From capturing the emotion of a Little Leaguer® and his family as they reflect on his journey back to the baseball field after a tragic accident, to giving a closer look into the little moments as volunteer coaches who once competed in a World Series now coach their daughters in the international tournaments – Little League® believes in the power of storytelling.
Since joining the Little League team in 2019, Hannah Heitsenrether, Little League Video Production Manager, has been one of the creative minds behind the camera, bringing these stories to life through memorable video features. For the September edition of the #GWG50 Staff Spotlights, Hannah walks you through her own #GWG50 journey in the Photo Essay below:
Early 2000s, my dad and I at a soccer practice. He put me in sports as soon as I was able to play and coached me during my early years of playing sports. #BestCoachFirst official picture of me being in soccer. Soccer is what got me started in sports and grew my passion for competing.Sophomore year of playing basketball for Hughesville High School. I believe we were playing Lewisburg in this game, and I hope I made that layup.Senior year of basketball playing against Loyalsock. Basketball was my sport and I still remember the feeling of adrenaline when making the right play.I remember this photo being on the front page of the sports section of the local paper. We had played Montgomery, and this is after the whistle was blown for the ball being out of bounds after we all dove on the ground for it. People always said it looked like I was posing for this photo.I tried track on a whim in my junior year of high school to make me faster for basketball. Random strangers would ask if I ran track and it wasn’t until I was in a Dunkin’ and the former head coach of Bloomsburg University asked if I did, did I think, “Well maybe I should.” This photo was me practicing hurdles in my junior year of high school.My dad and I after my 4×4 team came in 7th at districts. I learned a lot of life lessons from track especially about failing and changing courses. That life has hurdles and you must run over them to get to the finish line.My senior year of high school, I ended up receiving the PIAA District 4 Female Sportsmanship Award in 2013. I knew I wasn’t always going to be the best athlete, but I also knew I could always be the best teammate and it was an honor to be recognized for it.In the spring of 2016, I got to be a Production Assistant at Fox Sports for the U.S. Open held at Oakmont Country Club. It was a great experience seeing how a live TV studio operated during a sporting event.I was able to work the Stadium Series with the Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field at the time. It was so cold that night, but we walked away with a win, and it was a lot of fun to film.I also worked for a company called Awesome Films where we worked with a lot of college sports such as Rutgers University, Pitt, and Penn State University. Pictured here is me interviewing a football player at Dartmouth University for a video series.I had interned with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and received a job with them in the PensTV department in the fall that same year. In 2017, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup for the second time in a row, and I was able to be a part of that celebration.In the Spring of 2019, I started my first year with Little League® International and began another chapter in my sports career. This was the first Little League Challenger Division® Exhibition game that I filmed at the Little League Baseball® World Series and is still my favorite thing we do at Little League.In 2022 we submitted a video feature about a Little League® player named Josiah Porter and in 2023 we won a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for that video. I was a producer on that project and winning my first Emmy is the proudest moment of my career, especially for this story.My coworkers and I from the most recent Little League Baseball® World Series in 2024. I’ve met and worked with a lot of great people in my career and the thing I always try to remember is to have fun in your work and always try to be the best teammate.
This is the eighth in a series of Little League International Staff Spotlights that will focus on the Women In Little League (WILL) as part of the overall Girls with Game 50 Celebration (LittleLeague.org/GWG50). The #GWG50 celebration is proudly supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods, a long-time Little League partner that is committed to creating opportunities for girls and women in sports and will be activating around key events and milestones this year.
