It was late in the evening on New Year’s Day, 1994, when the NC State football team returned to the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta after beating Mississippi State 28-24 earlier in the day in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
On the first 10 interior landings of what was then world’s tallest atrium — open all the way to the top of the 52-story hotel — were thousands of NC State football fans, welcoming the team back as they returned after finishing off a record-tying 9-3 season under second-year coach Mike O’Cain.
“There must have been 15,000 people waiting for the team as they came up the escalators,” said NC State assistant athletics director for video and broadcast services Jim Sherrill. “They gave the team a long standing ovation and were cheering wildly.
“For my first big event, that was pretty special. I thought every day was going to be like that.”
That New Year’s Day reception 23 years ago was the first major athletics event Sherrill attended in his new role as the department’s only full-time video coordinator. He had a few students who worked with him, cutting up offensive, defensive and special teams tape for the football coaches, and offensive and defensive plays for the basketball staff.
Now, Sherrill oversees a team of 10 full-time employees and a dozen students who produce hundreds of live events, video highlights and scoreboard messages for the athletics department. He also serves as the producer of “The Dave Doeren Show,” “The Mark Gottfried Show” and “Inside Wolfpack Sports,” operating out of a production studio in the Murphy Center, and is the coordinator a new control room in the recently renovated Reynolds Coliseum.
On Dec. 1, however, Sherrill is retiring after 30 years of service to the university, a span of time that has seen tectonic shifts in technology, broadcasting and live-streaming.
He’s been through multiple video formats, from Betamax to full digital broadcasting. He’s helped change over the scoreboards from matrix systems to full digital display boards at Carter-Finley Stadium, Reynolds Coliseum and Doak Field at Dail Park.
He’s upgraded the technology from computers that had 200-gigabyte storage capacity to servers that now hold 64 terabytes just for football and another 64 terabytes for content production.
In recent years, the video staff has produced as many as 135 live-streaming events for GoPack.com, a number that has increased with the advent of the ACC Digital Network. There are more highlights, more coaches' cuts, more stories to tell than ever before.
“It can get a little overwhelming at times,” Sherrill said. “[Athletics director] Debbie Yow has been very supportive. She understands the value of video and what younger people want to see on our website. They really don’t want to read a story, they want to watch more video content.
“And when they do read a story, they want to be able to click on a video of what the story is about. Everything is video-driven now.”
Sherrill graduated from NC State with a bachelor’s of science degree in radio, television and film in 1985 and went to work for the College of Engineering. He moved over to athletics in 1994. He was promoted to the director of technology in 2003 and was named assistant AD in 2006.
He has big plans for retirement. First, he’s going to take six months off, which will include a skiing trip with his wife Kim to Utah, where his son David and family live. In April, they will go on a three-week tour of Alaska, knocking off a big item on his personal bucket list.
Then, next summer Sherrill plans to open a Raleigh office for CIC Technologies, a structured cabling company that is expanding into A/V production for commercial construction. Sherrill anticipates it will be less stress and fewer hours than his current job.
“It certainly won’t be the volume of work,” Sherrill said. “My wife jokes that it will be like a part-time job, with no weekend work or no night work. After 30 years of working about 32 weekends a year, I’m looking forward to that kind of world.”
He’ll take with him hundreds of memories of players, coaches and Wolfpack fans that he captured with his video team: The 2003 Gator Bowl victory over Notre Dame. Trips to the Sweet 16 with the men’s basketball team. The 2013 College World Series. Endless nights with fans who attended coaches' shows just to show their support of the Wolfpack.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet some great people and see some great things,” Sherrill said. “That people-connection will be there forever. I’ll always have great memories.”
Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu
