Throughout the 2021-22 boys varsity basketball season, Garrett Fisher ‘22 recorded every piece of film he could to follow the team along their journey. Through the regular and postseason, Fisher interviewed players and coaches, as well as captured video of the LT Weirdos student section. Through this, he has put together the first episode of his documentary, titled “Varsity” on YouTube, with more episodes to come.

“I think it was a pretty big success to get the first episode finished by March 20, I had that date in mind for a while,” Fisher said. “This season was special for the team, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team and student section to work with.” 

Fisher didn’t work alone in this task, and had a crew of many other students assisting him. This list includes: Iman Malik ‘22, Emilija Risteka ‘22, Laokrotis Cios ‘22, Elias Salaises ‘22, Ivan Villalobos ‘22, Quinn Siegel ‘22, Aidan Amador ‘22, Teddy Huml ‘22, Alex Ocana ‘22, Nick Haley ‘22, Drew Grech ‘23 and Abby Gertsmeier ‘23. Together, these students were granted special access to practices, games, and behind-the-scenes events that the team partook in. 

“Something like this just doesn’t happen without a crew,” Fisher said. “I can’t film every angle and shot, and they helped me with that. Everybody that helped me with this deserves just as much credit for their work on this project.” 

One of the bigger contributors on his team was Malik, who had some of the most professional film, Fisher said. Malik was at every game she could get to, and helped provide alternate angles that are used heavily in the documentary. 

“I would shoot based on my own judgment,” Malik said. “If I could be in the right spot at the right time, it would make for a cool clip. My favorite part was turning that into something completely different, like shorter composed edits of game highlights and promotional videos for upcoming games.”

The first episode, which premiered on LTTV’s YouTube channel on March 20, spans just about 26 minutes and has amassed over 900 views. With more episodes to come, Fisher is excited to continue working on editing and producing episode two.

“I’ve done all of the editing by myself, and it’s been a long process,” Fisher said. “There’s a lot that I can change and improve on, and I’ve taken the comments of others into mind. I’m extremely excited to get episode two out for everybody to watch.” 

As students wait for the next episode of the documentary, they also reminisce on a very successful season for the team this year. The boys had a record of 26-6, and were 9-3 in conference, second only behind the state champions from Glenbard West. The documentary filmed the team at both home and away games, with some of the best footage coming from a 60-41 win over rival school Hinsdale Central at their home court. 

“The Hinsdale Central game was the first moment where I thought, ‘OK, this thing can actually happen,’” Fisher said. “The energy in that Hinsdale gym was incredible. We couldn’t have asked for a better turnout of students and film.” 

Likewise, the home court advantage was apparent all season for the team and film crew, Fisher said. During LT’s 62-50 loss to Glenbard West on Jan. 28, the NC field house was packed with students, parents and community members, who all came to support the team. For Fisher and the others working with him, this was golden footage, he said.

“For some reason, I panned to the student section when the team was introduced that game, and I don’t normally do that,” Fisher said. “But the footage I got of our student section, the clips we got from the LTTV broadcast and announcing, it was an awesome thing to see. We went toe-to -toe with the state champions for almost the whole game, and we had cameras there to witness it.”

The second episode is scheduled to air before the school year is over.