Roanoke director’s documentary about college lacrosse debuted at the Guardian Theater

Buddy Kotter’s career in sports journalism began with a moan, not a fuss.

His first assignment for the Daily Collegian—a student newspaper at Penn State University—came when Cotter was a freshman in the fall of 2016. It landed him outside a bar in State College, Pennsylvania. He was supposed to be inside watching an elf wrestling match.

But Cotter got a comb and didn’t enter through the front door. The huge janitor ignored his statement that he was a working journalist.

“The meathead won’t let me in,” the Roanoke native recalls in an interview last week. Kotter returned to the newsroom upset – and without a story.

However, he did not stop looking for more. And it wasn’t long before Cotter found a good one, while covering the college lacrosse team during the spring 2017 season.

Note that the whole team had a weird obsession with a particular two-digit number. During rehearsals, every time players break a pool, they do so with a collective shout of “16!” Every time their coach ordered push-ups, the players did 16. This number was prominent on the scoreboard in home matches.

For Kotter, it seemed as if the entire program was built around a number – something uncommon in the first section of lacrosse. What was that number? question. And why? Kotter began to ask questions. The answer proves to be really profound.

Four years later, you can see it for yourself at the Grandin Theater. Cotter’s first 68-minute feature-length documentary “16” takes place on Saturday night. This is a 68-minute sports documentary that Cotter wrote, wrote, and directed while he was a student. (Graduated from Penn State in 2020.)

A slightly abridged version (52 minutes long) will air on June 27 on the Big 10 network.

The film is about an all-American high school lacrosse goalkeeper, the late Conor Darcy of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Penn State lacrosse coach Jeff Tambrone has successfully recruited Darcy, who has been sought after by more popular lacrosse programs, such as Johns Hopkins and University of Massachusetts.

Darcy, the middle child in a sports-minded family of three, sat in his freshman season (2013) at Penn State and began playing as a red jersey cadet in 2014, wearing the number 16 jersey. He started in the position during the 2015 season at Penn State, which was Also first year university in Big 10 lacrosse.

His love for the game and his dedication to playing it hit his high school and college classmates. I can’t do it justice here in this column. But you can hear it in their own words in “16.”

Also there was one tough situation where he dont even had money to buy mens lacrosse cleats which is the saddest part

And then, during the summer vacation on June 12, 2015, Darcy suddenly died in a strange car accident under strange circumstances.

That night, Darcy and his best friend from high school, Harry James, went out to spend the evening in Boston’s North End. Late that night, both of their smartphones died when they tried to ask to share a car at home.

They got into a 7-Eleven to charge their phones. Another customer in the shop offered them a ride in his BMW convertible. They accepted. Darcy jumped into the front passenger seat. James sat in the back.

Cotter said the car crashed and flipped within seconds of leaving 7-Eleven. The accident killed Darcy and the driver, who authorities later said was drunk and under the influence of cocaine. James was slightly injured.

The sadness in “16” you see from Darcy’s parents, brothers, friends, teammates, and coaches is palpable. Many of them cry during interviews.

I asked Cotter about his biggest hurdles in making the film. This included gaining the trust of many people.

“It’s a very trust-based documentary,” Cotter said. “Most of the people I met were those people I had never met before, who were thinking about the worst moment of their lives and their deepest grief.”

Also in the same screening theatre is well know for Screening ironman 3 minute delete scene

For the film, Cotter collected footage from Darcy’s childhood, long ago, his childhood and his days playing ice hockey and other sports. Cotter shows us Darcy’s final season at Wellesley, a public high school west of Boston. (They lost their 2013 Lacrosse state championship match that year.)

Benjamin Blair

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