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Editor’s Note: This interview and story were each completed before the formation of Hurricane Helene, which impacted Boone and the Appalachian State University campus.

Taylor Newton has earned a spot on the sidelines of the Appalachian State University (App State) Mountaineers football team in Boone. Yes, he suits up in black and gold gear at gametime, but he doesn’t wear pads, cleats or buckle up his helmet.

Instead, Newton wields an impressive and powerful Canon digital camera with a fast 400 mm lens on the sidelines. He’s managed to walk his way onto the team and his role is documenting sporting events such as the ugly home loss to the University of South Alabama (USA), which was only five days after App edged out East Carolina 21 to 19 in Greenville with a fourth quarter field goal.

The June 2023 graduate of First Flight High School began this college sports photography quest at App State in mid-August of that summer. Now that Newton’s invested his freshman year to build up photo galleries of App sporting events, the university invested in him, too, and issued him sidelines gear such as shirts and hats.

During the App State versus USA game, you could see him all the way across the field as he wore a bright yellow ball cap. In football, photographers have to move a lot to follow the action and that’s exactly what Newton did throughout the game.

He was in the right spot at the right time to capture a perfect shot of the high flying catch for the only Mountaineers touchdown of the night. Newton’s not allowed to share those images with anyone outside of the university, but he was excited about the shot at halftime when he took a break.

Newton flashed a copy of the image on his cellphone screen and grinned large. Later that week, he explained how he got to this point.

“I first got connected with App State Athletics in high school through my journalism teacher, Steve Hanf,” Newton said, “where I was able to reach out to their staff and connect with them during open house dates.

“I started shooting the moment I got up to Boone my freshman year,” he said. “Covering fall camp football practices for the team, then moving to cover other sports as well.

“I was able to get myself in a position as a student photographer for athletics, as well earning a position on the football media team,” Newton noted.

Although football coverage may be his favorite, Newton covers everything.

“As a student photographer for App State Athletics, I cover events for all 16 NCAA Division I teams,” he said. “During the fall season I am covering football, cross country, golf, tennis, volleyball, soccer and field hockey.

“Out of the fall sports I would consider football to be my favorite with how in depth I am able to participate in the creative process for the team,” Newton said. “I have been covering practices since the second week of August and also having the opportunity to work on uniform reveals.”

As for the software that allows him to load shots from his camera to his smartphone, it’s all about making social media posts in a timely fashion.

“In the majority of the sports I shoot at App State, especially football, we are required to send pictures throughout each period of the game to provide content for the social media platforms,” Newton said. “Canon has a program where I am able to pull pictures from my camera, and put them on my phone to edit and send to sports information directors.

“Having the ability to connect my phone and my camera has allowed me to have a faster and more productive workflow whilst also maintaining my ability to shoot as much as possible,” he said.

Newton owns all of his gear and has been progressively upgrading and adding to it since he started photography in high school.

Speaking of First Flight, Newton’s journalism instructor, Hanf, said from his freshman year on, Newton showed a remarkable sense of enthusiasm for being everywhere with his camera.

“Whether it was the Good Guys [charity basketball tournament] with more than a thousand people in the seats or another sport with just parents watching, a musical dress rehearsal in an empty auditorium or a spring concert in front of a packed house, Taylor put in the long hours to get one great shot after another of student life at FFHS,” Hanf said.

“As his teacher, I had the pleasure of reaching out to a former coworker who is now in the App State athletic department and basically saying, ‘Get this freshman in your program the moment he walks on campus!'” Hanf recalled. “It’s been so rewarding to see him continue getting phenomenal photos of the Mountaineers his first two years in Boone.

“His creativity with the camera and talent with Photoshop also led to some incredible works of art when it came to covers of the Shorelines Yearbook and Nighthawk News Magazine, including the newspaper’s ‘Drug Crisis’ edition that was honored with a national award for its coverage of this most important of topics,” the teacher added.

Newton served as photo editor of Nighthawk News for three years and was editor-in-chief of Shorelines his last two years, Hanf said.

“Taylor took eight publications classes during his amazing run at First Flight,” he added. “In the journalism room 90 minutes a day every day for all four years of his high school career.”

Two more of Hanf’s journalism students and 2023 graduates also attend App State. Bella Sarbora was Newton’s co-editor-in-chief their senior year. Austin Law was a staff member for Shorelines. He and Newton shared a dorm room freshman year and now an apartment this year. It’s so close to the Kidd Brewer Stadium you can hear the marching band practice.

Over the summer, Newton and his dad Coran built and clear-coated a custom wooden eating bar for the apartment that separates the kitchen from the living room.

His freshman year, Taylor brought some mountain greenery back to the beach for his family, including mom Dana, for the holidays.

“I brought home a Christmas tree for my girlfriend’s parents, and a wreath for my family,” Taylor said, “and I plan on doing that again.”

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