USD Magazine Spring 2009

AROUND THE PARK

Getting all-access passes was just part of a day’s work for Ed Ybarra during his years as a freelance camera operator. Now in charge of USD’s Instructional Media Services department, Ybarra (left) still finds time to direct off-campus live broad- casts and shop around scripts.

[ m u l t i t a s k e r ]

QUIET ON THE SET! Camera operator turned media servi ces manager has seen i t al l by Trisha J. Ratledge

W hen Ed Ybarra hits the road, he’s almost always packing a back- stage pass. Over the years, he’s high-fived former President George H.W. Bush at a business conference, spent time in prison with Larry King and shot the breeze with O.J. Simpson at the Super Bowl. As a freelance camera operator for more than two decades, his work has taken him around the world and behind the scenes at memorable events ranging from talk shows to commercial produc- tions to game shows. His prison stint with King, for example, was just long enough to record an interview with Leslie Van Houten, a member of the notorious Charles Manson family. The bulk of Ybarra’s freelance camera work has centered on live sporting events. He covered basketball and football for many years — including four Super Bowls and the World Basketball Championships in Paris —and the Padres for 22 seasons to date. The schedule can be intense; he’s cov- ered up to 140 games in a baseball season. On the road, he would sometimes lose his bearings, partic- ularly during basketball playoffs. “We would get up in the dark, catch a plane, do a game at night, go to bed, get up the next morning and catch another flight,”he says. “After three or four cities, we would look at each other and say,‘Do we knowwhat city we are in? Has any- one seen daylight?’That was both

He still freelances after hours, and in fact, has begun directing live broadcasts of local sporting events and has written nine fea- ture-length scripts that he’s shopping around. But his main priority is supplying the media equipment USD professors need to help deliver their lectures. He knows the students benefit and hopes that one day his own

daughter, Jillian, might benefit too. “We take great pride in making sure the equipment works. I take that seriously because that’s how I want my department to work when my daughter gets here, should she get here. I don’t want her education to be lost for a day,”Ybarra says. “I don’t want any student’s education to be lost for a day.”

fun and one of the reasons it was time to get off the road.” Now in charge of the circulation desk in USD’s Instructional Media Services department, Ybarra, who’s been with the university for eight years, oversees the inventory of classroom media equipment, troubleshoots problems in the classroom and helps with video production of USD events.

TIM MANTOANI

10 USD MAGAZINE