Saranac Lake PSA going national

SARANAC LAKE | At a time of year where many parents and families went to winter concerts, let us set the stage. The band is warmed up and ready to go as the director taps his baton on the music stand. Next, the music begins. "Hey conductor, how about something new you played that last year," yells out one parent from the stands. "Where's my kids solo," shouts another. Not the type of behavior you would expect at a concert to celebrate the season. Yet, that is the premise of the public service announcement video made by the Saranac Lake High School Athletic Department, with parents yelling a variety of verbal attacks at the band and its director before reading: "If you wouldn't say it at a recital, don't say it at a game." That phrase is followed by the tagline, "Sportsmanship. Every day. Everywhere. #classandcharacter." Made a year ago with the help of local director Kirk Sullivan, the PSA has received almost 28,000 views on Youtube and will soon be getting more thanks to a national campaign by the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS). Unique concept Athletic Director Eric Bennett, who stars as one of the parents in the video, the concept of the video came from going to a school play. "I remember thinking to myself this is great," he said. "The audience is 100-percent supportive. It was really cool to see the enthusiasm on the kids faces, the support of the parents, and I just thought to myself what a juxtaposition if you thought of a parent that felt their kid was not getting their due, if they acted the same way we see some do at sporting events." Bennett said the more he thought about the experience, the more parallels he was able to draw between performance arts and sporting events. "When you look at it, a school play is an open competition for the lead parts and I am sure there are some kids who feel they deserve more, or their parents might feel that. I thought it was an interesting concept to think about that in the perspective of a sporting contest." Creating the PSA Bennett said once the concept was formed, he went to Sullivan about creating a professional video for the PSA. "He told me he gets pitched ideas all the time and he loved this one," Bennett said. "From there, he was willing to do our district a favor by producing something at a minimal cost to us. After we met, he did some writing on the concept and we hashed it out." "I had just moved back to the area from Los Angeles building up my career and I'm always looking for projects to do here," Sullivan said. "When I met with Eric, I loved the concept and thought it was really clever. We were able to write a script and get storyboards done and get a crew of five or six from the Burlington and New York City areas to make the video. In all, it went pretty seamlessly." Bennett added the making of the video also became an educational experience. "We brought all the kids in for the production of it which was a great chance for them to see what goes into the production and how much work is involved. It surpassed my expectations for how it was going to work out." "It's hard to have something that is as short as this that contains a compelling story and contains a message, and I was happy we were able to join on this project and have it check all the boxes." Going national After the release of the PSA, it was shown to the state athletic association (NYSPHSAA) and executive director Robert Zayas. "He is good friends with Mark Koski at NFHS," said Bennett. "I was invited to the USA football conference and I met Mark personally and we discussed the PSA and the potential to do more at some point. We are letting NFHS use it because we think it is a nice message and we are excited to have that national exposure." "Robert and I worked together in New Mexico and he is my best friend," said Koski, who serves as the executive director of the NFHS Network, which streams games online throughout the United States. "He had connected me with Eric and I took a peek at the PSA and was very interested in it," Koski said. "I was really excited about what they were doing on a local level and I wanted to look into expanding it to a national level. It is important to get fan behavior under control for officials, for coaches and for the better overall experience for the students on the field and in the stands." Koski said the video will be incorporated into the NFHS "My Reason Why," and "Becoming and Official" campaigns. Bennett added he hoped the success with this PSA would lead to more chances for the school and athletic department to show sportsmanship through media messages. I'm hoping at some point to be able to do some more, because we have some nice concepts to touch on dealing with the art world, referees and other general character concepts throughout athletics," he said. To view the video, visit Youtube.com and search "Saranac Lake Sportsmanship PSA."

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Saranac Lake PSA going national

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