Above and below: Screen shots of the documentary. Click HERE to watch it on the fhspress.com YouTube channel.

Bivens and the fhspress.com Video Crew covered the entire season as the FHS basketball team set themselves up for a run for a state title.

By ALI WATKINS
fhspress.com Staff
Posted September 14, 2015

Junior Mary Bivens of Foothill High School’s fhspress.com Video Crew achieved a major milestone with her season-long documentary covering the FHS boys basketball team. She finished it on June 11, 2015 (the last day of her sophomore year), a documentary finished after almost a year of hard work. She titled it Champions of Today, which had become a theme for the team.

Started in October of 2014, Bivens and her video crew began their quest to make a documentary. Champions of Today is a film about the Foothill Mustangs varsity boys basketball team and their quest for a state championship.

The making of this film was full of struggle, stress, and the late success.
In September of Biven’s sophomore year, sitting a restaurant table with fhspress.com editor Steph Parsons and advisor Steve Dommer, she desperately wanted to create a documentary, but little did she know that the subject would be basketball.

Later that week at a football game, FHS basketball coach Drew Hibbs went directly to Dommer to ask if his class would be interested in doing a documentary on their upcoming season (assistant coach Steph Calton had come up with the idea). Mr. Dommer saw this as an opportunity for Bivens.
Throughout the whole season, Bivens and her video crew filmed most games. Once at a game, her tripod broke and she carried the camera, determined to get a good shot.

“Going to these games and chatting with the guys really gave me a feel on what it was like to be a player,” said Bivens as she could get a feel of their struggle by just being there. She was amazed at how well the whole team worked together. Some team members would not share their thoughts on the rough games, so she worked with what she got. Sometimes Marcus Hansen would repeatedly say in front of the camera, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.” Bivens was a bit frustrated with this, but Dommer explained to her how Hansen was just doing his best Marshawn Lynch impersonation. Dommer had a polite word with Hansen, who thereafter cooperated with the project.

Around mid-March to early-April, Bivens started to lose hope in finishing the project. She would stay late and cut out extracurricular activities, she thought that she saw Dommer more often than her own parents. Bivens would edit the footage of five cameras each running about two hours long, for each game.

Dommer gave her some hope:

“They’re gonna love it," he said, "but it needs to be finished for them to see it. I will help if you need it.” Bivens never needed much help, as she was now more determined than ever.

On the last day of school, she had finally finished, through the struggle, through the stress. Bivens was so happy that she wanted to cry her eyes out with joy and jump for joy. She found out what it truly meant to be a Champion of Today.

--Irene Dumas of fhspress.com contributed to this report.

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