When you allow the Fox Sports documentary cameras You see LA in the lives of his players, UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close, who recently led the Bruins to a national championship, tried to stick to the wisdom of one of the school’s guiding sports lights.
“I had the incredible privilege of being mentored by John Wooden,” Close said during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary event, “and one of the things he taught me is, one, you train people’s hearts, but two, he used to say, ‘If it’s not teaching, guiding, equipping them for the rest of their lives for the next 40 years’. So that’s the kind of program we want to have.”
“I think this document allows us to do it to show people that you can be vulnerable with courage,” he added. “You can care about people’s hearts and you can compete to know your art.”
Executive producers are Kelsey Trainor and Jeff Luini, who have worked together before Welcome to Wrexhamenvisioned the project as “a great example of how storytelling, especially about women’s and women’s sports, can be done in a way that’s comparable to any kind of men’s sports story you’d see,” Trainor said. “It’s not really, I think we’re saying women’s sports are wanted in this movie. That’s not the point. It’s a sports story … and to Corey and the team’s credit, we were there. We were in the locker room. We had tough conversations.”
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“It’s a human story,” said Luini. Sports news is good. The stakes are there. You win, you lose. But who are these absent? Who are the players and their support system? And we talked to Cori about that, and I think that’s who she is as a person. It’s like, what is the human heart? And that’s what we were aiming for.
“And these are young players. These are young people who are put on the big stage,” added Lunini. “These are people who are 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-years old, who may expose themselves and make mistakes in front of a very big stage. And let’s remember that they are young people and give them a chance. And I think that’s what’s special. We’ve seen it in the professional leagues, but to see it at this level and for those to be true … we stay with us, I think that’s what’s different about this.”
“I remember when Kelsey and Jeff got in front of our team and told them about the project and said, ‘We’re here to get sessions.’ And I could see their shoulders moving [relaxed]okay?’ He closed and agreed. “And over time, there was trust that their desire was to tell their stories in a respectful, but true and authentic way. And that’s exactly what they did.”
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Trainor said transparency means seeing the team through the good and the bad. “We were hoping for a national championship – that was the goal,” he said, “but really it was just ‘Rocky doesn’t win in the first movie.’ So we knew you can tell a story no matter what the outcome is, if you care about the human side.”
“Women’s basketball is a very different sport for every college athlete and has been for over a decade,” Close said, “so we have a phrase in our program, ‘Everyone is welcome here.'” Regardless of your political background, regardless of where you are from, what your religion is, whatever it is, you are all welcome here. And I can learn a lot from you, even if we are really different. And what a privilege to be able to be a part of that and tell that kind of story. And we had so much feedback that I needed that. They didn’t need our victory or defeat. They needed happiness. They needed hope. They needed to communicate with the construction. “
Close added that he doesn’t have a prediction for the group’s next iteration, which will be movies, but promised that “We’re not interested in rebuilding. We’re only interested in reloading. So I have high expectations going forward.”
Check out the video of the panel above.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on April 25 as part of the Contenders TV event.
