Swiss Army Knife – a multi-tool accessory that has a main spear point blade plus other blades and tools that are stowed inside the handle of the knife through a pivot-point mechanism. It’s also used as a metaphor to describe someone who is generally useful, multi-talented and adaptable.

2019 Marian Catholic graduate Keith McCall II possesses those very characteristics and is currently serving as the “Swiss Army Knife” of the Penn State football team’s Video Production Department as a Student Video Manager. As a high school student, McCall had a strong interest in creating football highlights and videos and picked up some editing tricks along the way - even before attending Penn State University.

“Video editing, especially sports videos, and getting creative with the editing, is something I’ve always been interested in and something I always saw myself doing,” said McCall. “I would get the DVDs from our high school football games and use iMovie to cut up different highlights and clips from the game to send to our family members, who lived out of town and couldn’t get to the games.

“It was something I got really passionate about and then I took my enthusiasm for it to college.”

McCall then took that passion and determination for something he was genuinely interested in and did what is becoming increasingly rare in today’s landscape – he took initiative – and he did so in a very creative way.

He started to hone his craft by breaking down clips and highlights from college football players like Penn State’s Journey Brown and Micah Parsons; Notre Dame’s Braden Lenzy; and Georgia’s Brian Herrien. McCall then created an Instagram page and posted the highlights of the players out of pure fun.

The response he got from his videos was overwhelming.

Before he knew it, his posts were getting re-posted sometimes over 150 times as the players themselves, their family members, and their friends were impressed with the quality of the videos.

“After all that happened, I was thinking how cool it would be to do this stuff all the time and work for the football team here at Penn State, so I started doing my research and I emailed the Chief of Staff for Penn State football Kevin Threlkel and he was able to get me in touch with the right people in the video department,” said McCall. “I was able to get an interview and showed them some of my stuff and my portfolio and they brought me on, because they were short a few people because of COVID-19.”

McCall wasted no time making his mark on the football program, quickly moving from an intern type position to his current role as Student Video Manager. McCall’s daily tasks include, attending practice and shooting specific position groups for the coaches and players to look at for both teaching and “X’s and O’s” purposes and also collecting and editing the clips for the Nittany Lions’ weekly hype video before they face off with that week’s opponent - something that has become one of the most important motivational traditions the team looks forward to.

“I came into this whole thing really interested in the creative end of things, but when they needed an extra hand to shoot practice and other stuff like that I jumped at it,” McCall said. “They call me their “Swiss Army Knife” because I’ll jump around and do whatever, I just loving having the opportunity.

“So, I’ll usually shoot the first half of practice wherever they need me and then I’ll go in and edit and work on the weekly hype video. I’ll also come in about two hours before practice some days to work on that. I’m working on the Wisconsin video right now and I’m working hard to make sure it has a real impact on our players.”

For the Summit Hill native, the experience has been surreal.

“It really is crazy how everything happened. I mean COVID-19 shut everything down and that’s when I had the time to put all those highlight videos together of the different players and then here I am today,” said McCall. “It’s just been such a great experience.

“They literally treat me as if I’m part of team. I get team clothing, shoes, book bag, and my parents can come to the games. They really treat me great. This is something I want to do for the rest of my life and I know this opportunity is going to open doors for me. I just need to keep working hard and doing whatever I can to get better.”

One intriguing part of McCall’s journey - on the less serious side - is how his father, former State Representative Keith McCall, a passionate and avid supporter of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, has adapted to his son being part of the Penn State football program. Will Keith senior dawn the blue and white or the blue and gold this upcoming season?

“I haven’t been able to get him to wear anything Penn State gear at home or out and about just yet, but I’ve gotten him plenty of PSU stuff over the last year,” young Keith laughed. “But he will definitely wear PSU stuff to the games, that’s for sure.

“He always supported and liked Penn State, it was just second to Notre Dame. I think once he gets out of the stadium though, the blue and white hat might come off. We’ll have to see, who knows, maybe he’ll be converted.”