Documentary ‘Lake Hail Mary’ relives Rams’ state championship season

The production was shown in two separate, 200-seat theaters and every seat was taken for the premiere. It’s the only showing currently available to the public, as Malmberg and staff are now trying to work a deal with a network like Netflix or Amazon or ESPN to air the documentary in a streaming medium.

“When we started the production, I said, let’s try to make this as professional as possible and shoot for the stars and maybe if we do it the right way, people will be interested and want to put it out on a platform of some sort,” Malmberg said. “When we finished, I thought, ‘Well, let’s see if people like it first.”

People loved it.

“Over the last week, people have seen it and been praising it and kind of encouraging us, so now I think that dream is back on the table and we’re gonna try,” Malmberg said. “It’s a long shot, a very long shot, to get it picked up by anybody, but I think it’s definitely worth the try.

“If all of that falls through, then we’ll put it on YouTube. We’re not trying to gatekeep this from anybody.”

Seeing the documentary in the theatre, with the surround-sound and giant screen, was thrilling for everyone, but especially the players and coaches who lived the moment.

“It’s one thing to watch the final sequence of plays by yourself, and my heart still pounds when I watch it,” Coach Perry said, “but when you are sitting in a theater with 200 other people, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up, everybody erupts in applause and it was that feel-good moment all over again.

“The film was so true to the moment and it really did capture what it was like in that state championship game, and pretty much the whole season.”

Brundidge was one of the stars of the moment and he said the film almost made him feel like a movie star.

“It was awesome, seeing all of the struggles that we went through during the season and then seeing what we accomplished,” Brundidge said.

Of course, everyone enjoyed re-watching the final play surrounded by people in a sold-out theater.

“Man, it was awesome. It was like we were reliving the moment. Everybody in there was yelling and calling my name and stuff,” Brundidge said. “At some points it was like sad, and then happy. It was just awesome.”

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Brundidge lauded the production team.

“The documentary was pretty good and they did a good job like mixing everything in there,” he said. “It’s crazy, because you would not think that your classmates would be making movies on their own time and in their periods and stuff.”

Several people were involved on the making of “Lake Hail Mary.” The executive producer was Lake Mary alumni Jaffa Martin Frye, who currently is a filmmaker living in Atlanta, and he would help piece together the film through digital communications with Malmberg.

The main student editors were seniors Maddison Spalding and Sarah Pascazio and juniors Abigail Unger, Ricardo Gomez, Manendra Gor and Justin Glener. The movie poster was designed by junior Charlie Davenport. Photographers were seniors Francisco Fonesca and Tanner Dean.

Malmberg said the premiere was a great way to close the production.

“That was a special, pretty cool moment,” he said. “I got emotional even before the movie played. It was just cool to see that many people there for something that our program made.

“And when you’ve got the professional speakers and you hear the bass and the rumble and the full sound in the bigger theater, and with community experience of the people cheering … it’s awesome. You get a lot of validation when the audience loves it the way you were hoping and planning for.”

Jamarion Coleman, a junior linebacker on this year’s team who is in his first year at Lake Mary High after coming over from Orange City University High, has enjoyed quite a ride as one of 30 newcomers the Lake Mary football team welcomed to campus last fall.

“It was amazing. I loved it. It gave me chills, honestly,” Coleman said. “It’s very crazy. It’s still so unreal. It says a lot about the coaches and how they were able to bring us together.”

The documentary went through the entire 2025 season, even rehashing Lake Mary’s three losses.

“Some of the games, like the ones we lost, I was still mad. It shouldn’t have gone like that,” Coleman said. “But then we ramped it up it really still gave me chills.”

Patrick Ryan, a senior linebacker who will walk-on to play at UCF this year, was equally thrilled by the production.

“It was awesome just reliving the moment and getting to see through a film basically everything we went through throughout the year and getting to re-feel everything,” Ryan said. “It’s still hard to believe that we had such a crazy ending like that, but it was really cool to relive that moment again.”

Ryan admitted that on that night of Dec. 13, 2025, as the Vero Beach quarterback started to take a knee to run down the clock, he figured his Lake Mary career was going to end with a second straight Class 7A runner-up medal.

“Yeah, for sure. I didn’t know we had timeouts. I didn’t even think about anything like that. I was just assuming it was over,” Ryan said. “I was on the field crying, and then they took that safety and I said, ‘OK, wipe your tears and get back on the field.’

“It was definitely a crazy outcome. I didn’t even know we had a chance to get the ball back, but when that happened. … It’s pretty cool and we’re still riding on that high that we ended the year with.”

Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.