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GO
TIGERS
Go
Tigers! shows us the ways that football gives meaning to a town
and to the players. It tells them who they are and encourages them
to work to achieve excellence. It?s not a bad lesson to learn that
those things which give us meaning require attention and work to
accomplish.
Review
by Darrel Manson
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GO TIGERS
(2001)
This
page was created on October 10, 2001
This page was last updated on
May 21, 2005
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Credits
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Directed
by Kenneth A. Carlson
Written by Kenneth A. Carlson
Dave
Irwin .... Quarterback
Ellery Moore .... Defensive End
Danny Studer .... Linebacker
Produced
by Kenneth A. Carlson (producer), Todd Robinson (executive producer),
Sidney Sherman (producer)
Original music by Randy Miller
Cinematography by Curt Apduhan
Film Editing by Jeff Werner
MPAA:
Rated R for language and a scene of teen drinking.
Runtime: USA:103
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Massillon
Ohio:
Where they live, breathe and eat football.
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STUDIO
SYNOPSIS:
 In
the blue collar Ohio town of Massillon, the most important thing
is high school football, and the frenzy around home team the Tigers
is, as one resident observes, like "a cult... a religion." Shot
on high-definition video, former Massillon resident Kenneth Carlson's
documentary follows the three stars of the 1999 team, co-captains
Ellery Moore, Dave Irwin, and linebacker Danny Studer, as they deal
with problems like personal injuries and the pressures of their
economically depressed town's high expectations. As the Tigers lurch
ahead through a winning 106th season, Massillon's school system
is challenged by bankruptcy, threatening teachers, education, even
the team itself.
With
its subject a town so obsessed with the sport that it is traditional
to award a little football to each newborn male, this documentary
could have been a comic indictment of the "athletics over education"
fervor of small town U.S.A. Instead it works as both a tribute to
American spirit and an anthropological document of the colorful
ceremonies and celebrations of the people of Massillon. Carlson
doesn't shy away from criticism of his subject, but still manages
to transcend a "warts and all" documentary approach to achieve a
portrait of Americana that is exciting and inspirational.
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 It?s
been over thirty years since I played high school football and more
than 20 since I officiated high school football. In many, many ways,
Go Tigers! took me back to the fields and locker rooms that have been
a part of my life. The coaches? pep talks are the same. The player
rants are the same. The parties are the same. |
| I
like football. Playing football taught me many lessons that have stayed
with me though life. And like most lessons we learn, some are of value,
and some need to be unlearned. |
 Go
Tigers! is a documentary film looking at the 1999 Massillon, Ohio,
Tigers football team. Massillon is about football. It is one of the
towns that was a part of founding of the National Football League
and football still is a key part of the identity for this blue collar
city. So central is football to this city that each newborn boy born
in Massillon is visited by the booster club and brought a little Tigers
football in anticipation for when he plays for Massilon. |
 Go
Tigers! focuses on the three captains of the ?99 team: Quarterback
Dave Irwin, Linebacker Danny Studer, and Defensive End Ellery Moore.
As the film develops we learn how they came to be where they are.
Irwin and Studer were red shirted -- held back in 8th grade to have
an extra year of age and maturity for playing football. Moore came
to football after spending over a year in jail for rape. Football
is for all of them the road that will take them to a better future. |
 There
is what might best be categorized at jock spirituality throughout
the film. (I don?t mean that in a demeaning way. I know many athletes
have deep spiritual lives.) That spirituality grows out of looking
for a divine presence in what we understand as important. And I know
that when in high school I dressed for a game, it was among the most
important times of my life. I craved that spirituality myself at those
times. I still do, although its form may have changed. |
| As
I watched, I could remember the way that football taught me about
pride and loyalty. And football is bringing valuable lessons on life
to Massillon's players still. |
 But
the film also shows us something of the costs of football. As the
football season is underway, so too is the campaign for a tax increase
for the schools.  The
last few years, when Massillon had losing seasons, the issues failed.
It will take the team winning and restoring pride in the schools to
get the issue passed on Election Day. Certainly there are more issues
involved than football in tax issues, but we see overcrowded elementary
classes while we also see a huge state of the art stadium for football. |
 Go
Tigers! shows us the ways that football gives meaning to a town and
to the players. It tells them who they are and encourages them to
work to achieve excellence. It?s not a bad lesson to learn that those
things which give us meaning require attention and work to accomplish.
The players, coaches and community care deeply about football, and
they dedicate themselves to that goal. |
 I
remember that when I was a high school football player so long ago,
among my favorite scriptures was "Forgetting what lies behind and
straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians
3:13b-14) In many ways that continues to be a part of my life and
theology, just as football will always be a part of who I am. |
 Watching
the Massilon team of Go Tigers! I know that their experience will
be a part of their life always. I hope the lessons they are learning
will help them find other things of meaning as well, and that they
will press toward the call with the same passion as they had for football. |
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OFFICIAL
SITE
Go Tigers! ? 2001
Samuel Goldwyn Films (IDP). All Rights Reserved.
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