SVG Students To Watch: Gibson Hirt, University of Maryland

The lifelong Terps fan is making the most of his dream school, producing and directing broadcasts while gaining professional reps across the Washington, DC, sports scene

The future of live sports production remains bright. Back for Season 2, SVG Students To Watch spotlights the next generation of live-sports-production professionals. Across campuses nationwide, students are playing a key role in bringing their schools' games to fans - producing shows, directing broadcasts, running replay, building graphics, operating cameras, engineering workflows, and more. This series celebrates the young talent already making an impact today and preparing to shape the future of sports-video production.

Gibson Hirt

College: University of Maryland

Academic Year: Senior

Hometown: Bethesda, MD

Roles: Producer, Director, Replay Operator, Camera Operator

Hirt has gained experience in practically every role on a live sports production during his time with University of Maryland's TerpVision and Big Ten StudentU program. Here he serves as a hard-camera operator for a Maryland baseball game on Big Ten Network in April.What drew you to live sports production, and how did you get started?

Heading into my freshman year, I thought I wanted to be a sports writer because that is what I had done in high school. One day over the summer, I was scrolling Twitter and saw this tweet from my awesome former boss, and it piqued my interest.

Hirt always jumps at the opportunity to learn more. In November 2025, he got the chance to try on a Steadicam rig before a Maryland football-game broadcast.I decided to apply to the program and got accepted. I worked a few games the fall of my freshman year, and the rest is history. I proved that I was a trustworthy and hardworking person and made strong connections that turned into opportunities to work for other teams in the area.

One of Hirt's favorite roles on a live production is replay. Here, he works on an EVS system for the Big Ten Softball Tournament, which was hosted by the University of Maryland in May.Are there any aha moments when you realized you really loved a particular role?

I had an aha moment that made me realize I love not a particular role but rather the sports-production industry in general. It came my sophomore year when I was working as the Xpression operator for Maryland men's basketball-season opener streamed on B1G+. Derik Queen, who had one of the best freshman seasons in Maryland history, was making his collegiate debut, and everyone was excited to watch him play. He ended up with 22 points and 20 rebounds, breaking numerous school records. The graphics that I built highlighting this ended up being posted on social-media accounts like Bleacher Report, and seeing that is what made me be like Wow, this is awesome, I love this.

What are your career aspirations after graduation?

I am not 100% sure what I want to do after graduation, but I do know that I would be happy either continuing to freelance or getting a full-time job. Eventually, I hope to work my way up to being a game producer at a network like NBC, FOX, CBS, etc. and have the opportunity to produce events like MLB or NFL games.

Hirt has spread his wings off the Maryland campus as well. He worked as a utility for the UFC Freedom 250 event hosted on the White House Lawn in June.What advice would you give to your freshman self or to another student hoping to get started in live sports production?

The biggest piece of advice that I would give my freshman self is to not be afraid to make a mistake. Obviously, in a perfect world, everyone is a professional, and every show looks as good as Sunday Night Football. In reality, that is obviously never going to happen. Especially when working on student productions like where I started, I'd tell myself to build that graphic a new way or cut those highlights a different way because it's more about learning and gaining valuable experience and reps than making everything look perfect.

If you run video production at a college athletic department and would like to recommend a standout student from your crew to be featured in SVG Students To Watch, please email SVG Director of Digital Brandon Costa at [email protected].

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/10/21/svg-students-to-watch-gibson-hi...
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