Alycia’s angles on sports

Cypress expressed her gratitude towards Athletic Directors and coordinators Ms. Karen Stearns and Ms. Michele Armiento, as they frequently ask her to shoot sports for the school and refer her to others who are in need of a sports photographer. “I’d like to thank the athletics department for just kind of being so thoughtful, inviting me onto the field for basically every single sport that they have here, especially because I know a lot of people try to get on and they can’t. I’m always like the first one that comes to mind, right when they say, ‘Oh, we need a photographer,’” Cypress said. (Photo submitted by Alycia Cypress)

Known throughout the school as our “sports photographer” or, more officially, the Sports Executive Producer of WAHS, senior Alycia Cypress has photographed Patriot sports games from baseball to football throughout her high school career.

“I’m currently the Sports Executive Producer and I run WAHS sidelines, which is our monthly sports show that we produce. I run the fourth period Sports Broadcast class where I basically am like a teacher with the WAHS advisor Ms. Maria Molina,” Cypress said. “I go and cover basically every single sport that’s on campus. You can always find me taking photos or videos. I pretty much made sure that everyone is covering sports, and that we’re actually like highlighting all the amazing athletics we have here.”

Cypress has always had a passion for videography, however she only recently started photography her freshman year of high school, when WAHS needed someone to take pictures of an upcoming football game. Cypress credits that instance as the start of her passion for sports photography.

Learning photography tips and tricks from previous WAHS executives and playing around with ideas with other photography-oriented crew members such as senior Brandon Woods, Cypress developed her talent to the point where she now owns her own Nikon D750 camera and numerous Nikon camera lenses (one so large that it can capture something up to 500 meters away). Cypress recently qualified as one of the five out of 90 students nominated for an All Florida (the highest award at the Florida Scholastic Press Association Conference) for three of her sports photos that she initially took for WAHS .

“I took football photos for basically every single game, all four years. I’ve done baseball all four years. I’ve done basketball for the past two years. I want to do more lacrosse and I do softball. Yeah. Basically everything,” Cypress said. “I also film wrestling and take photos for them as well. Last year at the wrestling regional competition my friends on the team, seniors Zev Hartman and Noor Oweis, were like, ‘Alycia, you are a sports photographer; you have to come to our regional tournament.’ And I was like, okay, sure. So I went last year and kind of just fell in love with it and shortly after I became the wrestling team manager.”

Along with photographing various sports, Cypress has had the opportunity to interview famous athletes from WAHS such as former Heritage Patriot turned New England Patriot NFL running back Sony Michel as well as former NBA player Dwyane Wade from the Miami Heat.

Donovan Campbell, Sports Reporter for WSVN, helped Cypress get the chance to interview former Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade, pictured above. “Donovan has actually interviewed him before and he was like ‘Oh Hey, Wade, can one of my students interview you? I trust her the most. She’s going to interview you really quick,’” Cypress said. “I was able to do it with him and honestly that was one of the best things ever. It was one of the things that really kind of proved to me that like, ‘Oh, I could do this.’” (Photo submitted by Alycia Cypress)

“I used to want to do film, but then we got Donovan Campbell, Sports Reporter for WSVN) helping out in WAHS, and he kind of showed me that I could really do something in sports broadcasting. I started doing more actual stories for sports broadcasts and now a lot of video editing and interviews. I just like to make stories,” Cypress said.

Another person that Cypress acknowledges as a big supporter of her sports photography is Athletic Director Ms. Karen Stearns.

“Alycia has poured her heart into capturing athletic moments for our student-athletes and school and the amount of time and commitment to this has been very appreciated,” Stearns said. “She is incredibly talented and has really set the bar high by truly capturing ‘picture moments.’”

Cypress recalls her father getting her interested in sports, more specifically football, at a young age by watching ESPN frequently. She acknowledges football as her favorite sport to shoot as well as the first sport she shot. (Photo/Alycia Cypress)

Cypress hopes to have a sports broadcasting job with ESPN as a storyteller or as someone who helps create ESPN sports documentaries in the future.

“The types of shots you can get in sports photography are insane. You can get so many cool photos and you can go from any angle and just get a different picture each time,” Cypress said.