by Max Esposito
4/30/2015

With about a minute and a half left in the fourth quarter of the 2014 Massachusetts Division IV Football State Championship senior quarterback Nick Athy came up to me on the sidelines and said, “Max, get ready, we’re about to pour Gatorade on Coach Kiley.” That moment was validation that he understood and appreciated what I was hoping to document as much as I understood what his team was about to accomplish. 

It is that trust and appreciation not only with Athy, but with all the players, the coaches, and the O’Connell family that allows Raising 7 to be what it is: for the most part a series of quiet, introspective moments of players and coaches that, on the whole, represent the impact Timmy O’Connell and Joey Larracey continue to have on the team and the town. 

It is also that trust and appreciation that has allowed the Panther football family to persevere through the toughest of times. It is impressive to bear witness to what that coaching staff has done over the last twelve years with Kiley at the helm and how their leadership has affected so many families and helped shape so many young men in a positive way. 

More impressive, however, is the courage that the Larraceys and O’Connells possess in moving forward day by day. While this film functions as a lasting memory of a great football season, more importantly, I hope it is an enduring account of who that season was for and what they meant to the people of a small town called Holliston. 

The video is called Raising 7: https://vimeo.com/126325022

Bio:

Max is just old enough to remember editing video using VHS tape decks but too young to have a true appreciation for the phrase "cutting room floor." He's successfully circumnavigated the pressures of having a nine to five by freelancing as a filmmaker in Boston, working primarily with Mullen and Element Productions. He's reassured his mom that things will be okay, showing her videos he's directed for Google, Fidelity Investments, Velcro, Panera, Foxwoods and Adidas. His mother concedes those videos look a bit more professional than the high school track team highlight reels he used to make. Needless to say, although his mother is no longer watching him compete in Division I Track and Field at Boston University, she seems to enjoy dressing up for film festivals, occasionally seeing his work on the New York Times and Sports Illustrated websites or even on a Dr. Pepper TV commercial. 

In addition, Max taught a Intro to Visual Journalism class required for all Journalism majors at Boston University in the Fall of 2013. In the last couple of years, he's won Bronze and Silver Hatch Awards and an OMMA Award in the advertising world with Mullen. In the documentary world he co-directed the short doc, The Druid City, an official selection for the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL, the Boston International Film Festival, and winner of the Redstone Film Festival in LA. More recently, his 2014 film El Chino was an official selection to the San Diego Surf Film Festival and in early 2015 he was in Japan as the Director of Photography on an upcoming WWII documentary.