Documentary chronicles King’s eventful 2014-15 basketball season

Published 9:44 pm Monday, February 22, 2016

EDMONDS — The King’s boys basketball team believes it was saved for a reason.

Now, the Knights are sharing that reason with the world.

A year and a week after a life-threatening bus crash, the King’s players sat in a sold-out Edmonds Center for the Arts with friends and family Sunday night to watch “Saved For A Reason,” an hour-long documentary that chronicled the Knights’ 2014-15 basketball season and their postseason run after the accident.

The film features emotional anecdotes and stories from several former players, including Class of 2015 members Calvin Kispert, Noah Bundrant and Andrew Ayers. Current junior Corey Kispert is also interviewed along with assistant coach Scott Boyce.

King’s head coach Rick Skeen takes viewers on an emotional journey of a basketball coach anxious to get to the pinnacle of high school basketball while suffering several setbacks along the way. He is interviewed extensively, along with his wife, Robin.

“I think it’s only a good story if it’s real and it’s genuine,” Skeen said. “For me, personally, playing in six state championship games in eight years is something that, a lot of people say, ‘That’s awesome,’ until you tell them you haven’t won one. It’s just part of the story. I think that’s part of what makes it good. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s who I am and it’s who our kids are.

“This isn’t about, ‘Come celebrate our state title.’ This is a message about priorities. That’s why we want to get it out there.”

Originally, Skeen told the film’s producers he’d “do whatever I can to help you, but I don’t want to be on screen.” Skeen’s emotional story adds to the documentary, as the coach discusses his journey, as well as sharing some intimate details.

“That was the part that was hard,” Skeen said. “I really did believe in the project and I believed in the story. I was just hoping somebody else could tell it better than I could. I think, ultimately, the reason it came to me is because I’m more emotional than coach Boyce. Crying makes for a great (shot) for the big screen. He’s more of a rock than I am. I’m more of a softy.”

“Saved For A Reason” was made by local filmmaker Jason Pamer, who received production assistance from 29 King’s students. It was produced by Davis Goslin and written and directed by Tim Kressin.

Ben Wilson, another local filmmaker, served as executive producer.

“I didn’t know what to expect really,” Corey Kispert said. “But when I walked into the gym to do my interview I met Jason. He’s a great guy, really down to Earth. He knew what he was doing. He had the tools and the lighting. I felt like a movie star. It was really cool to see such a high-quality film with all of us in it to display such a great message. I don’t think they could have done it any better.”

“I think the quality and the level of production surprises some people,” Skeen said. “We hope it ends up at a film festival, that it gets picked up somewhere and really gets going. But you watch it up there and it’s not a stretch to go, ‘I could turn on a 30-for-30 and it looks like that.’ So, I think that’s what’s probably surprised some folks. Jason Pamer, Tim Kressin and Davis Goslin they did an amazing job.”

On Sunday night the film elicited tears, laughter and applause throughout from those in attendance. Skeen said the film’s producers are exploring entering the documentary in film festivals, as well as researching the possibility of getting on Netflix, iTunes or Hulu.

Information on future showings, as well as distribution on DVD and Blu Ray, will be posted on the film’s website: SavedForAReason.org.

“It’s all the more important to have our community around us,” Kispert said. “They were the biggest supporters of us as we were going through it. If we wouldn’t have had this community with us I don’t think it would have turned out the way it did. To share it with them and to relive it with them was very special.”

Watching the movie brought back some intense emotions for the King’s players. Senior guard Koa Wilkins was especially taken aback by the scene depicting the bus crash — a reenactment that several King’s players participated in.

“The biggest thing that sticks out to me is when they show the start of us going down the ramp (before the crash),” Wilkins said. “I think back to that moment. I had time to think — a minute and a half — in the time that it took to get us to the bottom and the crash. I was just thinking about all the good times and the bad times in my life during that time. The movie really depicted that well.”

Other moments in the movie were more lighthearted, such as the intro with the King’s players as well as a few of Skeen’s in-game speeches.

“Every time they showed the video of the two teams lined up at the state championship game with the lights out I was like, ‘Koa, my hands are sweating. I’m really, really nervous,’” Kispert said with a laugh. “I always get goose bumps and my heart starts beating really fast when I see that.”

Players said it was kind of weird watching it with so many people. But they hope that the message transcends basketball and really inspires people who see the film.

“It wasn’t just basketball anymore,” Wilkins said. “We weren’t saved for basketball, we weren’t saved to win a state championship, we were saved for a bigger thing in life: to love God and to love others.”

Every player and coach on that King’s team said that day has changed the way they live their lives. Skeen, specifically, said he’s gone from a basketball-first mindset that was almost to the point of obsessive, to putting people above the game.

“I hope people realize that it was so serious and so life-changing and altering,” Kispert said. “Coach Skeen is visibly, 180-degrees changed since that crash. We’ve all seen it. Before every game we give him a hug and tell him we love him. It really affected him as much as it affected us. I hope people will change the same way when they see it. I think that’s my goal for them watching the movie.”

And if Skeen does slip back into old habits, he has his junior guard to bring him back. Such was the case on Feb. 14, the day of King’s bi-district championship against Lynden Christian ­— as well as the one-year anniversary of the crash.

“I love Corey to death and he doesn’t get enough credit for the man he is,” Skeen said. “I’m stressed out. I’m trying to win. I knew how big the Lynden Christian game was as a basketball coach. … I’m back in neurotic coach Skeen mode. It was Friday night and Corey contacted me. He said, ‘Coach, I know tomorrow’s a big game but remember a year ago. Remember how we said we’d be different. We’re excited and we’re ready, but I’m worried about you.’

“There’s not a lot of 16-year old kids that will hold a mirror up to a 40-year old and do it the right way,” Skeen continued. “And in his message he used the very words: ‘Remember what’s really important and what we’re saved for. And we can do that whether we win or lose tomorrow.’”

After King’s defeated Lynden Christian — the same team it played before the accident last year, as well as three weeks later in the state championship game — 78-55, they headed home in vans. The Knights purposefully did not take a yellow bus, and drove particularly cautiously when they approached exit 177 on Interstate-5 — the scene of the crash.

“We drove really slowly coming off that exit,” Skeen said. “This is not a joke, we got honked at. Our kids were kind of sitting up straight. We were doing 25 miles per hour — in probably a 40-mile-per-hour zone — and somebody honked.

“I’m like, ‘If you only knew. You’re lucky we’re going 25.’”