Star Tribune
Minnesota movie ‘Good Sport,’ a comedy about youth basketball, will shoot in West St. Paul
While students and teachers sleep in during spring break at Heritage E-STEM Magnet School in West St. Paul, at least one former student will be hard at work there.
“Good Sport,” a comedic spoof of rousing sports movies such as “Hoosiers,” begins an 11-day shoot at the school and other east metro locations Wednesday. The shoot will extend through spring break the week of March 24, and one of the filmmakers is Heritage graduate Dillon Orth.
“It’ll be an R-rated movie. It takes place over one [basketball] game and it’s a satire on youth sports, or how parents act in youth sports, especially when the kids are about 12. We’re definitely making fun of that, but it will have some heart, as well,” said the 25-year-old Orth. He co-wrote the movie with director Andrew Zuckerman, 24, and is co-producing with Zuckerman and John Cronin, 25.
All three were in youth sports in the West St. Paul/Mendota Heights area. Their movie will draw on bad behavior they witnessed there ? although not, they are quick to add, by their own parents.
“John and I first met in third or fourth grade, playing baseball in West St. Paul. I played basketball in the same gym we’re going to be shooting in,” said Orth, who has a film degree from Chicago’s DePaul University and whose father is a youth sports coach.
“There is quite a bit of inspiration from how we, as kids, felt,” added Zuckerman who, like Cronin, graduated from the University of Minnesota.
“I just saw a news story today about a bill that would fine parents for crazy behavior at sporting events,” Cronin said. (Similar bills have been proposed over the years).
The film will feature “Ted Lasso” semi-regular Mike O’Gorman as an unruly coach and local actor Sam Landman as a good coach who’s having a bad day.
Orth knows that territory: “In high school, I went back to ref that same league I played in and plenty of parents were getting quite upset ? at a third- or fourth-grade basketball game.”
Esera Tuaolo, the former Minnesota Viking, and Michelle Hutchison, who played one of the prostitutes in the movie “Fargo,” will have small roles in “Good Sport,” which also features “A Serious Man” star Sari Lennick and local kids as the athletes.
The $150,000 movie is the second for the trio, who made “Undergrads” with Twin Cities friends during the pandemic and who raised the money for “Good Sport” from private investors. (“Undergrads” can be rented on Amazon, Apple TV+ or viewed for free on Tubi.)
“We’re a lot more confident going into this one and it’s great to have a professional cast and crew behind it,” said Zuckerman. “Knowing the different stressors and things that come up, we’ll have a better grasp on dealing with them.”
Their plan is to finish the movie this summer, so they can submit it to festivals and try to find distribution. The cast and crew are complete, which is a good thing since there’s been a mini-boon in local production, including the movie “Unholy Communion” and TV series “Love Is Blind.” Mostly, that’s a coincidence, said Melodie Bahan, executive director of Minnesota Film and TV Board.
The state has increased its investment in local production but Bahan noted that bigger-budget productions are in a holding pattern, slowly resuming after last year’s Screen Actors Guild strike while awaiting resolution of contract talks with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
“We’ve got a lot of interest in projects coming to Minnesota but until IATSE’s contract gets settled, probably not a lot is coming in,” Bahan said.
“Good Sport” is not benefiting from the state’s incentives ? the timing didn’t work ? but Bahan notes that productions of all sizes help establish the filmmaking community here.
For their part, the collaborators are happy to have a chance to make a movie at home.
“This is what I’ve been wanting to do forever. So, even though it’s super-stressful right now and preproduction is difficult, once we get on the set, we know it will be fun,” Zuckerman said.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
Some take him up on it and fret when he’s not around.
“It is nice to be missed and be part of the school’s culture,” Arzola said. But mostly, he added, he wants kids to know that police aren’t around just for when the bad stuff happens. He’ll hand out his stickers and bracelets, even a trading card bearing his image. Then, they’ll talk about dogs and family.
School resource officer Al Arzola talks to students in his office at John Adams Middle School in Rochester on Oct. 11. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Two months ago, Rochester played host to a three-day training session for new SROs from across the state — an event organized by the Minnesota School Safety Center. On the final day, the 26 officers learned about surveillance challenges at the other school where Arzola works: Dakota Middle School.
It is a beautiful building with a scenic view. There is a lot of glass, too. Arzola, handling the role of instructor and tour guide, took the group outside and noted how one could look straight through the entrance to the large groups that gather inside. There were no curbs in front, either.
“There is nothing stopping any vehicle whatsoever from going through my front doors,” Arzola told the officers. “Law enforcement wasn’t talked to before this building was made. It was kind of like, ‘Here it is. You’re the SRO. Do what you do.’”
He showed them his office, too, which is separate from the main office and near those of other school support staff members. That makes sense, said Jenny Larrive, SRO coordinator for the Minnesota School Safety Center, given than SROs spend more time connecting with youth than on actual law enforcement.
