Kristen Lappas might have become a basketball coach like her father or a teacher like her mother, but she always knew she wanted to do something else. For Kristen, her greatest passion wasn’t on the court or at the front of the classroom, but behind a lens.
Lappas worked tirelessly beginning in high school to break into the world of production and communications. Taking internships year after year, reading public service announcements for NPR, and pursuing her interest in sports, Kristen went on to Boston College where she majored in Communications.
After graduation, Lappas started as an associate producer at ESPN. Like her peers, Kristen worked crazy hours to help produce sports number one show, SportsCenter. ESPN likes to keep its pillar program fresh with young talent behind the scenes who will work the absurd shift times like 6 pm to 2 am and 1am to 10am. A few months down the line, Lappas joined the College Gameday crew for the basketball season. Because of her stellar work, she was asked to work on the college football edition.
Kristen graciously took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions about what she does. She shared why she loves her job so much, citing that, “Working at ESPN and especially on College Gameday are such a fun experiences because they both embrace the philosophy of sports. The competitive nature of the business mixed with working on such a close knit team makes it such a unique career path and one that I love.”
College Gameday’s football version is where Kristin Lappas has found some of her greatest successes. This year, partly because of Kristen’s tremendous work on the college football images of the year, College Gameday was nominated for a Sports Emmy.
Kristen Lappas at the Emmys
Lappas excitedly recollected, “The Emmys was one of the greatest experiences of my professional career at ESPN so far. Being around the best people in the business for a night was such an honor and to say that the show we work on so hard year round was competing for an actual Emmy was surreal.”
Though the Gameday crew lost out to Inside the NFL, everyone is really proud of Kristen and the entire team, including her mother Mrs. Harriet Lappas. Malvern’s history teacher noted, “Watching Kristens’ determination from a young age makes these types of nights so gratifying. I am so happy for her, that she found a way to live out her passion.”
All inclinations point to future success for Kristen and her entire team as she continues to passionately pursue the job she loves so much. Look out for Kristen’s next big piece on the upcoming Scripps’ National Spelling Bee to be featured on SportsCenter!
