WVIA director had to see to believe
Alexander Monelli had heard all the rumors circling Southern Columbia's football program and wanted to see for himself what led to the Tigers' yearly success.
The director of "Roar: The Story of the Southern Columbia Football Tigers" knew all about the team's record, and knew it was far from common. He couldn't fathom how a small-town program could possibly be chasing its sixth straight state championship.
He also didn't know he was about to embark on a season unlike any other with the team.
"They're a diamond in the rough sort of speak, a team that wins the state championship every year," Monelli said. "I wanted to tell the story of how a small-town team, that isn't a private school, and wins every year, operates. That's not normal. There is no other team like this.
"I wanted to see what they do. You hear the theories — they cheat, they send kids to Vo-Tech to keep their numbers down. You can't be successful for that long and be cheating because someone would figure it out. I wanted to see it for myself."
Monelli always had an interest in sports, particularly high school football because of the storylines it offers every Friday night. Berwick's dynasty years of the 1980s and '90s, and George Curry, have always captured his fascination. With one independent film done on the late legend, Monelli's focus turned to the Tigers and Roth — who passed Curry as the state's winningest coach when he won the 2021 title game.
The filmmaker still got to document the Bulldogs in a Week 1 game that scaled from devastation to celebration for the Tigers.
"It was a bizarre game and I was in the locker room for the emotional moments," Monelli said. "Garrett Garcia tears his ACL on the opening kickoff, Wes Barnes yells at everyone at halftime (down 14-0), thunderstorms have us all wondering if they are even going to get to play the rest of the game and Southern storms back to win. Safety (Louden Murphy) goes to the hospital for breathing issues. All of that could have been a documentary on its own."
Of course, the drama doesn't stop there. The Tigers suffered three losses — Week 3 vs. Loyalsock, Week 5 at Danville and Week 10 vs. Mount Carmel — by 14 or more points. Having all-exclusive access, Monelli captured moments spectators wouldn't see or hear otherwise.
"There was never an instance where they told me not to film," Monelli said. "After the loss to Loyalsock, the somber Carter Madden felt he left his team down after he couldn't play with cramps.
"Once the players left, I'm still there with the coaches and they let me stay there and film their conversation of what went wrong. It was very quiet and you can tell they were processing what went wrong, never talking over one another. Jim isn't one to say in front of the team or publicly that Garrett Garcia's injury is going to hamper the team, but in that meeting is when I heard him say that it did hurt the team because (Loyalsock) shred them up the middle. It's in the film. You know he'd never say it to the team, and make them believe in 'next man up,' but it's said behind closed doors."
Since this past season was unlike any other in recent history, it made Monelli question what kind of playoff run the Tigers had in them. Because of such, he always knew he had the program's history in his back pocket to lean on for the film. As the season progressed, however, and with the Tigers ultimately capturing their record sixth-straight state championship, Monelli relied less on that crutch in the documentary. Instead, he estimates roughly 10% of the program's history is highlighted with most of it being about Jim Roth's time with the Tigers and why he still uses the seemingly outdated Wing-T offense. Monelli shifted any attention he wanted to give to the 1994, 2006 and 2019 squads because he felt this year's story was just too good not to tell.
"A lot of stuff had to come out to make room for the dramatic season. There's enough there to give viewers an idea that there were struggles of potentially shutting the program down to where they are today," Monelli said. "But the story that unfolded was so dramatic and interesting that it deserved more time. ... It's a program with so much history that you can't tell everything, but (the film) does a great job of putting you in the locker room with the guys.
"I've interviewed the players. I spent a day in the school the day they played Mount Carmel the first time. Seeing the players in school, showing the pep rally in the elementary school, (the documentary) really gives off the vibe of the school during football season. There's a lot that won't make it in the final cut, too. But the story revealed itself and I went with that. Jim also gives really good answers about whether they recruit or why they still play in (Class) 2A instead of 3A."
Monelli has spent hundreds of hours on the project, making his way to the high school as late as Mid-April to get last-minute interviews with Roth and players like Wes Barnes. He expects he worked on it until the WVIA's last-minute deadline.
The documentary airs Thursday at 8 p.m. on WVIA. The DVD will include deleted scenes and interviews.
Link to story: https://www.pressenterpriseonl...
