But as the minutes trickled down to seconds, and Vero Beach made decisions that played right into Lake Mary’s hands, “Lake Hail Mary,” the name of the video production, was born.Lake Mary earns 7A football state title on Hail Mary touchdownTo recap, with eight seconds left in the game, and Lake Mary trailing 27-21, senior quarterback Noah Grubbs rolled to his right and unleashed a deep pass. Senior receiver Barrett Schulz caught the ball after it had ricocheted off several Vero defenders at the 3-yard line. As Schulz tried to push his way into the end zone, he realized he was not going to make it and gave the ball to sophomore teammate Tavarius ‘TJ’ Brundidge Jr., who finished the Hail Mary miracle by carrying the ball into the end zone.“I just threw it up and then TJ and Barrett just did what they did,” Grubbs said.

“I don’t know how Barrett handed the ball off, but he did.”Lucas Parker added the extra point to seal the victory and the Rams gave head coach Scott Perry his first state football crown in 21 years at Lake Mary, 28-27.“The dramatics of the way the ending played out, it even became a national story, and that’s really when it kicked it, ‘Hey, let’s capitalize on this national spotlight and make a documentary on the season,” Malmberg said. “We knew we had plenty of footage and we knew we had the story.“We really wanted to jump on that as a memory and preserve it forever.”So Malmberg and his student crew went into production, and after four months of gathering film, doing interviews with players and coaches, piecing everything together, they had a public unveiling this past Thursday at the Oviedo Mall.The production was shown in two separate, 200-seat theaters and every seat was taken for the premiere.

It’s the only showing currently available to the public, as Malmberg and staff are now trying to work a deal with a network like Netflix or Amazon or ESPN to air the documentary in a streaming medium.“When we started the production, I said, let’s try to make this as professional as possible and shoot for the stars and maybe if we do it the right way, people will be interested and want to put it out on a platform of some sort,” Malmberg said. “When we finished, I thought, ‘Well, let’s see if people like it first.”People loved it.“Over the last week, people have seen it and been praising it and kind of encouraging us, so now I think that dream is back on the table and we’re gonna try,” Malmberg said.

“It’s a long shot, a very long shot, to get it picked up by anybody, but I think it’s definitely worth the try.“If all of that falls through, then we’ll put it on YouTube. We’re not trying to gatekeep this from anybody.”Seeing the documentary in the theatre, with the surround-sound and giant screen, was thrilling for everyone, but especially the players and coaches who lived the moment.“It’s one thing to watch the final sequence of plays by yourself, and my heart still pounds when I watch it,” Coach Perry said, “but when you are sitting in a theater with 200 other people, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up, everybody erupts in applause and it was that feel-good moment all over again.“The film was so true to the moment and it really did capture what it was like in that state championship game, and pretty much the whole season.”Brundidge was one of the stars of the moment and he said the film almost made him feel like a movie star.“It was awesome, seeing all of the struggles that we went through during the season and then seeing what we accomplished,” Brundidge said.Of course, everyone enjoyed re-watching the final play surrounded by people in a sold-out theater.“Man, it was awesome.

It was like we were reliving the moment. Everybody in there was yelling and calling my name and stuff,” Brundidge said. “At some points it was like sad, and then happy.

It was just awesome.”Vero Beach decisions set up Lake Mary Miracle | Football InsiderBrundidge lauded the production team.“The documentary was pretty good and they did a good job like mixing everything in there,” he said. “It’s crazy, because you would not think that your classmates would be making movies on their own time and in their periods and stuff.”Several people were involved on the