In July 2009, I received a call from a woman who wanted me to film her son’s football season. Business was starting to pick up and I was concerned about taking a job so involved and relentless on schedules. We were talking every Friday from 6:00pm to 12 midnight, I would have to be at a football field somewhere in and around Lincoln County. Mandi, my wife, pushed me into the job and I agreed to take it on after days of deliberation. I am a huge football fan and loved being at high school football games even though it had been years since I attended one.
The first night came and as I set up the camera a top of the North Lincoln High School Football Field’s press box. I checked my time, and still had about twenty minutes before the game started. It may had been the first 20 minutes I had, had to myself in sometime. It may had been the first time, I had slowed down in two years. And for one short moment, the world stopped. The sunset was beautiful. You could smell the hamburgers and popcorn cooking at the concession stand. The “Fat Boy Club,” or the announcers for the game were delivering their sponsor list. The breeze was relaxing and I realized, I had, (or Mandi had,) made the right choice. This was where I suppose to be....
And for two seasons that’s exactly where I was-- Shooting an Offensive/Defensive Lineman for his parents who had helmed his future in football and were not pulling any punches on getting him to college to play ball. I, along with his personal trainer and several other people, were their investment. What they didn’t realize at the time, was they were my investment. The job they hired me to do, I had fallen in love with and during the off season I literally counted the days until the next season to be able and get that weekly escape to the press box to film the game.
I also complicated the process by taking on not only him but two more of the standout players on the team. The pressure of keeping three camera men and their footage in order would suck the fun out of the process occasionally through out the week, but come Friday night I was always as giddy as a kid on Christmas Eve.
About midway through this past season, I realized that if I didn’t start advertising or finding a replacement player to shoot next year, this little addiction of getting out of the editing bay, or house, and escaping on Friday nights would end.
Upon completion of the season, I was completely bummed but hopeful a family would find me and use my services next year. Clearly, the completed highlight reel speaks for itself and honestly, it will only be a matter of time before somebody finds me and uses me again. A friend at Fox Sports South said and I quote, “Those Highlight reels will change the way, recruiters look at players and that kind of coverage will allow the outstanding players on the smaller less competitive teams to be seen as well. It is a remarkable piece of marketing.” This quote and my theory didn’t settle things for me. My days, (for now,) at North Lincoln High School were over and over those two years, I had really grown attached the whole team. I had seen so many guys grow into better football players over those two years; Built relationships and friendships with coaches and parents and of course have grown accustomed to sporting my North Lincoln Gear around town with pride. Five days after the final game, I realized the only way I was going to be able to part with this school is make a “video piece,” chronicling the years I was there. A sort of Tribute piece that the players could take with them and I could too. Something I could look at down the road to remind me of my extraordinary, (and almost wasn’t,) time in Lincoln County.
I will always remember the boys and their parents: Dillon and The Tuckers, Mitchell and The Gates and Mason and The Pirtles who trusted in me to get their boys to college and who I trusted in to keep me employed to come to the games Friday night. I will always remember putting on my NL hat and football shirt Friday Morning. Charging the batteries on Thursday night, looking over the great plays on Monday, the phone calls on Tuesday trying to acquire the game tapes and always, always remember the rattling of the blue cowbells and spirit that school had for the team even in the worst of situations. If it were up to me, I would and will always rest easy to know my spot on that press box was reserved for years to come but I’m not counting on it. Will the next team capture the same excitement and peace I felt at North Lincoln? Who knows. For now, though I leave my post at North Lincoln with three kids going to college and a fifteen minute tribute film that I will always be proud of.
Thank you to all who helped me along the way and allowed me to grow with the boys. I will always be in debt to Mandi, Renada, Kenneth, and Dillon who pushed me to pull the normal rates of my services and take a chance on something that seemed so trivial. My life because of it, will never be the same and with that, it’s back to business as usual until the next phone call in August, if one finds my ear.
North Lincoln High Football - A Tribute Film from ROADHOUSE PICTURES on Vimeo.
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