Two weeks before the start of school, Rye High School senior Amanda Yannett was appointed president of the Garnet Insider.

By Melanie Cane

Two weeks before the start of school, Rye High School senior Amanda Yannett was appointed president of the Garnet Insider. The club produces sports video montages for the high school award ceremonies. Before that, she had never been a member of the club and had only made videos as a hobby. However, she accepted the challenge and got right to work.

Knowing how much the students enjoyed the sports montages, she thought they should be available to the entire Rye community, so she and fellow club member Matt Shainberg came up with ideas for the RyeTV show, Rye Sports Report. Shainberg, a junior, wanted broadcasting experience and Yannett wanted to showcase Rye’s overall athletic talent. Their collaboration led to the format for the first 20-minute show, which premiered December 24. The show includes Yannett’s footage from fall sports, team stats, interviews with players and coaches, and commentary about some of the professional teams. Yannett and Shainberg are currently working on the second of five planned shows, which will air at the end of January. You can watch the Rye Sports Report online at RyeTV.org, YouTube, or on cable.  

Since gaining video production experience over the past several months, Yannett created a college recruiting video for a field hockey player and is currently working on one for a RHS basketball player. It is not surprising that she quickly mastered videography and threw herself wholeheartedly into her responsibilities because that’s how she approaches all of her interests, including photography, sports, and animals.

Her love of photography dates back to her third birthday when she received a toy camera. “I used to wear the camera on my wrist, like a bracelet, all the time.” Whenever her father was taking family photos and videos, she asked him to teach her how, too. Her learning curve jumped enormously in 10th grade when, on a winter break trip to Antartica, National Geographic photographer David Doubilet took her under his wing. She is taking AP Photography and is a photographer for Zephyr, the school magazine.

When she is not behind the camera at sporting events, Yannett is on the field, in the water, or on a horse. As a member of the Girls’ varsity soccer team, she specializes in throw-ins and “kicking the ball hard with pinpoint accuracy.” She also plays on a spring soccer team, The Breakers. Her other spring sport is softball. This will be her fourth year as catcher on the varsity team and her first time as captain. She is also the cleanup batter.

Over the past two summers, Yannett has mastered wake boarding (snowboarding in the water) at Brown Ledge Camp in Vermont, where she is a counselor, master water skier, and lifeguard. When she was 12, long before becoming a certified lifeguard, she saved a drowning woman and her daughter in the ocean at Martha’s Vineyard.

Every day of every summer since she was 7, Yannett has gone horseback riding. She’s also long been a member of a synchronized drill team.

Her love of animals began when she was 5, and her family got their first dog, Tucker, a Wheaton Terrier. Her affection for Tucker was so strong that she announced to her family soon after that she was going to be a veterinarian. Her passion for animals has never wavered.  

In eighth grade, her aunt took her to Best Friends Sanctuary in Utah, and she went back there last year to volunteer again. Every year she asks for items on local shelter wish lists in lieu of presents for herself. She volunteers at New Rochelle Humane Society and, for the past two years, she has participated in a weekend marathon adoption event run by Best Friends at the Brooklyn Expo Center. When she was 11, she adopted another Wheaton Terrier, Bree. Since Bree has a lot of medical problems, she worked with her vet to learn how to administer monthly injections and other medications.

After graduation, Yannett will take a gap year to volunteer in an animal orphanage in either South Africa or Zimbabwe. While volunteering she plans to take “thousands” of pictures and videos before returning home to go to college. Still undecided as to which college she wants to attend, she knows it will be one that will move her further along her goal of becoming a veterinarian. With six AP classes, 12 Honor classes, and a multitude of extracurricular activities and talents, her college prospects look great.