Overview:
Will Hahn has found his niche on the multimedia team of the New York Jets
Will Hahn felt as a kid that his destiny was in sports.
That feeling quickened six years ago when Hockey Hall of Famer Rogie Vachon himself presented him with the “Rogie Vachon Trophy” as the best high school goalkeeper in Southern California.
“I dreamt about playing in the NHL since I was a kid … every … day,” Hahn, a graduate of Santa Barbara High School’s Class of 2017, told Noozhawk.
But when he flies to Miami this week with his sports team, it won’t be to tend the net in a hockey match. He won’t be in front of the cameras, either.
He’ll be behind them.
Hahn is now working as a producer and editor for the content/multimedia division of pro football’s New York Jets.
“It’s like being on a sports team within a team,” he said. “Everybody I work with is incredible, and we all push each other to be our best.
“We all have our strengths and weaknesses … You have the personalities. You have the camaraderie. It’s a really fun thing, going on the road together … going on a plane ride with all your friends.”
The multimedia team — a group of about 15 people — even give each other nicknames. Hahn is known as “Hollywood.”
“I’m the West Coast kid among a group of East Coasters,” he explained. “It’s pretty funny. It’s a good place to work. Everybody keeps it pretty loose because it’s a tough environment to work in.
“You have to do what in a commercial world you’d do with more time, more money and more people … and you have to do it faster. You have to work together or you’re not going to be able to do what we do.”
A New Direction
Hahn’s life journey has included a few detours. A major turning point came when he failed to gain admission to the Engineering Academy at Dos Pueblos High School.
“In hindsight, not getting in was probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said.
While one door closed at DP, another opened at Santa Barbara High. He lived just up the hill from the campus with his parents, Connie and Steve.
He mentioned his love of films to a school counselor during his freshman year and she pointed him toward his destiny.
“I fell in love with filmmaking,” Hahn said. “It goes back to something done by NFL Films called Truth in 24. It followed the Audi Motorsports team as they went on to conquer the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They showed it at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2009.
“My boss here at the Jets hates that I love NFL Films. He thinks they’re too corny. But I loved everything about how that movie was done. I can quote 90% of it, word for word.”
The counselor recommended that he take an introduction to video production class taught by football coach Doug Caines. Hahn wound up taking Caines’ classes all the way through his senior year.
“I fell in love with it,” he said. “He taught the right way. He didn’t teach it like a class but like a job. You had to come in, get your stuff done … answer to your producers.
“As you can imagine, we didn’t have the best equipment, but he was a very inspirational teacher. You had to do out-of-class assignments, and I shot some football games for him.”
Clips from Hahn’s videos were sometimes aired on KEYT News’ Friday Football Focus. He also had Dons’ baseball video shown during the sports segment on the station’s 11 p.m. news.
“Mike Klan, their sports director, would have to leave halfway through the game to cut the news, and he’d ask me, ‘If you get the game-winning touchdown, or whatever, can you get it to me?’
“And of course, I said I would.”
Hahn realized that he’d “come full-circle” when the Jets hired him last summer.
“It’s crazy that I did this in high school, and now I’m in the pros only five years later,” he said. “It’s just nuts.”
Two-Time Hockey Champion
His hockey dreams had only accelerated in high school. He played for the Santa Barbara Royals, a team of players from all the local high schools that trained at the Ice in Paradise rink in Goleta.
The Royals won the Los Angeles Kings High School Hockey League during both Hahn’s junior and senior years of 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. He won the Vachon Trophy both seasons.
His ultimate desire was to play for the Detroit Red Wings, his father’s hometown team.
“I went to a summer hockey camp at the University of Michigan every single summer,” Hahn said. “It’s a pretty incredible college hockey program. I loved everything there, and I dreamt about playing there.
“But I soon realized that I was probably not good enough — not big enough, not tall enough. I didn’t have the exposure that kids in Minnesota have, even though I think the Royals could have been competitive in Minnesota high school hockey.”
He decided to attend Santa Barbara City College and put his full efforts into filmmaking. He wrote and produced a movie called The Goatman! that won the Best College Film Award at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Hahn then transferred to Cal State University Northridge, where he earned a degree in Documentary Production last spring.
His hockey career did have a big payoff while he was in Northridge. He asked Steve Heinze, his Royals hockey coach who played right wing for such NHL teams as the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, to help him get an internship with the Kings.
“He sent my résumé off to one of his contacts on the team — someone on the hockey side who was not even in the film department,” he said. “The film department called me that night and said, ‘We’d love to have you … When can you interview?’”
He took the call just five minutes before he was to take a final exam at CSUN.
“I ended up failing that final because I was in too much of a head space when this Hail Mary lucked out,” Hahn said with a laugh.
He flunked the exam but passed the interview. His schedule was soon turned topsy-turvy.
“I’d take the train (from Santa Barbara) to school on Monday,” he said. “I’d work for the Kings on Tuesday, go virtual (with his classes) on Wednesday, work for the Kings on Thursday … And also work for the Kings on any game night.
“It was just this crazy travel, from February to June. But it was worth it.”
He worked for the Kings as a production assistant, handling much of the team’s event coverage.
“You take a camera out and film the fans, and all that good stuff,” Hahn said. “I ended up getting to shoot a couple of games — shooting on the glass in photo wells, which was a lot of fun.
“When I was in the office, I’d be doing editing, social-media pieces, a couple of videos for the scoreboard.”
One of his most memorable tasks was handling the tributes at several games, especially the one honoring goalkeeper Jonathan Quick for his 700th game.
“My boss said it would probably be a good thing if the goalie in the office got to pen the tribute to him,” Hahn said.
Jet-Setting in New York
Hahn applied to pro sports teams high and wide after graduation. His dream job would be with the Red Wings, but they never responded to his queries. His best offer came from the NFL.
“The Jets called fairly early, and they had a long interview process,” he said. “They do a lot of great documentary work, and I’m working on some of it now.”
One of their fall documentary projects is One Jets Drive.
“It’s like Hard Knocks,” Hahn said, referring to the HBO series that documents the season of an NFL team. “We’re doing that every other week — which is pretty crazy, putting out a 20-minute-plus episode every other week. It’s a lot of work.
“I’m shooting and doing production on that one. And then on the off week of that is One JD Film, in which we’re creating this umbrella of documentaries. It’s our nonfootball doc where we talk to historic players, profile diehard fans, or look behind the scenes at everything from the groundskeepers to the equipment people to the video staff.”
One Jets Drive is aired on CBS2 New York every week and is also available online with the team’s digital properties.
“One of the coolest couple of moments for me came when I stayed up to 11:30 on a Saturday night to watch the first One JD Films episode that I edited and shot,” Hahn said. “To watch it on a real TV channel and think, ‘I did this!’ was pretty cool.”
Amazon Prime also used a lot of his footage for its pregame show for the Jets’ recent Thursday night game against Jacksonville.
The irony of working in the NFL is that he doesn’t actually get to watch much of the game.
“It’s kind of a blur, especially when you shoot it,” he said. “I went in and watched some of my footage from the Thursday night game and was like, ‘I don’t even remember this play.’ You don’t watch it at all, especially being at the field level.”
Hahn still dreams about being on an NHL team. Returning to the Kings with a salaried position would be a great landing place, he said.
“I didn’t realize how amazing it was to be in Hollywood until I left it,” he said.
But the nickname lives on.