What began as merely an idea of Vestavia Hills Athletic Director Myra Miles and Assistant Athletic Director Laura Casey has turned into a burgeoning program.
“It was a great opportunity to get more kids involved,” Casey said.
Price became intrigued by the opportunity last school year, after seeing a fellow student posting content. There are three primary areas of focus in the internship program: gameday operations, sports information and video production. Price specializes in the video portion.
“It’s my favorite thing,” she said of the program. “I played sports, so this gives me the ability to be a part of sports without actually playing.”
Price will head to the University of Tennessee this fall and plans to use her new skillset toward a degree. She hopes to get involved with the athletic department in Knoxville and see where that takes her.
Bennett is also in the video department and takes pride in his hype videos. He loves the fact that his school has a unique program designed to help students gain experience and have fun.
“I don’t know any other that has their own [athletics internship] program,” he said. “I think that’s been amazing, having an entire team to help us do whatever we need to do.”
Bennett’s plan is to head to Ole Miss for college, although he hasn’t yet decided what degree he wants to pursue.
Johnston, on the other hand, believes he will pursue this media work beyond high school. On Friday nights in the fall, he has coordinated camera shots of the student section and band that are cast to the video scoreboard.
“It’d be pretty cool to do this in college,” he said.
Scott had been previously involved with VNN (Vestavia News Network) and saw how passionate Price was about the new program, so she joined in. She creates graphics that provide game or season information for many of the school’s teams.
“I’ve improved making graphics. I want to get better at it. I still have so much to learn and growth ahead of me,” she said.
Making graphics that feature friends and classmates and seeing their reactions is something Scott enjoys.
“It’s very rewarding,” said Scott, who plans on attending Alabama. “It’s very nice to know that people are happy about the work we’re producing.”
Abby Jaillet heads up the program, in addition to her responsibilities as an English teacher and as the director of the VNN program at the high school.
“She’s jumped in with two feet,” Casey said.
John Simmons, an administrative athletic director and the head softball coach at Vestavia Hills, heads up the gameday operations portion of the program, which consists of running the video board at the football stadium, managing the lights in the gym, the music and more.
“He’s invaluable to our program,” Casey said.
The program is offered outside of school hours this year, but there is hope that it will become a course that is offered to students in ninth through 12th grades.
“We want them to have set-aside time during the school day [that] they can and learn and build the skills that are necessary,” Jaillet said.
The students in the program have shown a willingness to learn and to try new things, while their work is being used to directly benefit the school’s athletics teams.
“They love their school and want to promote their school and really bring attention to some of those sports,” Jaillet said. “They have a sense of pride in the community and they want to show off that pride.”
Students in the program receive a varsity letter, and the work that they do is useful and important. The hope is that the program continues to grow and become part of the fabric of the high school’s offerings.
“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing students take ownership and to see their work in a way that is public and has this large reach,” Jaillet said.
