TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Eugene's Friday Videos Fire Up Terriers

ADVERTISEMENT

By SCOTT PURKS, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 16, 2007

TAMPA - "Look at me," said Hillsborough senior Handel Eugene, who played football as a freshman and sophomore before retiring. "Do I look like a football player to you?"

Skinny. Hood over his head. Staring through a video camera.

"Looks like a genius to me," Hillsborough football coach Earl Garcia said. "Come look at what this kid can do."

Garcia punched in a DVD. A driving pulse beat the walls. "Hillsborough vs. Middleton" crept on the screen. Hillsborough's red football team charged at the viewer.

What followed was 5 minutes of cuts, fades, music rising and falling to a game that came down to the final seconds. Hillsborough was driving. A heartbeat took over: "Bump-bump. Bump-bump. Bump-bump."

Hillsborough's quarterback threw a pass. Black screen. The ball flew halfway there. Black screen. ...

A receiver caught the ball for the winning score.

Screaming filled everything. Players hugged. Fans danced.

When the video was shown to Hillsborough's student body during the daily morning show, cheers - and this is not an exaggeration - wailed throughout the school.

"Now every week we can't wait to see Handel's video from Friday night's game which takes 20-plus hours to build during a weekend," Hillsborough linebacker Marc Thomas said. "I mean he gets all the angles with three little cameras, two used by Eugene's assistants and all the feeling. It gets our team really, really fired up to see it."

Garcia said the kid is so good that he's using him to make highlight videos for his coaches and his 18 senior players, a gift he's always farmed out to professionals. In return, Joe Humphrey's TV production class receives all the proceeds ($20 a video).

"I just hope Eugene is teaching the juniors how to do this," Garcia said. "We can't stand the thought of him leaving after just one year of doing this."

Funny thing is, Eugene still wants to make it to the NFL.

"NFL Films," said a smiling Eugene, who plans to attend UCF's film school. "NFL Films."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT