Exchange Students In Baseball Film

 A Unique Experience For Exchange Students

    Quiet on the set and Play Ball!! The filming of a documentary was a unique experience to learn about America's favorite pastime: baseball. On  October 18, 2015, foreign exchange students at Rossville Junior/Senior High School joined the volunteer “extras” for the documentary ‘Town Teams:  Bigger than Baseball. The exchange students who were movie extras were Aom Yoksiri from Thailand and Gabriela Miele from Brazil from AYA, Academic Year in America: Iana Catana from Moldova and Artur from Kyrgyzstan with FLEX, Future Leaders Exchange program through the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 

    Joe Campbell Stadium became the set for the 1919 baseball game; Model A and  Model T Fords were parked along the outfield fence, the baseball team wore pinstriped uniforms and the spectators were dressed up for the games. Artur  said, “Seeing all the old cars and talking to the owners was his favorite part.” Lisa Thornburg of Rossville PRIDE redesigned the scoreboard to look  like the board from the original game. Rossville Rattler volunteers Craig  Thornburg, Perry and Allan Foster completed the 1900’s look and removed  the advertisements from the outfield fence. Many volunteer hours made this  exciting day a success.

      The scene was near El Dorado, Kansas in 1919 during the oil boom.  The teams of Midian and the Oil Hill Empires were facing off to be the  champion of the oil belt in the Midwest. It is estimated that over 2,500 fans  came to watch the important game and three ringers were brought into play,  including Casey Stengel, Hall of Fame New York Yankee manager and Fred  “Dad” Bramble, a pitcher who played in the minor leagues. A thrilling part of  the reenactment was the brawl that started from a hard slide into second  base. The extras reacted with cheers and boos to the imaginary plays on the field. Iana said, “It was my first time taking part in shooting a film, I was  one of the girls who were supposed to be cheering for the boys playing in  one of the scenes, all the cameras were focused on us while we were  giggling.”

      The documentary is by DHTV Digital, a film production company from  Kansas City. The production director in Mark Honer spent the day adjusting cameras, moving the extras for the scenes and directing the action. Aom said, “We were there for five hours and it was fun, but I was glad to have a hotdog at the baseball stadium.” It was long day of shooting the action and then repositioning the cameras and then doing it again. ‘Town Teams;  Bigger than Baseball is set to be released in Spring 2016, just in time for another season of baseball. Gabriela said, “It was so much fun and I can’t  wait to see it.”

Left to Right:  Aom Yoksiri, Iana Catana, Artur Alimzhanov, Gabriela Miele