Holmdel TV Students Meet FOX News Super Bowl Producer

HOLMDEL, NJ - Students in Holmdel High School's TV Production class recently met with Rich Russo, a director at FOX Sports who leads the channel's Super Bowl coverage every year. Russo came to talk to the students about his career in broadcast sports. Russo's daughter is a student at Holmdel High School and she is currently enrolled in the TV Production course.

The way teacher Bryan DeNovellis first met Russo is pretty unique: Back in 2014, the Holmdel High School football team was invited to MetLife Stadium to assist Russo and his Super Bowl production team as they set up their camera plan for the big game. Holmdel players practiced entering the field, running plays and assisting the production staff in testing all visual aspects of the production in preparation for broadcast.

DeNovellis says it was “quite an experience” for the players as well as his TV students who attended the event.

Russo talked about his job as lead director for the most highly-viewed sporting event in the world. Russo has been involved with Super Bowl productions since 1986 and has worked closely with John Madden and other broadcast stars. He's produced college championship games and worked on broadcasts for NFL Europe.

But he talked about how he got his foot in the door as a part-time researcher at CBS in the early 1980s and learned the business by simply observing each position integral to the production. Russo admits he had no idea what it was he wanted to do after college, even after majoring in broadcast production.

He explained to the students that he was drawn to directing only through experience and only after learning how to accept failure as part of the process.

“You will all make mistakes, but it is what you learn from those mistakes that will help you develop,” Russo said.

He credits a good deal of his success to something his father once told him, namely, to treat others the way you want to be treated.

“I’m grounded,” Russo said. "And learned much of what I know from others.” He told students to “keep your head down, do your job, but keep your eyes open, because this is where opportunities arise."