HCS Soccer Documentary a Champion

RFH 2010, Arts

Sat, Mar 20, 2010

Kenny MacBain's documentary about HCS boys soccer scores big in debut Friday night.

After watching The Crown, Kenny MacBain's documentary about the HCS boys soccer program, we know this:

1. The young filmmaker and HCS grad knows how to handle a camera and how to edit what he shoots.

2. He has an excellent ear for music and knows how to use it to help move things along.

3. MacBain clearly understands and appreciates his subject.

4. And, most of all, MacBain knows how to tell a story.

MacBain (in photo above) debuted his documentary in the HCS auditorium, where it wasn't all that long ago he sat each morning for Forum. A solid and solidy appreciative crowd gathered and were rewarded with MacBain's story of how the HCS boy's soccer program almost died aborning, but was rescued by hall of fame coach Russ Duvernoy and pulled to the next level of success by current Coach Brian Latella.

The Crown does a fine job of retelling how Duvernoy took over a floundering new program and built it into a state champion. MacBain does an excellent job of recaprturing one of the great moments in all of HCS sports: the 1997 state championship game played in a blizzard in Batavia.

MacBain deftly fast-forwards during the Latella years to 2008's "Hamilton Miracle" in which the Emerald Knights fought back from a 3-0 deficit to beat perennial powerhouse Chazy. He manages to let each decade's accomplishments stand on their own, while demonstrating the many connections.

It was good to see so many players from that team, some now playing college soccer, in the audience Friday.

Clearly the highlight of The Crown is MacBain's use of interviews with Duvernoy, Latella and other coaches and players from each ear of the program. MacBain stood aside and let them tell the story, keeping his now narration to a minimum.

Especially compelling were the interviews with today's girls soccer coach and former Duvernoy assistant Harry Jarcho, who watched his sons play during the Duvernoy years.

It no doubt was hard for MacBain to interview several his contemporaries from that 2008 team -- Blaine Holcomb, Dan Kraynak and Dan Meeks -- but it never showed in the film. He managed to capture not just their memories of the game, but also their emotions, their fears and their exilheration.

MacBain deserves praise for his handling of the Poland-Hamilton rivalry. He captured the frustration of HCS's loses to Poland, but refrained from portraying it as an obsession; no Ahab and the White Whale here. Appropriately, he demonstrated how the rivalry propelled the Knights to the state title two seasons ago.

The Crown is a nice stroll down the memory lane that is the HCS soccer pitch. The movie also does a nice job of explaining the important place Duvernoy occupies in HCS history and offers a look at where Latella might take the team in years to come.

More importantly, The Crown shows that Kenny MacBain is skilled beyond his second year of college filmmaking. This one-man production company has demonstrated he knows much more than how to use a camera and editing software. The Crown proves MacBain has something to say and knows how to say it. The Crown proves itself not as a pean to HCS soccer, but a story about an important part of life of the village.

Review by Dave Hollis