Co-Lin featured in sports documentary

Published 6:00 pm Sunday, October 2, 2011

Twenty hours of digital video footage willturn into 20 minutes of film time.

    That’s how the ratio will work out for a film partially shot on thecampus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College this week.

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    The film is based on a book set to be released Oct. 24 called”Mississippi JUCOs: The Toughest Football League in America.”

    The book examines the community college and junior college (JUCO)football league in Mississippi, highlighting the role of JUCOfootball in the Magnolia state sports world.

    “It’s about JUCO ball and its significance for this area,” saidCotton Yancey, director of the film.

    The rivalries, traditions and personalities of the JUCO league allfind their place in the book.

    X.M. Frascogna Jr, Mike Frascogna III and Marty Frascgona authoredthe book, which will be published by the Mississippi SportsCouncil.

    This is not the first book authored by the Frascogna trio aboutMississippi football. Previous titles they’ve written include”Gridiron Gold,” “Y’all vs. Us” and “Gridiron Glory.”

    Yancey directs, but the film remains a Fracgona family project withMike Frascogna serving as producer of the film. Mike Frascogna hasbeen Yancey’s manager since 1966 and Yancey became involved in theproject through his long involvement with Frascogna.

    “We’ve done a lot of stuff together,” Yancey said.

    Yancey said a “documentary feel” will characterize the film, butother details remain to be decided until filming is complete.Yancey may end up narrating the film himself. He is, after all, arodeo announcer.

    But Yancey didn’t wish to discuss that quite yet. That would begetting ahead of himself.

    He has to finish getting all the footage first. That was hispriority on Thursday.

    The film will feature seven colleges in the JUCO league: Co-Lin,East Mississippi, Itawamba, Hinds, Holmes, Jones and PearlRiver.

    Each of the schools will receive 20 minutes in the final film, butThursday was all about Co-Lin. A crew composed of Yancey and twocamera operators filmed on campus and in Wesson that day.

    The crew trekked across campus guided by the Co-Lin Director ofPublic Relations Natalie Davis. Shots in the library. A dorm room.On the golf course. Interviews with students, alumni and collegepresident Dr. Ronnie Nettles.

    The film crew was also on site for the Thursday night Co-Lin versusSouthwest Mississippi Community College football game.

    There were the expected hang-ups in filming, like lagging behindschedule. There were also a few unexpected hang-ups.

    Near the end of filming, the crew was set up for a shot on the golfcourse of Co-Lin sophomore Dein Fly in costume as a mascot. Fly wastaking a swing at a ball. Cameras were rolling. Fly leaned into theshot. The nose of his costume fell off.

    Fly tried to stick the nose back on, but it didn’t hold.

    “The heat must have melted the glue,” Fly said.

    Yancey worked with the nose a bit and ended up sticking it on witha pin.

    “I’m going to Gorilla Glue this thing on later,” Fly said.

    The filming afforded Co-Lin freshman and Loyd Star graduateCrockett Ward the ability to see a film crew in action. Ward wasasked to help write an article about the filming for Co-Lin’scampus newspaper, “The Wolf Tales.”

    “I’ve seen this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to shadow afilm crew,” Ward said.

    And shadow he did. Along with Co-Lin student and Wolf Tales campuseditor Ashley Dann, Ward kept up with the crew for quite a bit ofthe day.

    The filming dragged on longer than Ward expected.

    “I thought it would be a quick in and out thing,” he said.

    Co-Lin will get more out of the film spotlight than just publicity.The school gets the video footage itself, all 20 hours of it.

    Davis is eager to get her hands on it. She sees a lot of potentialfor recruiting and promotional videos.

    “We are hoping this will be a really great thing for us,” Davissaid about the filming.

    No release date has been determined yet, but Yancey hopes localresidents will have a chance to see it.

    “Brookhaven has a theater, we will probably try to get them to showit since Co-Lin is nearby,” Yancey said.