Last year, current senior George Haunfelner missed the 2019 varsity baseball season due to a shoulder injury. This injury required multiple surgeries and prevented Haunfelner from playing baseball for quite a while. Although the injury was severe and robbed him of his first year of varsity baseball, it did not take away from his persistent spirit or his creativity. 

After finding out he wasn’t going to be able to play baseball that year, George Haunfelner decided to make use of his freed up time by making a documentary on the J-D varsity baseball team, from the first practice to the last game. George has been into filmmaking for quite a while, and saw this as the perfect opportunity to continue his production of videos. “I still wanted to be with the team because I knew it was the last year the seniors would be there, and I know in the past there was a lacrosse documentary and I wanted to do that for the baseball team.”

With creating his first sports documentary came many struggles for Haunfelner. “One of the biggest challenges I faced was trying to shoot during games with my sling on, as well as getting rides to games because I wasn’t allowed to drive for six weeks,” Haunfelner said. “Also, editing was quite difficult. It took weeks to go over and edit all the footage.”

Although creating a sports documentary by himself was no easy task, Haunfelner certainly felt that he grew as a filmmaker in the process, even if he would have rather been playing baseball. “It was a great experience, and I learned so much about sports storytelling and I gained a lot of exposure from it.”

The documentary was posted on YouTube on November 18, and has racked up over 850 views in just over three weeks. Haunfelner aspires to turn his filmmaking skills into a career, and this documentary proves that he is well on his way.

Documentary Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF8uy6hqAHo