St. Mary’s students write, produce and star in a CFL-themed song and video

By BRENDAN MILLER on June 22, 2024.

St. Mary’s students have written and produced a song for the CFL. On Friday, film crews from Calgary came to Medicine Hat to shoot a music video for the song, which explains the CFL’s rules for youth or newcomers to Canada. –NEWS PHOTOS BRENDAN MILLER

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A Calgary film crew traveled to Medicine Hat on Friday to shoot a music video for a theme song explaining the rules of Canadian football. The video was written and produced by performing arts students at St. Mary’s School. Well-known Alberta historian Rob Lennard, who runs the YouTube channel The History Wrangler Production, approached the school with this unique concept. He was looking for choir students to write and sing a catchy song explaining the rules of the CFL for people unfamiliar with Canadian football. Lennard explains that last year, during a conversation with Lois Mitchell, former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta and part owner of the Calgary Stampeders, he proposed the idea of ​​writing a song for youth and new Canadians. “Wouldn’t it be nice to write a song? That’s never been done before,” Lennard says. “The rules have to be fun, engaging and easy to understand for youth or new Canadians who have no idea about the basic rules of the CFL.” Lennard used a three-minute tune he had recorded on a previous project that included trumpets and a saxophone solo. He wanted to put seven verses into the song about the CFL rules. He just needed to find someone to write them. Thanks to his connections at Medicine Hat College, Lennard was introduced to the middle school choir students at St. Mary’s Schools, who were eager to take advantage of the opportunity. “The kids were crying with excitement,” says Parkor Thomas, choir teacher at St. Mary’s. “Because this is their dream. In the art class at St. Mary’s, their dream is to do productions, write songs, express their creative nature and their artistic side.” Over the past four months, students have been learning about football, learning about the sport and writing hundreds of verses about the basic rules for the song, including this example: “A total of 60 minutes where both teams compete. At the start of the game, in freezing cold or sunny heat, the team captains flip a coin.” After the song lyrics were finalized, St. Mary’s students auditioned for solo parts and recorded the final version at local recording studio STIR Studio. “So cool, it was a huge mixing desk and then they had a whole room with pads on the walls and these crazy microphones and headphones,” says ninth-grader Katie Franchett, who was chosen to perform a solo verse of the song. “They had us all warm up in a circle and we recorded that one verse about 50 times, it was crazy. It was an out-of-body experience for me because I’ve always loved singing and never thought I’d be able to be on a professional song for the CFL.” “It was an absolutely wonderful, wonderful experience,” Lennard says of working with the students. “It was amazing to see the creative students at the wonderful St. Mary’s School at work.” On Friday, camera crews took the field at the Methanex Bowl along with jugglers, stylists, football players, cheerleaders and performing arts students to film an official music video for the song, which also featured Toxic Elite Cheerleading as well as members of the McCoy Colts and St. Mary’s Junior Colts. Throughout Friday, the five-person camera crew filmed a country recognition, players on the field, cheerleaders cheering and choir singers singing the song’s many verses, and a large cheer shot featuring the entire cast. Lennard says he hopes the video will soon be shown on the big screens in CFL stadiums across the country. “The goal is to get it out before Heritage Day weekend for the CFL teams across Canada,” Lennard says. “My ultimate goal is to have the St. Mary’s CFL Rules showing troupe (performing arts students) once a year and to go to different CFL cities every year where they perform the song in the halftime show, that would be my ultimate goal.” Lennard says he hopes to work with the Calgary Stampeders to perform the song for the first time, and he’s working on creating an opportunity for St. Mary’s students to potentially perform the song at halftime this season. 20
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