Documentary about telling the story of a huge missed opportunity in college sports

There is often talk in Hollywood circles about when certain celebrities die, and therefore the era in which they reached their peak.

There is an argument that the present is the best version of something – and that may be true in many ways.

But this bygone era has its stories, rich in flavor and crying out to be told to those who have not yet heard them.

Luckily, many of these stories were captured through the power of video by sitting down for interviews, even hours long, to capture the complexities of life.

If you’ve been around this space long enough, you know exactly how I make sure the story never goes away. The rants about trophy cases, pictures and footage, valuable spaces, remembering and recognizing your school’s past, and more.

So it is again, hoping it will be heard.

We all fall into our rabbit holes during downtime on YouTube and streaming services.

Amid the pandemic, documentary storytelling has never been more popular.

The 10-part “30 For 30” series about the ’90s Bulls dynasty, “The Last Dance,” was an appointment viewing – admittedly, in part because we couldn’t leave the house, but also because the story is so Clearly and well told it was done.

As a child of the 90s, the first few seconds of “Been Around The World” were exciting. Even if the artist conversation becomes at least unpleasant over time.

The point is that, in addition to its various forms, documentary storytelling is also crucial to document preservation.

After all, doctors continue to live – even if and when the test subjects unfortunately do not.

It has long seemed to me that documentary storytelling is a major missed opportunity in college sports, especially today.

With a phone you can record anything. Even a school’s morning announcements are so refined that they can easily be uploaded to YouTube daily.

During my Harvey years in the mid-to-late 90s, I was on the ground floor as our school district launched a full-fledged television station. On the second floor of the old Harvey Building on West Washington Street in Painesville, two classrooms were once converted into a studio, with editing docks, graphics computers, master controls and equipment current to the time.

We had a remote truck built from the ground up that allowed us to travel on the road and broadcast broadcasts of Red Raiders football and basketball games “all the way to” say Geneva, Edgewood and Conneaut in the old days of the Northeastern Conference .

Some of these recordings still exist – I digitized everything in my collection and uploaded it to my personal Facebook as part of a “Throwback Thursday” project a few years ago. Considering how young I looked and sounded as an aspiring play-by-play announcer, perhaps these recordings are best left to my family and friends and not to the public at large.

But if anything, it stays, online and isn’t going anywhere.

Schools and conferences have become very adept at broadcasting and providing sporting events for streaming in this day and age. The convenience of equipment and uploading makes these days much smoother today than those in the 90s.

However, the one aspect that has not yet been mastered is documentary storytelling.

There are so many stories from times gone by just waiting to be told. State Championships. Improbable postseason runs. Overcoming adversity and tragedy.

The majors are out there. All that would be required is the time and patience to put such projects together.

It’s a lot of work – there’s no doubt about it. But when it’s finished, it’s there for all time.

2008–09 University Hockey State Championship Season: An Oral History

I have attempted over the years to create a form of documentary storytelling in written form, through oral histories of anniversaries of memorable local teams, such as University Hockey’s 2008-09 Triple Crown team and Wickliffe’s unlikely ones Promotion to the boys in Division III orally told the football state finals in 2006.

High School Boys Soccer: Wickliffe inspired with against-the-grain fun in the 2006 state finals

It takes time to create such a vision, to lay down the principles on which to set a day and a place for an interview. Unfortunately, you’re also finding that some people don’t want to tell these stories anymore – and to be clear: whatever the reason, that’s okay.

But walking among us is a treasure trove of coaches, student-athletes, administrators and fans whose memories should be preserved.

Imagine your school’s greatest sporting achievements. Now imagine that there are gatherings to celebrate special anniversaries, that the principles come and do NFL Films-style interviews right in front of the camera, laying out these incredible moments in your community’s history.

Imagine the emotions and the type of stories that can be captured.

And finally, imagine editing it into a documentary piece, with pictures and, if possible, videos of those moments. What an amazing time capsule that would be.

Schools have the technical infrastructure to do this. It simply requires the strength and ingenuity of people.

In all likelihood this would need to be done at a local grassroots level and not necessarily at an area/regional level. That’s no insult to anyone involved, of course, but interest in Chagrin Falls, for example, for a documentary about Mentor’s undefeated 1968 soccer team is likely to be limited at best – and in Mentor’s case for Chagrin’s 1996 girls soccer title win, the feeling is reciprocal. But there is an audience for it that would love and embrace it if you made the effort.

In this profession you learn over the course of your life that there are many stories. It’s about creating the trust and comfort for these stories to be told.

Not just events, the mundane, college commitments, breaking a winning streak, or the championship moments when they happen.

Rather, it is the stories about perseverance outside of sport that make this sporting journey so much richer. It is an honor to tell these stories and to be entrusted with them.

Documentary video storytelling for college sports would be a goldmine of interest and preservation.

Because just as people lament in Hollywood circles, once this era is over, it’s over.