Ben Heske an Unsung Key to Princeton's National Championship

“The best team and the best media team in all of college lacrosse 🔥”

“Media team on a generational run”

“Media team needs a raise”

Comments like these are common under videos posted to the Princeton men’s lacrosse Instagram account this season. The only problem with the praise is that “team” is an exaggeration. That would imply videographers — plural — shooting on different cameras. The reality is it’s one individual videographer doing it all.

Ben Heske handles all Princeton men’s lacrosse video content as the Director of Creative Video. From full-on documentaries like “Hunting History” to weekly “Finally Gameday” Reels and everything in between, Heske has helped set the bar for what lacrosse content can be. That’s one videographer to capture 52 lacrosse players, four coaches, and all of the fan section — aka “The Jungle.”

If scrolling through the @princetonlax account didn’t impress you enough, then the guy behind the camera will.

He’s just 21 years old and a college junior. He doesn’t even go to Princeton. He attends Drexel, where he plays club lacrosse and originally intended to earn an engineering degree.

“I was pretty much set on the fact that I was going to be an engineer when I got to college,” Heske said. “I showed up to Drexel and within the first two months I was like, ‘What was I talking about?’”

Now he studies marketing and focuses on filmmaking. The lacrosse world is thankful for that. This season alone, @princetonlax has accumulated over 32 million views and gained over 10,000 followers. In fact, the account has more than double the Instagram followers that Princeton’s main athletics account has (45.7k to 21.6k).

Regardless of if he’s wearing a media vest or a uniform, lacrosse has always been a part of Heske’s life.

Starting in second grade, Heske had a stick in his hand as the middle child in a family of three brothers. Rumor has it younger brother Owen has some great highlight reels courtesy of his brother, of course. Unfortunately, older brother Alden, who played Division III lacrosse at Kenyon College, didn't luck out with the timing of Ben’s skills shaping up.

It was during the pandemic in 2021 that Heske picked up the camera and started to split time between filming and playing the game.

From there, he was off to college.

“It’s been a crazy journey since I’ve gotten to Philly,” Heske said. “I vividly remember sitting in my dorm room as a freshman on the phone with Nick Ieradi, a photographer for Princeton Athletics, and I had no work, no clients, nothing.”

Ieradi met Heske covering the club lacrosse scene and knew that his work would speak for itself on any application. He suggested Heske reach out to The Lacrosse Network to shoot for them as a production intern, a gig Heske could only ever dream about as a kid.

“I used to watch all the old Lacrosse Network Weekly Watch videos, and Alden and I would write in letters and send in drawings,” Heske said.

So, when Heske messaged the account and got a response back that he would now be working for the channel that he grew up on, everything started to click.

“I remember thinking: This feels so surreal I’m working for the people I would send fan mail to at 10 years old,” Heske said.

After that, Heske did some freelance work here and there for Princeton in 2025 and eventually that led to his contract with the Orange and Black in 2026.

“He sees something before it happens and then paints that picture with his work,” Ieradi said.

Drew Cottrell, the Director of Men’s Lacrosse Operations at Princeton, helped hire Heske. Little did he know, Heske would come to cast him as the lead role in multiple Reels this season. Even if Heske has him sweating down on Sherrerd Field for a 20-second clip in the middle of May, Cottrell wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Ben is as good as it gets,” Cottrell said. “We’re going to try and hold on to him as long as we can.”

Cottrell, who actually hits the post button on Heske’s videos, mentioned that they reach just about everyone that’s ever touched paths with the program.  

“Our current players get to view it as we’re playing the highest level of lacrosse,” Cottrell said. “Our alums get to be proud and send those videos to other people. And the biggest hidden secret is the recruiting side. Because we can post all of these impressive videos, it’s going through social media to the top recruits in the country. They are constantly being infiltrated with Princeton Lacrosse.”

Recruits not only have state-of-the-art videos to watch, but great lacrosse, too. In 2026, the Tigers won an NCAA championship 25 years after the program’s last trophy in 2001. On the way to doing that, they topped Maryland for the first time in 22 years.

Princeton also beat Cornell, breaking an eight-year losing streak to clinch the Ivy League tournament title. That’s a lot of history. Thanks to Heske’s work, the forever team will be forever-documented — and not just via game highlights.

When Heske shoots, he categorizes clips with color tags. Blue equals save. Red equals goal. Green equals faceoff win. Then there’s orange. What’s that tag for?

“The guys messing around and doing something stupid,” Heske said.

There are hundreds of thousands of clips with the orange tag.  

“Russ Fitzgerald is unbelievably funny,” Heske said. “Ryan Croddick was obsessed with the camera since day one. Obviously, Chad Palumbo has a huge personality, too.”

Heske wants people to feel something after watching his videos, and the Princeton personalities definitely help make his job a little easier.

“People really like seeing this group of young men that are supposed to be big and tough lacrosse players having fun, dancing, and enjoying the experience of it,” Heske said.

The reviews are in. Yes, the people really like it — the work of Ben Heske, that is.

“@ben.heske is my Tewaaraton”

“Incredible video — @ben.heske you’re ridiculously talented. Lacrosse is lucky to have you making videos”

“Princeton lax might have the greatest videographer of all time”