2022-2023
8-PART DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Like the landscape in much of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Ewen-Trout Creek school district is a quintessential rural setting, dotted with the weathered structures of once-bustling family farms. One of these buildings is anything but typical; it’s where a decades-long dynasty of championship-caliber high school basketball teams began. This multi-part docu-series explores how this western U.P. high school with fewer than two dozen students per grade has built a basketball tradition that has captured the eyes of sportswriters and the dreams of young ballplayers for generations — and it all began in a unique gymnasium known as “The Barn.”
PART 1: THE BARN
Part 1 begins in “The Barn” – the original home of Ewen-Trout Creek basketball legends – now owned by 1972 All-Star center
Gary Fors - where the hardwood still shines, and kids still learn the game.
PART 2: SMALL TOWN TO STATE CHAMPS
In 1972, a small-town boys basketball team won the state championship and 50 years later their grandsons are on their way to possibly do it again.
PART 3: GIRL POWER
Not to be outdone by the 1972 boys, the 1973 E-TC girls basketball team wins the first ever Michigan High School Girls State Championship in Class D.
PART 4: BACK IN BLACK
10 years after the 1972 boys state championship, the next round of basketball legends emerges on the hardwood floor to capture the sports headlines and hearts of the community. And they watch proudly as today’s generation makes those same headlines with the E-TC boys first regional championship win since 2008.
