Monday marked an important milestone for the Paly swim and dive team: the first episode of a docu-series covering the boys team’s 2023 season was released after the wait over summer.
The documentary follows the boy’s team’s journey to another championship in CCS — the second ever in program history — after the incredible first win in 2022. Varsity swimmers Alex Ng (Class of 2024) and Ethan Chien (Class of 2023) are the co-producers and creators of the docu-series.
They spent hours interviewing their teammates and coach, Danny Dye, collecting footage to use in the series and countless hours editing — a process that is still underway.
Ng edits the episodes and organizes the hours of footage.
“We have around 600 gigabytes of raw footage,” Ng said. “We go through all the interviews [and transcribe them] so I can just search on a doc for what I want to find.”
The documentary is a love letter to the team, incorporating clips showcasing the team’s strong friendships and the growth of the individuals on the team.
The title of the documentary, “One Ship,” is both a nod to Paly’s cheer of “one ship, ‘sko Vikes” as well as a description of the Paly swim team. The team is incredibly close, bonded after many long practices each day, and united in the common goal of winning CCS.
“Originally, we wanted to film and capture the win of our second CCS title,” Ng said. “But after filming it, I feel like it’s more important to show the little moments and the fun we have as a team.”
Senior Brooke Hudacek, a member of the girls varsity team, felt the impact of this team unity throughout the season.
“It’s just awesome to be able to see your teammates, who have put in a lot of hard work and dedication, be able to succeed, as well as for us to be there and be able to cheer them on,” Hudacek said. “It’s just a really great feeling.”
Athletes can recall Chien and Ng continually filming, with Chien following his teammates around to capture fun moments and Ng swimming across the bottom of the pool taking underwater footage.
“That’s where the title of the channel comes from (Put the Camera Down) — we would always joke that we didn’t want to be filmed when we were tired after a long set or looking bald in our swim caps, but in reality it was pretty fun to have them around,” Hudacek said.
Hudacek notes how the filming of the documentary heightened the energy and helped the team put 110% into training and in meets.
“In some ways, it brought up the energy of the boys team,” Hudacek said. “Obviously, they always had the goal of going to CCS and winning it. But I think the fact that they were filming a documentary about them winning CCS gave them that extra push and it was really fun to see their energy.”
The first episode is the only one that has aired so far, but Hudacek is already impressed with the work of Chien and Ng.
“I thought it was really awesome,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily doubt their abilities, but at the end of the day, it was a bunch of high schoolers putting it together. So I thought it was really amazing what they were able to do, because it is super good.”
More episodes will air on the “Put the Camera Down” Youtube channel over the following months.
