Instagram story viewer> @wildoakprod> Posts

Wild Oak Productions

@wildoakprod

149

followers

30

following

Independent Production/Development Company Specializing in Sport & Culturally Relevant Stories.
📍LA

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

What makes an 18-year-old give up his freedom… for a shot at a dream?

BEYOND THE GRAVE

At Hargrave Military Academy, young men trade comfort for structure.
Freedom for discipline.
Home for opportunity.

This is a story about ambition, sacrifice, and the price of chasing something bigger than yourself.

The dream doesn’t come free.

A documentary film in development by @wildoakprod .

More at the link in bio.

#HargraveMilitaryAcademy #SportsDocumentary #DocumentaryFilm #IndependentFilm #Football by @wildoakprod

3

31

7 months ago

The only person in Horace Hubbard’s family who had ever gone to college was his sister.

She was already there. He wanted it too. 🎖️🏈

So when the GPA got high enough and the test score came back and he found out he qualified for Ohio, it wasn’t just a football thing.

“It was the best feeling of me growing up.”

Two kids in that family now. Both headed to college.

“Really, really life changing.”

🎙️: Horace Hubbard ( @hubbard.horace )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #HoraceHubbard #OhioUniversity #OhioBobcats by @wildoakprod

3

1

8 hours ago

Kevin Sherman has coached 30-plus years across Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Pitt and Buffalo. Eleven bowl games. Four BCS bowls. Now the head coach at his alma mater, Ferrum. 🎖️🏈

And when he got to Wake, Hargrave became a priority.

Marcus Nesbitt ( @nesbitt_marcus ). Kellen Brantley ( @thecapbox ). Nate Morton ( @hashtag_nate ), a quarterback he recruited and then moved to receiver so he could coach him directly.

But Jyles Tucker ( @tuckerboyz55 / @jiggyj_94 )was the battle.

A defensive end out of New Jersey. Sherman had him all set, all square, down to the end of the cycle.

Then he couldn’t get him on the phone. Called the family. Jyles had left campus and gone quiet on everybody.

“I was like, we’re going to lose him. We’re going to lose him.”

They got him.

🎙️: Coach Kevin Sherman ( @ksherm_02 )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #KevinSherman #WakeForest #DemonDeacons by @wildoakprod

3

3

a day ago

Evan Ward says the hardest part of Hargrave wasn’t the hills or the formations.

It was accepting that he had to give up a year of his life. 🎖️🏈

A full year to grind. A full year to struggle.

“But how bad do you want your dreams to come true?”

Because the older you get, the more you understand what a year actually is.

“A year really isn’t that long compared to the rest of your life. Especially if it sets the foundation for the rest of your life.”

Time waits for no man.

🎙️: Evan Ward ( @cantoutwork_ev )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #EvanWard #MiddleTennessee #BlueRaiders by @wildoakprod

3

3

2 days ago

At 18, Tyrus Lawson thought Hargrave was stealing his freedom.

They weren’t. 🎖️🏈

They were teaching him how to be an adult. Giving him the tools he’d need to be successful. He just couldn’t see it.

So the second he left, he was done. Didn’t look back. Figured he didn’t need any of it anymore.

His college career didn’t go the way he expected.

If he could talk to that 18-year-old today, he knows exactly what he’d say.

“Stay the entire year. Work out. Soak it all in. Take bits and pieces and use them the second you leave.”

“Things could have turned out a lot different.”

🎙️: Tyrus Lawson ( @king_laww )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #TyrusLawson #GlenvilleState #MountainEastConference by @wildoakprod

3

1

3 days ago

Look at the Hargrave schedule and it doesn’t make sense.

Navy’s JV. Kentucky’s JV. Virginia Tech’s JV. Georgia Military Academy. Montgomery College. Fort Union. 🎖️🏈

Now consider this. Coach Messick had two weeks to assemble an entire football team out of kids from all over the South.

Helmet day. Upper pads day. Then you’re pretty much going. Then you’re in the season.

And they’d win seven or more games against that schedule.

Marcus Hairston is 43 now and says in hindsight he can finally see how difficult that actually was.

“Pretty impressive.”

🎙️: Marcus Hairston ( @hairstonscuts )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #MarcusHairston #VirginiaTech #Hokies by @wildoakprod

3

1

4 days ago

Ask Coach Ken Browning how important trust is in recruiting and he doesn’t hesitate.

Number one. 🎖️🏈

You might lose a kid every now and then because somebody else told him exactly what he wanted to hear. That’s the cost.

But if you sign a kid on a promise and he shows up and things aren’t what you said, you’ve lost him. And probably his high school coach too.

“Without that, I don’t know how you really coach a kid effectively. And I don’t know how you go back into that school.”

“It’s always best policy to be straight up with them.”

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #KenBrowning #UNCFootball #TarHeels by @wildoakprod

3

1

5 days ago

“If you can make it at Hargrave, you can make it anywhere.”

That wasn’t a slogan. Ansel Ponder says the whole unit embodied it. 🎖️🏈

He still thinks about the guys who were just that hungry for an opportunity. Something special about a room full of people in that exact position at the same time.

But he’s honest about the other part too.

If you don’t keep the same habits you had at Hargrave, what you learned there starts to fizzle away.

“You’ve got to get stuff done. You’ve got to handle your business.”

Never give up. That’s the whole thing.

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #AnselPonder #WesternMichigan #RowTheBoat by @wildoakprod

3

1

6 days ago

Nate Anglin saw Hargrave from both sides. He was there as a high schooler before he ever joined the post-grad team.

And he’ll tell you there were two types of people in that building. 🎖️🏈

The ones whose parents sent them there. They didn’t want to be there, so they slacked off and did whatever they wanted.

And the ones who actually tried to excel.

Chapel Hill. UVA. West Point. A couple of guys to Yale. A couple more to Cornell out of his class alone.

Because Hargrave had real college-level professors who would take the time to engage with you.

“But you had to take advantage of it yourself. It wasn’t going to be handed to you. You had to go and take it.”

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #NateAnglin #VMIFootball #VMIKeydets by @wildoakprod

3

1

7 days ago

Andrew Farr thought he was done with football.

And he’ll tell you straight that it was his own fault. He was too much of a knucklehead at the time. 🎖️🏈

Then his dad got a phone call.

He didn’t think that was a coincidence. He thought it was a sign.

“This is my second chance to get things right with myself. Otherwise, who knows what I’d be doing.”

So he went to Hargrave and made up his mind before he even got there.

“If I waste this opportunity, I wasted my own time. I wasted these coaches’ time. I wasted my family’s time.”

He qualified academically while he was up there.

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #AndrewFarr #EastCarolina #ECUFootball by @wildoakprod

3

2

8 days ago

Chris Hatcher won a Division II national title at Valdosta State and gave Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp their first coaching jobs. He’s since been the head man at Georgia Southern, Murray State and Samford.

But the one that got away still stings. 🎖️🏈

Charles Grant.

Hatcher was a graduate assistant at Kentucky, so he couldn’t go on the road. He did all the legwork instead. Every phone call. Every conversation. They were close.

Grant actually committed to Kentucky. For about seven or eight days.

Then he went to Georgia and had a great career.

“Some good times there.”

🎙️Coach Chris Hatcher ( @chris_hatcher18 )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #ChrisHatcher #Samford #RollWave by @wildoakprod

3

1

10 days ago

That trumpet sound is still stuck in Darren Gaines’ head.

Every single morning. Wake up. Make your bed. Get downstairs as fast as you can. Make sure you’re shaved. 🎖️🏈

Saturdays without a game, they’d sneak into town for food and rush back before anyone noticed. They weren’t supposed to. They did it anyway.

And the walk to practice. Through the woods. Through the trees. Across the gravel. It felt like a mile every time.

He still tells everyone about that walk.

“It’s kind of crazy that we had to walk like that just to get to practice.”

🎙️: Darren Gaines ( @dotdadonnn )

#HargraveFootball #HargraveMilitaryAcademy #DarrenGaines #AshlandEagles #GeorgiaState by @wildoakprod

3

1

11 days ago