Since graduating from Elon, the journalism major has quickly built a career creating content for the University of Pittsburgh’s football and basketball programs.
Cap Henneman ’25 can vividly remember the exhilaration of running onto the field this past weekend with the University of Pittsburgh football team, gimbal in hand, as more than 40,000 fans roared around him.
What happened next is a little hazier.
“I essentially blacked out on adrenaline for the first 10 minutes of game action,” Henneman laughed.
It was Henneman’s first game day working on the sidelines for Pitt football – and a surreal introduction to his new role as the program’s assistant director of creative content.
The Elon alumnus was there to capture an up-close look at Pitt’s season-opening 59-14 victory over Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 5. Once the final whistle sounded, his responsibilities only grew. Henneman took the lead editing “Field Pass,” Pitt’s long-running video series that tells the story of a victory through behind-the-scenes content.
For Henneman, the assignment represented another milestone in a professional journey that has moved quickly.
His path to Pitt began shortly after his May 2025 graduation from Elon, where he majored in journalism and built a portfolio that stretched well beyond traditional reporting.
As a student, Henneman worked with Rising Phoenix and Elon Athletics video production. He also spent nearly two years interning with The Burlington School, chronicling its high-level prep basketball program. Following graduation, he continued sharpening his skills as a videographer with the Cape Cod Baseball League.
Those experiences ultimately led him to Pittsburgh.
In January, Henneman initially joined Pitt Athletics as an assistant director of video production, creating content across the university’s athletics programs. After six months, he accepted a position supporting Pitt football. But Henneman wasn’t quite ready to give up basketball.
He negotiated a hybrid role that allows him to remain the secondary video contact for Pitt men’s basketball.
“I couldn’t get myself to leave my basketball roots behind,” Henneman said.
Being a major content contributor for both programs, he said, is a “dream come true.” It has also brought considerably more responsibility.
While the football staff was away during July, Henneman filmed basketball summer workouts, helped lead the rollout of new NIL initiatives for Pitt Athletics, and traveled to New York City to cover volleyball standout Olivia Babcock at the Collegiate Women Sports Awards.
Then came football season.
When fall camp opened in August, Henneman’s days regularly stretched from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. He produced short-form content from daily practices and longer-form mic’d-up features while documenting the weeks leading into the season.
“Practically living in the facility gave me an eye-opening perspective of the upper echelon of college athletics.”
– Cap Henneman ’25
Amid that demanding schedule came one of his biggest opportunities.
At the end of fall camp, Henneman spent a week shooting and editing the “2026 Pitt Football Season Trailer,” his first true “passion project” since arriving at Pitt. The finished video was shown at the program’s kickoff luncheon and student bonfire pep rally, played on the stadium scoreboard before the season opener, and released on social media.
Creating a longer, storytelling-driven piece reminded Henneman of the projects he pursued at Elon.
“It was refreshing to create a storytelling-centric piece that I could be proud of,” Henneman said.
That same approach carried into his first football Saturday.
After documenting Pitt’s season-opening victory, Henneman shifted almost immediately from capturing the story to assembling it. For “Field Pass,” he storyboarded the video and constructed its game-action sequences, working alongside colleagues who handled the introduction, graphics, color grading and sound effects.
There was also a tighter turnaround. The popular series, previously released on Wednesdays, was now due Monday.
“Despite the lack of social life and free time that football season brings, I can confidently say I am doing something that I truly love,” Henneman said. “I feel like I have found my footing within the creative team, and look to keep improving as the season moves forward.”