The perfect ending hits home for Reese documentary
In September 2022 producer Jay Maximo, at right, presented a video short of the upcoming Perry Reese documentary, where friends like Art and Jo Yoder, left, and Shelley and Allen Miller, with microphone, shared some heartfelt words. Maximo hopes to have the full-length documentary finished and ready for the 2025 film festival season with a projected release date hoped for late in 2025.
Crafting a fitting way to honor the late Perry Reese Jr. has been a long, painstaking trek for filmmakers Jay Maximo and Dan Mizicko as they seek to develop the perfect story of the African American boys basketball coach who came to Amish Country to not only coach basketball and win a state title, but also change the way people viewed color and culture.
The duo had much of their script in place, the documentary telling Reese’s story of overcoming obstacles, coaching and teaching, and at the same time making much of the Berlin community.
All they needed was the perfect ending, something they felt they had in place not once, not twice, but three separate times.
But in the end, none of them felt right to Maximo, who is directing and producing the film.
That is until a series of events this past six months changed all that.
“We thought we were done when we did our little preview (a 12-minute short they showed in Berlin last year), and we knew Perry was going to get inducted into Ohio High School Hall of Fame,” Maximo said.
It seemed like a fitting end to the story.
Former Reese point guard and central figure to the story Jason Mishler took over the helm of the Lady Hawks winning program, and that seemed like a full-circle moment.
Then Dave Schlabach’s son Brady took over the reins of the Lady Hawks program, and that seemed like an important story because of how close Dave Schlabach was to Reese as they coached simultaneously, Schlabach the Lady Hawks, Reese the Hawks.
Maximo said they began developing the ending, and then it all changed in one seemingly perfect moment, a moment Maximo said he felt was sent from heaven.
This past March the Hiland boys overcame loads of key injuries and battled their way to state, seemingly on heart, much like the Reese team of 1992.
Exactly 32 years after Junior Raber’s answered-prayers heave from deep led to three game-winning free throws in the 1992 state semifinal thriller over Lima Central Catholic, the Hawks got another buzzer-beating win over LCC, again in comeback fashion, with a Nick Wigton long-range missile finding its mark as the buzzer went off, ending double overtime in a game for the ages.
In addition, former Reese standout Nevin Mishler, who starred on that 1992 championship team and sadly passed away last year, had a son, Caleb, who sported number 32. Amazingly, Aaron Hutchins, star of the 1992 Lima Central Catholic team, had a son playing for LCC.
A new ending was written, one that comes full circle from that magical 1992 championship year.
“It was so incredible,” Maximo said. “You keep filming until you feel like you’ve got that great perfect ending. That was our great ending. (Wigton) makes a shot close to where Junior took his shot. It was Lima Central Catholic; it was frantic. It was almost like 1992 all over again.”
Maximo said it was the ending they had been hoping for but never really quite found until that moment, when everything clicked into place, a script that was almost crafted by Reese himself from above.
With the duo trying to get the documentary ready for the 2025 film festival tour, they are up against the clock, much like the 1992 and 2024 Hawks teams were.
They are working overtime to craft this new ending and finish what Maximo and Mizicko hope will catch the eye of a distributor somewhere among film festivals in Sundance, Toronto, South by Southwest, Tribeca and Cleveland, all of which are Oscar-qualifying film festivals.
“I’ve got Dan locked in the basement working feverishly on completing the film,” Maximo said. “It’s been nearly four years, and we’re working to get the film down to 90 minutes or less, and it’s difficult because of all of the fantastic footage we have.”
He said that has been a chore. The two littered their walls with Post-it notes, creating a timeline, moving scenes around, eliminating some, hoping to create the perfect edits that flow and tell Reese’s amazing story.
“We’ve always felt that Perry has had his hand in this and he’d let us somehow know when and how to stop,” Maximo said. “After that game we knew we had the best ending possible.”
Maximo said they already have a couple of potential distributors interested, and the two men have somehow managed to use their own money to keep all the rights to the documentary in their hands.
He said the final touches will include perfecting the sound mix and adding inspiring music rather than stock music, so they will have to pay a composer. Other expenses factor in, so they plan on creating a kick-starter fund in which they hope to raise at least $30,000.
In the end their work has been a labor of love and is theirs and not an investor’s.
“In terms of ownership, we can’t think of a better way because Dan and I own 100% of the film,” Maximo said. “It’s going to be strong, emotional, inspiring and uplifting, and if we can get it into the film festivals in 2025, we believe it will get picked up.”
Maximo said they hope to get the film debuted by summer 2025.