Emmy winning alumnus visits SHS
Written by Emma Titterness, Former Student on Wednesday, May 9, 2012
On Friday, May 4, SHS was visited by one of their more famous alumni. Emmy winner Sean Hintz, class of 1995, had given a speech at the Fankhauser Departmental Scholars Award Ceremony the night before. Hintz toured campus, which he remarked was “so completely different,” and talked to the Journalism class about his success.
Hintz is a four time Emmy winner and Director of Photography at ESPN.com. He was inspired by teachers such as Mr. Gionet, because “he was always really, really tough on me,” as well as Mr. Doucette, Mr. Brockman, and Coach Perry. After SHS, he went on to study at WSU, earning a BFA in Electronic Imaging. After graduating, he “kinda floundered around to try and find a job.” The email from ESPN was a surprise, and Hintz was not one hundred percent convinced it was legitimate. “I kinda threw the email away at first,” he admits. But the call turned out to be real and 12 years later, Hintz has worked himself up the ranks.
Hintz says that although his job is hard and the hours are long, he truly enjoys it. “At ESPN, every single day, there’s someone [that makes] you go, ‘Oh my god, they’re on campus today?!’” he said. His website is in the top five most trafficked websites in the country, and his team of photographers served around 1,000 requests with ten people. A career highlight for him has been attending the last eight Super Bowls.”It’s amazing,” he said of the experience. During his first Super Bowl, he got to stand in the tunnel while the teams waited to run onto the field, “just watching their faces as they were about to effectively go into the most important game of their lives.” His second Super Bowl was 2006, between the Seahawks and the Steelers. “It really sucked,” he said. “The terrible towels . . . it was a sea of yellow.”
Hintz has also had the opportunity to be a part of four Emmy winning projects. One, about the dedication of Cub Fans to their losing team, was called “No Love Lost.” Another, a story about a young man who was the mascot for North Carolina who died and saved four people through his organ donor status, was called “A Ray of Hope.” A third was called “Bo Knows Best,” a story about Bo Jackson, a former football and baseball player, who made Hintz star struck. Although it was has been a long journey to these award, Hintz advises that “if you wanna do good things, you gotta do tough things.”
Although Hintz claims that “I’m not really an advice merchant,” he imparted his wisdom to the Journalism class. “Figure out what the people you want to emulate are doing,” he said. “Just be unrelenting.” Hintz said that if he could change something about his life, “I probably would buckle down more here [at SHS].”
Hintz has a lot of love for Snohomish. He listed one of the hardest parts of his job as “being away from here,” although he does not regret where he ended up. He also encourages student that when they find something they want, to “make it yours.”
