GREENWOOD, Texas — In West Texas, high school football is everything, not just for competition and school pride but also the opportunities it provides students and coaches. While we’ll have to wait until the Fall of 2024 for those Friday night lights again, one stadium was lit up on Friday, Dec. 8.
J.M. King Memorial Stadium in Greenwood was in action for the filming of a movie. A local West Texan who graduated as a Greenwood Ranger is producing the movie, and she felt this would be the place to film the high school football scenes.
Ranger football players and Rangerette cheerleaders on the big screen.
“We are filming a movie in West Texas," exclaimed Emily Binns, producer of "Stan The Man". "I absolutely have the high school to do it, it’s Greenwood.”
Binns is producing the movie in her hometown.
“I know that the community will rally around it and really want to be a part of it, and so we just started reaching out making contact with the Superintendent Ariel Elliott and some of the local places in Greenwood and in town – in Midland – and they have all just kind of come together and said ‘Yeah, we’ll 100% help you make a movie,'" Binns said.
Help that is needed, says Director of "Stan The Man" Kendall Bryant.
“We’re just so thankful for the support of the community, and being genuine and representing Texas high school football well is super important to me," Bryant said.
As for the movie "Stan The Man."
“It’s a story about redemption and second chances," Binns said.
“It’s not only a redemption piece because he finds himself being an alcoholic and losing everything, but it’s also a story about a coach re-finding his love for the game," Bryant said.
That coach is Angus Benfield as "Stan The Man."
“This is towards the end of the film where he’s now coaching a high school football team, and so over the next few days here we’ll be filming all those football scenes and Stan’s interactions with that," Benfield said. "So, it’s kind of in the more positive side of his character arc."
Stan’s story wouldn’t be complete without support from the Greenwood community.
“It’s exciting to look around and see the team," Benfield said. “It just adds so much to the production value and yeah, we’re just so humbled by the fact that people let us do this and support us and allow us to film here.”
Bryant mentioned that they are looking at Fall of 2024 when football season starts again to release the movie. Binns added that they are hoping to hold a premier at the Cinergy in Midland with a red-carpet roll out for West Texans to see "Stan The Man" first.