Monday, February 6, 2012

Six Legendary Evansville Athletes Make Viral Video For Local Non-Profit

Six stand-out athletes native to Evansville release a video for a good cause. Don Mattingly and his son Preston, Chris Owen, Kipp Schutz, Max Dedmond, and Sean Mooney teamed up to create a video of trick shots to benefit a local non-profit.

Basket after basket, the seven minute video shows more than 25 trick shots performed by six of Evansville's legendary athletes. It kicks off with L.A. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly.

"In the opening shot the mascot's wearing a San Francisco Giants hat and that's obviously one of the Dodgers' arch rivals so he does his own special trick shot. He takes care of that particular hat and makes sure Bearwinkle is wearing an L.A. Dodgers hat," says Jamie Morris, Resource Development Director at Boys and Girls Club of Evansville.

The group calls itself team Trickwinkle. Several months ago they came to Boys and Girls Club of Evansville with the idea to make the video as a fundraiser for the non-profit. The team found sponsors for their project, and sold T-shirts bearing the names of the sponsors, and the face of their mascot, Bearwinkle. Their goal was to raise one-thousand dollars. But the now-viral video has already surpassed that.

"The distance and the skill that it takes to get those on all of them it's just really unbelievable and impressive," says Morris.

Team Trickwinkle makes shots from behind, off a fire truck ladder and boat, and even blind over Central Stadium.

"It is 100-percent real. There is no faking. There is no video trickery. Those are all 100-percent real trick shots," says Morris.

The video makes the trick shots look easy. But Morris says, while some shots only took a few tries, others took up to four hours to achieve. He says when the members of Trickwinkle finally make the shot -- their reaction is real.

In one clip -- Chris Owen shoots a football through a McDonalds sign into a basket on the other side. As the team celebrates Owen is heard saying "Ba-da-bab-bah-bah, I'm lovin' it!"

Don Mattingly closes the video with its only blooper. He tries to hit a Giants hat off mascot Bearwinkle, but instead hits the mascot in the head.

Proceeds from the sponsorships and t-shirts will all go to Boys and Girls Club of Evansville. Watch the video on YouTube.

Source: http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=486272

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