MATC alum Duane Rodriguez
It’s been surreal ... We want to make the show high octane and as fun for the fans as we can. That trickles down to us. It’s been something really special.
For more than 40 years, Duane Rodriguez has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of Milwaukee Brewers baseball.
This year, from his unique vantage point behind a television camera in center field, the Milwaukee Area Technical College alumnus saw history being made.
Rodriguez, a 1982 graduate of MATC’s renowned Television and Video Production program, has operated a camera for the Brewers’ television broadcasts since the team played at now-demolished Milwaukee County Stadium.
He was there when the 1982 Brewers got to the World Series and lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. And he was there this season when the Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to win the team’s first championship.
“Oh my gosh, 44 years, that’s crazy,” said Rodriguez, now 70. “This team is great. The organization is amazing. I’ve traveled around the country and there is no organization like the Milwaukee Brewers.”
During this championship season, the Brewers have been a great place to be for dozens of graduates from MATC’s TV and Video Production program. Many worked on the scoreboard crew at the Brewers’ home stadium, American Family Field, creating the images that the crowds see inside the stadium at every game. Others, like Rodriguez, operated cameras for the team’s television broadcasts.
When asked to provide a list of program graduates who have some connection to the Brewers, Kevin Pulz, retired lead faculty of the TV and Video Production program, came up with nearly 50 names.
Rodriguez worked almost every regular season home game during 2026, as well as playoff games against the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He operated a television camera in center field, focusing on the pitcher and following each throw from the pitcher’s hand to the batter. He also took shots of the dugouts when the broadcast announcers talked about players waiting to hit or the coaches in the dugout.
While Rodriguez waited more than 40 years to see a World Series championship come to Milwaukee, MATC graduates Isabela Riveros and Max Martinson didn’t have to wait long.
Both graduated from the TV and Video Production program in the spring of 2025, and both started working on the Brewers’ scoreboard crew in May 2026.
Before coming to the Brewers, Riveros worked at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, setting up tables and preparing for events. She asked to join the video crew and began working games for the Milwaukee Admirals ice hockey team, the Milwaukee Wave soccer team and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers basketball team.
“I’m not really the sports type,” said Riveros, who in 2024 received the first Ron Pellegrini Scholarship awarded by MATC. “I sort of fell into it. It was an opportunity I had and I took it.”
In the spring of 2026, she was recommended by Pulz for a spot on the Brewers’ scoreboard crew. She and classmate Martinson were both hired.
“In this area, Kevin’s recommendation goes pretty far,” Riveros said. “I think that says a lot about the program we have.”
During the season Riveros usually manned a camera on the left-field line, behind third base, pointed at first base. She got crowd shots during the national anthem and anything else the director needed.
“Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect,” Riveros said. “The crew is kind of a closed ecosystem with its own in-jokes and other inside stuff. They seem to share the same brain cells. At first, it was a little bit of a struggle to fit in, but everyone made me feel welcome.
“They kept reminding me that this isn’t how it is every season,” Riveros said with a laugh.
About 25 people worked the scoreboard crew during each home game, Riveros said, and almost all of them had some kind of connection to MATC. “Almost everyone who works in sports or TV in Milwaukee has gone through our program,” she said. “We all shared that common ground.”
Working the games — and winning the games — was exhilarating, she said. “It’s been surreal to be honest,” she said. “Overstimulating in a good way. We want to make the show high octane and as fun for the fans as we can. That trickles down to us.
“It’s been something really special,” she said.
And thanks to MATC, she felt completely prepared to do her job.
“I, for one, have found the real world to be easier than school,” she said. “I feel I was overprepared. The transition was almost seamless. Everything I learned at MATC I used at every game I worked. I’m grateful for the education I received. It completely set me up for success.”
Martinson started at MATC in 2023 and received his associate degree in the spring of 2025. Before getting his gig with the Brewers, he worked with Civic Media as a radio and podcast producer.
On the scoreboard crew, Martinson usually ran instant replay cameras, allowing the fans in the stands to enjoy a second, and even third, look at the most exciting plays.
“I grew up a Brewers fan, so this entire season has been incredible,” Martinson said. “Actually, it’s been kind of crazy.”
Martinson was working at American Family Field on Wednesday, October 28, when the Brewers clinched the championship in Tampa Bay. He also worked the day before, for Game 4, when the Brewers lost in extra innings.
“I really thought they were going to sweep,” Martinson said. “Starting in July there was a string of games where I never saw a loss. It was like 19-0. When I worked, they never lost.”
Martinson grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin. His family owned and operated a radio station: — WMAX 99.7. He worked at the station as a teenager but decided to go into television.
“I looked around the state for the best place to go,” he said. “All I kept hearing was that MATC was the best place to get real world experience.”
Back in the 1980s, Rodriguez wanted to work in television, but struggled to find a college program that could teach him those skills. Then he found MATC.
“I enrolled in the program and it was great,” Rodriguez said. “On my first day, I actually worked, or played around with, a television camera that Milwaukee Channel 10 used for broadcasting their television shows. I knew it was perfect.”
Rodriguez started his career with the Brewers in 1980 as a first-year student at MATC.
“We were saying that it would be the greatest thing in the world to run a television camera for baseball during the summer,” Rodriguez said. “I applied for the job and I got it.”
A year after graduating from MATC, Rodriguez got hired at Milwaukee PBS to teach students how to operate cameras. His wife, Lisa, is a videotape editor and replay operator. She worked at the 2025 playoffs for Turner Broadcasting and the World Series for Fox. They have been married for 12 years.
“It’s great to be able to share those experiences and work in the same industry with your wife,” Rodriguez said. “We understand what each other does and get to share in those accomplishments ogether.”
Along with working for the Brewers, Rodriguez has covered a wide world of sports events as a freelance camera operator, including four Olympic Games, nine Super Bowls and hundreds of NFL games.
“When I was a student, and I started doing work while I was still in school, I had dreams of being the world’s greatest camera operator,” Rodriguez said. “I wanted to do a Super Bowl. I wanted to do the Olympics. For me, that was the pinnacle.
“Probably less than 10 years after graduating,” he said, “I was able to achieve it.”
About MATC: Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 35,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 45 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
MATC alum Max Martinson