From VATV sidelines to the Olympics: 2023 graduate was promoted to NBC Sports producer during the Winter Games

Three years after walking across the stage at Van Alstyne High School, Claire Gallagher was cutting Olympic content overnight in an NBC Sports studio in Stamford, Conn.

Van Alstyne ISD featured the 2023 graduate on Tuesday in the latest installment of its Alumni Spotlight series, a written profile and video that trace her path from the school's student TV program to network sports television.

Where it started

Gallagher moved to Van Alstyne in fourth grade, according to the district's profile. By middle school she had her first camera and was filming football games and other school events, and as an eighth grader she made the junior high graduation video.

In high school she joined VATV, the district's broadcast program, under teacher Mark Campbell. Over three years she produced documentaries and student features and shot Panther athletics from the sidelines. A documentary about a local family earned a gold medal at the UIL state competition, which she called one of her favorite memories of high school.

"VATV was pretty much the segue into my career now," she told the district.

Red carpets, cage fights and the Olympics

At the University of Texas at Austin, Gallagher shot documentaries for the student newspaper, covered Longhorn football and offered free photo and video work to Austin comedy clubs to build her portfolio. That led her to a red carpet at South by Southwest, where she interviewed mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor as he promoted the film "Road House." The clip went viral.

An internship with UFC in Las Vegas followed, where she filmed fights and made promotional content, and it turned into a job offer. She later joined NBC Sports in the New York area as a production assistant while continuing her studies online through Arizona State University.

In the months before the 2026 Winter Olympics she gathered footage, did athlete interviews and cut video packages. Once the Games began, the district says, she was promoted to producer and worked shifts into the overnight hours, editing content in real time as coverage aired.

"It was the craziest experience of my life," she said. Watching the broadcast, she recalled thinking, "Oh, I made that commercial. Oh, I interviewed that athlete. That's my piece."

A lesson from volleyball

Gallagher credited Van Alstyne teachers and coaches with teaching her to take correction and keep going when work gets hard. She still remembers what Coach Mendez told volleyball players during the hardest stretch of a workout: "You can do anything for 30 seconds."

"You don't have to be perfect with it," she said, "but you have to get to the finish line."

The full profile and video are on the district's Alumni Spotlight page.

Sources

vanalstyneisd.org

vanalstyneisd.org