Videographers focus on women’s basketball team

By Judy Richter

On the surface, it wouldn’t appear that a musician and a graphic artist have much in common with a championship-contending basketball team. Nevertheless, Bud Anderson and Sarah Boruta use those talents as videographers for the Stanford women’s team. Both in their first year with the team, Bud is the director of video operations while Sarah is the videography intern.

The recently married Bud is a singer and composer, part of a men’s quartet, Hookslide, that performed during halftime of the Minnesota game, sang the national anthem for the Rutgers game and entertained at the auction afterward. He also founded PSF PRO, a multimedia company that provides promotional tools to entertainers and businesses.

Sarah graduated in June from Ferris State University in her home state of Michigan with degrees in graphic design, visual design and Web media. As director of women’s basketball operations at Ferris State, she coordinated all aspects of video, organized camps and clinics, and assisted with special events, travel and game management.

They’re using their talents and experience to “provide a new creative direction” for the team, Bud said during a recent interview of him and Sarah. It’s the first time any team has had such positions.

Using music composed and performed by Bud (except for popular songs), Bud and Sarah have been creating the clever videos of various players seen on YouTube and now at the games. Some of them are what he calls the “We Like” series, such as the one featuring guard JJ Hones reflecting on various means of transportation from a skate board to a bus and deciding to run around campus, with a pause to pose by the Rodin statues. That's “We like to run”.

Guard Lindy La Rocque is shown waking up at 3:33, eating a triple-dip ice cream cone, reading “The Three Little Pigs” and watching “Three’s Company” before shooting a barrage of her signature three-pointers. Naturally, that’s “We like 3's”.

The introduction of the four freshmen had them singing a few words in four-part harmony composed and taught by Bud. Eventually he wants to create a music video of the team.

The two “get their inspiration from the players,” and Head Coach Tara VanDerveer helps. The idea is to promote the team as a “fun, energetic group,” Bud said. His goal is to create 80 YouTube videos this season, he said. Every game will have a short video featuring one of the players and referring viewers to the women’s basketball site for the full version. Forward Jillian Harmon was featured first. Guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude was next. “The goal is to create a sense of connection to the team,” Bud said.

The JJ video took between 15 and 20 hours to create, while Lindy’s took about eight to 10. “The players are great,” Bud said. “They really enjoy doing it.” He also is pleased with the positive feedback he’s getting from fans, who often applaud after a video is shown at a game. “I’m glad my sense of humor fits with the team,” he said.

Noting that he grew up in Kansas and doesn’t know much about basketball, he said he depends on Sarah for her knowledge of the sport. “Sarah is a superstar,” he said, adding that she has a good eye for what will film well. Sarah said she has known she wants to be involved in basketball ever since she was a sophomore in high school.

Sarah has several direct responsibilities with the team. She films every practice from a half-court perspective and prepares videos for the coaches to review. She uses software programs that can single out all offensive or defensive plays and specific plays such as three-pointers. The coaches might ask for videos of an individual player to help her study and improve her overall play or a particular technique such as rebounding or free-throw shooting.

She does the same things with the videos of Stanford’s opponents so that the scouting coach can study them. As part of her responsibility for video exchange with other teams, she gets the videos from opponents of Stanford’s opponents. So instead of requesting the scouting video directly from Purdue, for example, she’ll ask for videos from teams that Purdue has played. Likewise, she fills other teams’ requests for videos of teams that Stanford has played.

“Teams playing us early in the season ask our opponents from last season for copies of their games against us,” she said in a follow-up e-mail. “Teams playing us later in the season will ask for our most recent games from our opponents.” However, the Pac-10 has a rule that “will not allow us to give out conference games,” she wrote.

During games, Sarah sits with her laptop at the scorers’ table near the Stanford bench to keep track of what offensive and defensive plays the team runs and to analyze their outcomes. She prints out the results and gives them to the coaches at the half and at the end of the game. Because she does this for all games, she travels with the team to its away games.

Yet another of Sarah’s responsibilities is to design newspaper ads promoting the team and ticket sales. She does “a lot of branding of the team,” Bud said.

Working together, Bud and Sarah call themselves Team Dominate. “We set the standard,” Bud said. Other teams might look at Stanford’s site to see their work, but “we don’t need to steal ideas” from them, he said. “We do the best work.”