SCOOBA — The East Mississippi Community College football program remains a box office hit even in the offseason.
“Last Chance U,” a documentary about the perennial power Lions was renewed for a second season, EMCC officials announced Monday.
“The response to the documentary has been outstanding,” EMCC Director of Athletics Randall Bradberry said. “When it comes to movies, everyone is a critic. Some people will like the work and others will not. However, the responses into our office have been overwhelmingly supporting.
“It has put a spotlight on the many success stories, not only here at EMCC but also in the (Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges) as a whole.”
The first installment of “Last Chance U” was a six-hour look at the 2015 EMCC football season, broken down into hour-long episodes. It debuted July 29 exclusively through Netflix.
The purpose of the documentary was to chronicle the Lions’ quest for what would have been an unprecedented third-straight National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship.
Based on a 2014 article in GQ Magazine of the same name, the film focused on some of the highly regarded Division I transfers that come to Scooba to re-start their football careers, usually after some type of disciplinary action at their former school.
“The film was certainly dead-on in representing our program,” EMCC ninth-year coach Buddy Stephens said. “Many of our good stories were highlighted. There were also areas of which you realize you need to make changes. Overall, I thought it was a fair assessment of the program. The response has been positive.”
In the past month, the documentary has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Star Magazine, and TV Guide. Newspaper accounts of the series have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
“We didn’t make this decision lightly,” EMCC President Dr. Thomas Huebner said in a statement released by the school. “While the response has been international in scope, encouraging and positive, we are sensitive to how projects like this impact our work.
“Ultimately, though, the chance to share our story — to highlight the excellent work that takes place in the classrooms and playing fields of EMCC — was one we didn’t want to miss,” he added.
‘A chance at vindication’
While official numbers weren’t available Monday, published reports estimate the series has been watched 82 million times.
EMCC, which begins this season ranked No. 1 by the NJCAA, entered the 2015 season coming off back-to-back undefeated national championship runs. But the season ended prematurely when a fight in the regular-season finale at Mississippi Delta C.C. led the MACJC to ban EMCC from the playoffs.
EMCC saw a 25-game regular-season winning streak snapped in second-week loss at Copiah-Lincoln C.C. In addition to the benches-clearing brawl, the season also included Stephens being suspended for one game after an on-the-field altercation with an official during a victory against Itawamba C.C.
The documentary highlighted all of these events, including never-seen footage of the brawl. A look at players in their dorm rooms, on the practice field, in team meetings, and in academic settings also were included.
Bradberry, a longtime junior college football coach and administrator, said the school has received a boost in merchandise sales and in distribution of potential new student information. He said many of the detractors of the documentary are “jealous of the success.”
Greg Whiteley returns for a second series as director of the documentary. Film crews already were in place Monday at the school’s media day.
Stephens feels taking part in a second season is a debatable topic. However, he also feels it will give EMCC a chance to right some of the wrongs from last season. He called the opportunity for a second series about the 2016 season “a chance at vindication.”
“Our goal is still to win football games and help mold young men of character,” Stephens said. “A lot of what we do here is very good. At the end of each season, you always evaluate what to change for the following season. This year was no different. We are ready for Sept. 1 (a season-opening game at Jones Junior College). It’s going to be a new look.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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