PLAYERS NOT ALONE ON CAMPUS

INDIVIDUAL EFFORT REQUIRES COMMUNITY ENDEAVOR TO SUCCEED

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Disney turns a real life football player story into a coming of age drama showing how family can hold a person back as much as make a better person out of them.

And the Clemson Tigers become a better football team in the process after rallying behind freshman football safety Ray-Ray McElrathbey.

Ray, played by Jay Reeves, heads to campus hopeful that he will succeed with a scholarship to the South Carolina campus.

Establishing himself on the field to make the starting line-up is not without challenges for Ray. And Ray must also achieve academically, not only to keep his place on the football team, but for him to succeed in a life after college football.

Everything gets a lot more complicated when Ray meets Kaycee Stone, played by Corinne Foxx. The two freshmen college students first meet inside the university book store where Stone works part time. The relationship develops gradually as the characters are preoccupied with academics and sports. Stone also works as a sports reported for the campus newspaper.

Director Reginald Hudlin balances the main narrative of the football player competing to make the starting squad with secondary narratives that include a love interest narrative downplayed a bit for Disney family audiences.

Hudlin uses realism to explain a deeply compelling story of family survival in America.

The main football narrative is quickly woven with a secondary narrative about family issues overwhelmingly more important than sports.

Ray must take care of his little brother, Fahmarr, played by Thaddeus Mixson, after their mother has a drug relapse.

Hudlin shows how Ray takes on the responsibilities for his little brother, but only at great cost to his Clemson ambitions.

This struggle to balance personal interests and family responsibilities is a difficult one for young men and women as they attempt to leave the safety of their youth for a more adversarial young adulthood.

Ray barely keeps life together in one place, while Stone hangs in there for him until he overcomes the adversity that has been keeping the two apart.

Hudlin shows how families fragmented by drugs and the loss of parents can be mended with the help of other giving individuals within the community.

Safety is streaming on DisneyPlus.