SCOOBA — Chauncey Rivers knew he had to grow up a little bit when he arrived at East Mississippi Community College.
The 6-foot-3, 275-pound lineman was removed from the football program at the University of Georgia after three marijuana arrests in a seven-month period.
Rivers enrolled at EMCC in hopes of earning a second chance to play at a Division I football program.
On Thursday night, Rivers was part of a crowd of around 500 that watched the first episode of the second season of “Last Chance U” in Stennis Hall on the EMCC campus.
Netflix, an American entertainment company that specializes in streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail, granted the sneak preview to the school. The entire series — eight one-hour episodes — was released early this morning to subscribers of Netflix.
The first installment of the first season of the series drew more than 82 million views in the first week last summer.
“I knew I had to make the most of my second chance,” Rivers said. “I knew nothing about (EMCC) before coming here. Seeing yourself on the big screen is quite humbling.”
Rivers excelled in 2016 at EMCC and is now part of the football team at Mississippi State.
In one of the opening scenes of the documentary, Rivers is in his dorm room talking about a second chance at playing football with defensive lineman teammate Kam Carter. Carter was at EMCC after being dismissed from Penn State’s football program.
In the film, Carter, who is now at Pittsburgh, said leaving Penn State didn’t have a profound effect on him. Instead, it was the pain he saw in the eyes of his younger brothers and sisters that told him he needed to redeem himself at EMCC.
“There are so many stories like that, and I think the documentary does a great job of bringing those stories home,” said former EMCC offensive coordinator Marcus Wood, who is now in administration at the school. “It has been great exposure for the program. It has also been great exposure for junior college football around our state.
“It has been well received (nationally). It has had a much greater impact than we could have ever imagined.”
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, “Last Chance U” director Greg Whiteley said EMCC accommodated his crew’s demands for unfettered access and time. He also said Stephens recognized he needed to make some changes after seeing how he came across in season one.
“Buddy knows the price of poker,” said Whiteley, who has done documentaries on the punk band New York Dolls, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the education system in the United States. “We make it a stipulation wherever we go that we get access to the locker room to the team meeting to the coaches’ meeting. We’re allowed to film all that. Buddy was more than willing to agree to those terms both in season one and season two, and I suspect if we ever want to go back there, he’d be open to it.”
Rivers said he was used to big-time exposure. Being part of the documentary was something he took in stride. However, there were a few concerns after the initial installment of the series dropped last July.
“It was my second day on campus,” Rivers said. “The film came out and I have to admit, I saw (EMCC head) coach (Buddy) Stephens and saw some of the ways he acted and I didn’t know what I had gotten into it. It was a little frightening. As far as being shown (in the second series), it was something I was used to. Playing at Georgia, everything you did there was documented, so it was not a major shock (to be featured). You could say we had some fun with it.”
The initial series featured the 2015 team that finished 8-1 but had its season cut short when it was banned from the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) playoffs following a season-ending brawl.
After the first series was released, Stephens admitted he made changes in his personal life and in his demeanor with the team. In 2016, EMCC dropped its season-opener to Jones Junior College after playing with only 32 players due to suspensions from the brawl. The Lions then won their final 11 games and finished second nationally.
“I think you see a story of redemption,” said EMCC freshman linebacker Untaero Johnson, who played high school ball at Coahoma Agricultural High School. “You will see a team that is hungry. We are supposed to win championships around here. You will see how far we grew from the adversity.”
Johnson missed his first season at EMCC after he tore his meniscus during summer workouts in 2016. This season, he is projected to start at middle linebacker.
Players were granted the weekend off, starting with the end of classes Thursday, so there only was a handful of players — mostly from out of state — at Thursday’s screening.
The first episode deals with summer workouts, the preparations the players went through academically for the fall, and highlights from the season-opening loss to Jones County Junior College.
“We made the most of a difficult situation last year,” Rivers said. “This is all about second chances. I think people are going to see that. The sky is the limit for this year’s team.”
Wood said Stephens told him his 10th team will have the most speed and most athleticism of any squad he has coached. That squad, which opens the season Aug. 31 against JCJC in Scooba — also will have a changed head coach.
“(Buddy) admitted to us he had things he needed to change,” Wood said. “I think the documentary is going to show some things he is much better at. It will show some things he still is working to get better at.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.