NBC gets saturation of Juneau football storylines during filming of Super Bowl documentary
- Ellie Ruel
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
California film crew captures Crimson Bears’ dramatic win over state champs in epic rainstorm
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
A five-person film crew from NBC Sports endured freezing faucet-like rain to spotlight the Juneau high school football community at Saturday’s game featuring the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears against Dimond High School.
The gameplay clips, fan, family, and player interviews, and cutaway footage from around town will be edited into a documentary segment about what football means to communities around the country and aired during the NBC Super Bowl LX pregame coverage.
The project is the brainchild of Peter King, a longtime sportswriter and broadcaster who covered the NFL extensively, including a 29-year stint at Sports Illustrated. He retired from his 44-year career in 2024, pitching this project as a way to add texture to the monotony of the five-hour pregame coverage.
“America just doesn't want to watch five hours of the preview of the game and all that. They want something different,” King said. “I just thought this would be the kind of different thing that people would like. Everybody likes high school football.”
He emphasized that he wasn’t looking for big teams, or teams with the best records. King didn’t even know the Bears’ record (1-4 going into Saturday’s game) before landing in Juneau.
“High school football really is universal. Whether a team is one and four or 10-0, I don't think it really matters to the crux of the story,” King said.
The crew got drama on the field and from the elements, as Juneau defeated the defending state champs 15-14 in what head coach Rich Sjoroos said was the most intense rainstorm of his 32-year career.
Despite the downpour, King was excited to capture what football games look like in a temperate rainforest.
“Alaska, the weather is unpredictable. We're not in Miami, and I don't want to be in Miami. I want to be in Juneau,” King said. “I just want to see what it's really like, and I have a feeling that that's what we're seeing with the clouds coming down Thunder Mountain and occasionally there being an incredible amount of rain, and then it stops raining for a while.”
For the film crew, the weather presented a new set of challenges. Most of them hailed from California, and shooting in the rain required some specific preparations.
“It doesn't rain in San Francisco. And if it rains, you just come back the next day. You don't even shoot that day,” said camera operator John Kiffmeyer.
Both film cameras were covered in plastic bags secured with rubber bands, and batteries and other accessories were safely stowed in newly purchased waterproof cases. In between shots, the operators took refuge under a tent to wipe the water off their lenses.
The two camera operators and boom operator (who periodically used his microphone to lift the corner of the tent when it was weighed down by a puddle of water) were also prepared for the climate, donning the typical Southeast fishing attire of heavy brown rain boots and neoprene pants and jackets. Producer Ollie Stokes noted he was glad he had been talked out of relying on ski gear to protect against the rain.
“You never know what somewhere’s like before you get there,” Stokes said.
The soggy conditions didn’t dampen their excitement for shooting the game. The entire crew saw the endeavor as a new adventure, and enjoyed traveling all around the country to practice their craft.
“There’s just so much dynamic movement or beauty in sports. Trying to capture that and framing, I've never had a football stadium with just such an unbelievably epic landscape all around, and this is a real treat for me. I've been to a lot of stadiums. This is spectacular,” Kiffmeyer said.
Kiffmeyer mimicked that dynamic motion, shifting positions between plays to get different angles of the action, and moving from field to tent when the curtains of rain intensified.
“I’m going to emphasize my visuals on three key players who are also part of the story that they're gonna tell on television. So I'm going to be following them,” Kiffmeyer said.
He kept track of those players by writing their numbers on a green paper wristband he kept with him throughout the shoot.
King noted that from an organizational perspective, he wasn’t sure how much of the game itself would be shown during the program. Even though his contribution has the possibility of being brief, Kiffmeyer wanted to give producers as much content as possible.
“This will be a 10-minute-long segment for the people. I’ll maybe get two seconds of that. If I get three seconds in, that's massive,” Kiffmeyer said.
At the same time, camera operator Drew Becker was collecting “texture” cutaway clips such as fan reactions in the stands, mid-game huddles, and cheerleading performances. Becker also filmed the team coming through the inflatable Crimson Bears mascot tunnel after halftime and a clip of King talking about the origin of Thunder Mountain’s name and admiring the stadium scenery.
The coverage’s focal point will likely come from pre- and post-game interview clips. King interviewed Crimson Bears players Ricky Tupou, Noah Ault and Jaxin Jim, coach Rich Sjoroos, and Tupou’s mother, Jaqueline. His questions ran the gamut of sports reporting, asking them everything from details about Saturday’s game and conditions to their personal motivations.
“You guys all have to raise $2,000 on your own just to play this game. What is that like? And what does that do, having to raise that money, for your love of the game?” King asked senior lineman Ricky Tupou.
“I think that kind of motivates the thought of play when you show up for practice every week. You're going to put in all that work, you know, to get practice in the season. And then a lot of that comes from that, and the community too, we have a lot of fundraisers,” Tupou answered.
Since the story is five months away from its deadline, King isn’t quite sure how all the pieces will fit together yet.
“I was a sportswriter for 44 years. And one of the things that I really liked about it is that often, you go to write a story and you really don't know how it's going to come out,” he said. “We'll put everything into this big salad at the end when we finish doing all of our stops and we'll see what's the best way to tell the story.”
After packing up, the film crew headed back to their hotel, which they were surprised to learn has a $250 fine for cleaning fish in the room among its rules. They flew out Sunday morning, having tackled most of their sightseeing the previous morning while collecting B-roll of a cruise ship, a bear walking across the road, and a mountain cascade.
Juneau was the second stop of NBC’s cross-country high school football tour. The first was in Winnebago, Nebraska, and the next stops are Alabama for a girls’ flag football game, Florida, and a to-be-determined New England location for “foliage season.”
“I'm confident that it'll be good,” King said. “And it'll have something to say about the enthusiasm for football in the United States.”
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
