A stressed-out Little League coach motivates his team at an important practice.
ROUND THE HORN is used with permission from Matt Nelsen. Learn more at mattofnewyork.com.
Brad Coffey is the coach of a Little League team. He loves the sport and still wears the championship jacket he wore during his own younger baseball days. He tries to motivate them, but in Brad's case, that means dwelling on his triumphs as a Little League player in the late 90s.
But when practice starts and one of his young players emerges as a top athlete, Brad realizes his days as being the best in the field have truly come to an end.
Directed by Matt Nelsen from a script co-written with Brad Howe, who also plays the coach, this affectionately goofy comedy short is a snapshot of a grown man whose arrested development gets a big kick in the pants. We first meet Brad as he's giving a pep talk to his team before an important practice. They're on the eve of a big tournament, and he's trying to hype them up. But as he talks (and talks and talks) in a monologue baroque with nostalgia and delusion, Brad seems more interested in reliving his glory days as a baseball player when he was young.
As practice goes on, we see Brad does less coaching and more playing, captured in an energetic extended sports montage reminiscent of nostalgic sports films like The Sandlot. Playing against kids, Brad revels in his skill and talent. But during practice, one boy starts out-playing the coach, hitting and pitching better than the mentor, much to Brad's frustration. As an actor, Howe excels in conveying a man who never grew up and is holding onto past glories in the wake of grown-up life's mundanity. He's stroking his ego, but underneath the nostalgia and boastfulness, there's a haplessness in the performance that gives it a bittersweet tinge. By the time practice ends, Brad realizes that his days of being the best -- in whatever league he can find -- are over.
Concluding with an awkward yet poignant acceptance of Brad's glory days ending and a final image that's both melancholy and comedic, ROUND THE HORN ends with a postscript that details his eventual fate, which is as funny, wry and ill-conceived as his coaching. Some people can never quite let their glorious youth go, creating a midlife crisis that compounds one quixotic life choice with another. We can peak too soon, never quite moving on to other mountains to conquer.
Thank you to the team for coming out to our Craven Field located in Townsend, MA to shoot this video, and use our players for the short! They had a great time, and we loved having the team here for the production!
He's riding the lawnmower because he's already lost his license to a DUI.
Wow nothing get past you huh
Is it just me does anybody else also feels that the coach looks like Matthew McConaughey?
In the beginning I was sure its him. Not only similar look but also face expressions. Very good acting.
On Dallas buyers club
Yeah i thought he was in disguise at first or something.
Cute film of little league memories. A life lesson for the kids though that the "fun" adult, while having some good qualities, is not really always the one you want to emulate in life. You just hope they all learn that, and not just the youngster he opened up to about it.
Little League memories every player and coach remembers so well. Fantastic film!
He may not always make contact, but I appreciate how coach doesn't have one of those "look at me" upper-cut swings. Grounders may not go over the fence, but they can get you on base.
Tell Billy that he gets on base
No shot I live in the city next to where this was filmed that’s actually insane it ended up on this channel.
Whoa that’s awesome! So you just found it here on the channel?
So wild! Small small world.
Gotta ask… Fitchburg, Wisconsin?
Bummer ending
little league memories forever!
The latest from Causeway Fairfield!
Little League life experiences captured perfectly. Fantastic film!
So... did they win?
🤣
Once, I moved into a new house across the street from a kid my own son's age. This kids father was always outside on their lawn practicing basketball with him. Pushing hard. I couldn't stand it but said nothing. I didn't push my own kids to do most things I wanted them to, no living vicariously through them. Let them find their own interests in life. I did admire that the father at least spent a lot of time with his son. Until one day in his freshman highschool year, the boy developed diabetes. No hopes of a scholarship there. And baseball was discarded. And the father never had much to do with his son again. A few years later and the family disintegrated. Divorce. Then the remnants moved away. My kids discovered their own interests. Some mirrored mine, some didn't. But I could never shake the feeling I had of hatred for competitive level sports for kids. Sure, mine did them... for fun and fitness and to learn how to be a team player and engage in good sportsmanship. But beyond that, it was up to my kids on how far they pushed... being someone else's entertainer.
I love little league childhood memories and this video is awesome 😎
Was there a full feature film like this back in the 1980s or something?
I'm grateful my Little League coaches were a 180 from this guy.
I live on this street
Team Dear Frankie still at it making great stuff!
Incredible
Did the writer of this script go through this very same scenario as a kid?
Don't drink and drive kids
At least he arrested his arrested development . . .
"Don't look up to me" - with that sentence he proved to be a real coach or master and thus gave the best lession to his pupil. And his deed, leaving, did prove that he can let go things and that he trusts to "let it go" regarding the growing of others and theyr things once set properly in motion. Just a man, he is. A true one. Also a good parent. (I got these my interpretation before (!) i did read the intro.)
Yep! I second that!
Exactly 💯
why? just let the kids that wanna play play.
Was going to skip on by this one. So glad I didn't.
People are weird. As a fellow weirdo I accept this fact.
🤔
Well done! This is a movie about making a movie and then running out of time/money, and how it had to end.
Whoa. This hits. 😅
Yes a new video thanks for your channel.