While many people pay attention to the athletes highlighted in Friday pre-game videos released throughout the school year, most overlook the creators behind the footage. 

The Golden Lion Network staff, led by senior Marcellus Burwell and sophomore Mason Victory as well their faculty moderators, Mr. Andrew Mabini and Mrs. Meggan Wilcauskus, senior , create the videos we all enjoy. 

According to Burwell, the staff has to start by compiling video footage of football players at games and practices. They attend all of the games on Fridays as well as most practices in the week to collect the best shots for their videos. 

Burwell said each video takes a week to edit, “the schedule starts on Monday where we have a rough draft due, and then on Tuesday we submit it to Mr. Mabini for reviewing,” he explained. “On Wednesday we get our revisions back and go make the proper edits to the video and add effects to the video. Finally, we turn it in by the end of the day on Thursday.”   

There are many challenges Burwell and the rest of the staff run into during this process, the biggest being copyright issues. Because the St. Pius School Instagram regularly posts the pre-game videos, each upload must be free of copyright violations. 

“We are trying to become more social by putting more videos on the web, so copyright is a big thing for us because if we get struck it looks bad on Pius’ image,” Burwell explained.

The process of “protecting St. Pius image,” can be limiting and exhausting at times, the senior staff member explained. Songs chosen for videos must be non-copyrighted material, and choosing from a short supply of songs to fit for a video can be tricky. 

Despite the challenges, Burwell loves many parts of the football hype videos. “I love the integral parts of editing. It’s very fun doing all the little details that help make the whole video better,” he said.

Another challenge Burwell encounters is how time consuming making these videos can be. Burwell said sometimes he is up until 3 in the morning editing and polishing his videos. 

Although the entire production process is fun. Burwell explained that the best part of their assignments is actually watching the videos with the rest of the school.

“[I] always want the football players and other students to feel a certain pride in being a St. Pius student,” he said. 

Senior defensive end and tight end Lawson Schultz said he appreciates their work.

“It’s really cool to see our team as a whole on video and it gets us in the mood to play a game,” he said. 

Senior wide receiver Tommy Serrano agreed.

“It pumps us up to see all of our highlights for the previous games and get us excited to play,” he said. “Also people want to make good plays so they can get in the hype video.”  

So the saying “Thank God it’s Friday” is much more than the end of the school and work week.  Players and fans are also pumped up for the hype videos ahead of the big games.

Check out the Golden Lion Network’s website to learn more about their program.