As the Arizona men’s basketball team appeared in the NCAA’s men’s basketball Final Four for the first time since 2001, Arizona Athletics found themselves buzzing with excitement and pride. Arizona Athletics encompasses coaching, marketing, ticket sales, analytics and event management, showing that it truly takes a village to produce top-tier athletic programs.
Many Arizona Athletics staff members were already in Indianapolis days before the game preparing for the Wildcats’ face off against the No. 1 ranked University of Michigan on Saturday, April 4. Chris Foo is the director of videography for Arizona Athletics and joined the team in Indiana.
Foo collects footage from all 22 sports at the University of Arizona, attending teams’ home and away games, practices, lifts and special events. With this footage, he creates hype videos played at the games and many of the videos shared on athletics’ social media platforms.
“It’s just really exciting,” Foo said. “We’ve seen so much footage from all the past ones so it’s exciting to be able to witness it and be a part of it and be able to have the opportunity to help capture some of that historical footage that will hopefully be used for years to come.”
Foo graduated from Arizona in 2012 and began working at Arizona Athletics in 2018. He described the ecstatic energy in the department since making it to the Final Four and what this means to the staff, especially those of whom are Tucson locals.
“A lot of my coworkers in my department grew up in Tucson and went to the U of A, so for something like this to happen just feels like something we have been hoping that would happen for a long time, so to see that come to fruition is really exciting,” Foo said.
Foo explained that his nights and weekends are primarily shooting events and during the work week the videography team edits and creates all fan-facing media. Leading up to the game in Indianapolis, his team will be covering open media events such as press conferences, open locker rooms and open practices.
“We’re just trying to tell the story and show people what it’s like if they weren’t able to make it.” Foo said.
Foo shared that his favorite project he has worked on was a trailer when Arizona joined the Big 12 conference, featuring country singer and UA alumnus Mark Wystrach. Wystrach is an Arizona Athletics fan and allowed the videography team to use one of his songs for the video.
“It was telling a lot of history about Arizona athletics, but also looking towards the future of being in the Big 12,” Foo said. “It was a big project and involved a lot of different parties, so it was fun getting to collaborate with a bunch of people too.”
Foo highlighted that his favorite Arizona Athletics moment was seeing everyone celebrate on the court after making it to the Final Four, as well as the Alamo Bowl game, where Arizona football defeated Oklahoma 38-24 in 2023.
From videography to ticketing, every department of Arizona Athletics is staying busy in preparation for the biggest game of the year. Davis Lawson has been an assistant director of ticketing operations at Arizona Athletics for 4 months.
“We are all super excited and super pumped.” Lawson said. “You don’t know until the week that you have made it to the Final Four, so it’s been hectic, crazy and chaotic but in the best way.”
Lawson explained that he helps plan, organize and implement all ticketing operations primarily for baseball and gymnastics and trains student workers for office and gameday operations. He additionally acts as a liaison between coaches, student athletes, event managers and the marketing staff.
“I would definitely say making the Final Four,” Lawson said when asked about his favorite Arizona Athletics moment. “It’s such a big deal and really cool to be a part of, especially in my first year at Arizona Athletics.”
Lawson also highlighted the Arizona men’s basketball game against Iowa State University in the Big 12 Championship this year as another memorable moment. His all-time favorite Arizona athlete is former Wildcat quarterback Nicholas Foles.
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