Temple University Athletics
Staff Spotlight: Russ Troeller
7.12.23 | General
Russell Troeller was named Temple Athletics' Live Production Coordinator in February 2019. Troller plays a key role in all of Temple's live video broadcasts and in-arena production. He oversees the creation and editing of videoboard content, as well as controlling replay for both in-arena and ESPN+.
Troeller, who earned his bachelor's degree in television and radio from Ithaca College in 2016, has worked the last two seasons in professional baseball. Â After an internship with the Ivy League Digital Network in 2016, he served as a video board assistant with the Pittsburgh Pirates during their spring training in Bradenton, Fla. in 2017 and then throughout the 2017 season with the Bradenton Marauders. Â In 2018, the Newburgh, N.Y. native was the video board operator for the Hudson Valley Renegades.
How did you get into the video production field?
Growing up in Upstate New York, sports had always been a huge part of my life. Between playing just about every sport possible and being a fan of the Mets, Giants, and Rangers, I always knew I wanted to be involved with sports on another level from a young age. My start with video production came during my senior year of high school when I took a a class where we would produce the morning announcements. That led me to deciding to go to Ithaca College where my love for live video production was formed. The opportunities I had during my time in Ithaca allowed me to gain invaluable hands-on experience in all facets of Live Production that I still use everyday in my daily duties at Temple.
You have been in your role of Temple Athletics since 2019, talk about how your role has evolved in your time at the University?
When I first started over four years ago, producing games for ESPN had never crossed my mind. We went from moving all of the live production gear from venue to venue and producing games on OwlSports.com to producing all of our games for ESPN+ out of a centralized control room. It's a night and day difference between my first year and now. This upcoming school year will be our 4th year of producing games for ESPN, and it has been nothing short of remarkable. Going from one camera website streams to this past year, where we produced seven games for network television on ESPN2 & ESPNU, the evolution of my role has been invaluable in my development in the live sports production field. I don't know too many other places that could have facilitated the experiences I've had for these couple of years on North Broad Street.
Prior to Temple, you worked in professional baseball. How was the transition to college athletics?
Prior to Temple, I had worked a year for both the Bradenton Marauders (Pittsburgh Pirates High-A Affiliate & MLB Spring Training) and the Hudson Valley Renegades (formerly Tampa Bay Rays A Affiliate). Although I learned a lot of my production skills in my time at Ithaca College, working in baseball taught me a lot about being adaptable to my circumstances. There isn't a lot of money in those types of productions and with both teams, I was tasked in the production of both the MiLB stream and the in-house video board production. Doing both really tests your ability to think outside of the box, because you're constantly to fix any type of problem that comes up while also working with and teaching members of the crew who are usually young college students who are in the same position you were in just a few years prior. My time with both teams were very helpful in my progression not only in my career but also as a leader. I've had the ability to work with countless people from different backgrounds and personalities, and one of the most important parts of my current role at Temple is working with staff members from different departments as well as phenomenal freelancers and student workers who are the backbone of our game day operation. Being adaptable with so many different people on any given day has been one of the many reasons that my transition from professional baseball to college athletics has worked out so well.Â
What is the most memorable moment so far in your time here at Temple?
I've definitely been apart of some great moments, but the one that sticks out was our first Network TV game this past season when our men's basketball team upset nationally ranked Villanova. It was only our second basketball production of the year so our department hadn't really had a lot of time to knock off the rust. Jack Lynch, our other Live Production Coordinator, was still relatively new at the time so there was a lot stacked us to get ready. Our whole crew do a phenomenal job and we pulled off a tremendous production by Network TV standards. It really helps when the games are exciting and having the fans storm the court twice made that game one I'll truly never forget.
What is the next step in your career path?
Who knows what the future holds but right now my hope is to move full time into live network television production. With each game we produced at Temple, everything started to slow down so I could better understand everything as time went on. Now, I can now contribute my full skill set to the team on top of being a resource for the different crews that ESPN sends in for each game.
