Panther Legacy #4: Samantha Zagha

Photographers and videographers like Samantha Zagha (‘20) are the unsung heroes of every highlight play, buzzer beater, and major upset.

But growing up, Zagha was not surrounded by sports. 

   “My mom is incredibly introverted and not sporty at all. Same with my dad. I grew up like the opposite of being exposed to sports,” Zagha said. 

  Although she didn’t discover her medical condition until college, it made activities like running difficult earlier in life. Due to this, she gravitated toward dancing and horseback riding. That’s where she snapped her first photos.

   “I just borrowed my mom’s camera and started photographing my friends at practices,” Zagha said. She also began photographing horse shows. 

   Zagha attended Ronald. C Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City in elementary school and then joined Pinewood in sixth grade after her mother, Science Department Head Kim Hudson, initiated the change. 

    “I wanted her here on the Upper Campus in seventh through 12th,” Hudson said. The transition was rough at first because of the school’s unique atmosphere, but Zagha was able to find her footing quickly and love for sports photography there.

   In the start of 11th grade, Zagha went on a class surfing trip, but she could not participate due to a horseback riding injury. Instead, she brought her camera and took photos of her friends surfing and uploaded them to SmugMug. Her talent drew the attention of Pinewood’s Director of Communications Katy Wells, who invited her to photograph some games at Pinewood’s Upper, Middle, and Lower campuses. 

   “Sami had a real skill for photography and a great passion for it, too,” Wells said. She also took photos for the Pinewood Yearbook. 

Pinewood Football. Photo by Samantha Zagha

“It was a way of hanging out with her friends and doing something for the school,” Hudson said.

   After graduating, Zagha took a gap year and interned at the Los Altos Crier where she took photos of sports at local schools like St. Francis while still photographing Pinewood athletics. She went on to attend Northeastern and study abroad in Italy for her first semester at John Cabot University.

   She took a break from photography there but was able to reunite with her passion after returning to Boston and committing to their half-summer semester “Dialogue of Civilizations” program. She went on a trip to Panama for aspiring journalists as the lead photographer where she supplied content for the writers and videographers. Zagha and a group of 17 students slept in hammocks and camped in the rainforest to raise awareness about the issues affecting the residents.

   “It was the coolest experience ever,” Zagha said. “It was the first time I realized I could do photography and be successful at it as a career.” 

   Soon after, she decided to transfer back home to Santa Clara University. Santa Clara’s student body is almost thirty thousand students smaller than Northeastern, and Zagha saw this as a way to get more hands-on sports media experience.  

   “When I came to Santa Clara, all of a sudden I was a big fish in a little pond, and that was a much better experience for me,” Zagha said.

   She started off doing a mix of quick shoots of newly committed recruits, live-stream camera operations, and content for different sports teams and their social media pages. This allowed her to experience her favorite photography and live-streaming moments: Santa Clara Men’s basketball versus Gonzaga University and Santa Clara Baseball’s iconic walk-off win.

   In January 2025, Santa Clara basketball played Gonzaga, which was ranked 16th in the nation at the time. Zagha photographed the entire game – including the moment Santa Clara pulled off the major upset.

   “It was the most exciting community moment for sure…definitely some of the best photos of my life,” Zagha said.

Santa Clara vs Gonzaga. Photo by Samantha Zagha.

   Her photos were published all over social media, which significantly increased her exposure.

   Zagha’s other favorite memory came during a must-win game for Santa Clara baseball, which had hopes of securing the eighth spot in the West Coast Conference tournament. Zagha was live-streaming the game on top of the dugout. The bases were loaded in the last inning, and Santa Clara hit a walk-off home run to win the game. 

   “The reason it was more significant later on is because they ended up winning the whole tournament,” Zagha said.

   Meanwhile, Zagha made a meaningful connection with Santa Clara Women’s Soccer legend Leslie Osborne Lewis. National Women’s Soccer League team Bay FC was co-founded by Osborne Lewis, who also helped win the U.S. National Team, with their first FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship.

   “My professor emailed me and was like, hey, Leslie is looking for an intern to help her write speeches,” Zagha said. Osborne Lewis noticed Zagha’s creative skill set and offered her a role in social media content creation, video production, and event coverage for game days and media events.

   “[Leslie] introduced me to every person she possibly could… and I loved that,” Zagha said.

   Zagha said that typically, most of the sports world is filled with athletes or former athletes, but feels as though in this case,  her non-athletic background gave her an advantage.

   “You have a unique perspective as a newer (or new) fan…having a unique perspective on something is what will set you apart,” Zagha said.

   Now, she has finished working for Santa Clara’s athletic department and will begin working as a video assistant at Bay FC.

   Her message to aspiring sports media students at Pinewood?

   “You have to really be the person that shows up for everybody, and at some point it’ll work out for you, because you'll be known as that,” Zagha said.