A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 6
This is the seventh year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. Here’s another one:
Around 1990, writer Stephen Brill came up with this idea: “A self-centered lawyer is sentenced to community service coaching a rag tag youth hockey team.” That eventually became the movie The Mighty Ducks. That seemingly innocuous family comedy grossed $51M, not bad for a movie with a reported $10M budget.
Then came D2: The Mighty Ducks. Then D3: The Mighty Ducks. Then “Mighty Ducks”, a TV series. Then Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off, a DTV animated movie. And then came this:
The Anaheim Ducks [formerly the Anaheim Mighty Ducks]. An NHL franchise. A professional franchise worth an estimated $188M.
All based on the fact that one day, a writer was walking around and came up with a story idea about a youth hockey team named the Mighty Ducks.
As I said… in Hollywood, story ideas are worth gold.
Today’s story idea: Aussies getting their kicks in college football.
Australian punting is booming as forcefully as one of the towering kicksfrom its collection of college standouts. In the Big Ten East, four of the seven teams will likely feature punters next season who hail from Down Under. The last three winners of theRay Guy Award for the top punter in the college game has gone to an Aussie, with Memphis’ Tom Hornsey winning in 2013 and Utah’s Tom Hackett the past two seasons.
That’s not a coincidence. It is a bona fide movement. But why?
“American athletes don’t grow up wanting to kick a ball,” Nathan Chapman, head of the ProKick Australia kicking school, told USA TODAY Sports at a recent training session near the center of Melbourne. “But that’s what we do all our lives.”
Wade Lees in pre-collegiate punter mode
The next wave of kickers from Australia will include Wade Lees, a former Aussie Rules starlet whose career hit the brakes when he received a controversial drug ban in 2012. Lees said he ordered a weight-loss supplement on the internet that was found to contain traces of a banned steroid. Though the package was intercepted by Australian customs and never entered his possession, he was sidelined for 18 months and lost motivation.
However, after a year of working with Chapman, Lees last month accepted a full scholarship at Maryland, having worked to complete high school classes in order to qualify, while also toiling as a laborer to make ends meet.
“It feels like I am getting a second chance,” he said.
Thanks to the success of Hackett and other Australians, such as NFL punters Brad Wing (Giants) and Jordan Berry (Steelers), American coaches are now treating Aussie hopefuls as a hot commodity rather than a novelty act.
Okay, this is a slam dunk: Maniac Aussie football player gets busted for his crazy on-field and off-field antics, banned from the sport. Then a lifeline: Go to college in the USA with a chance to make the NFL as a punter.
It’s Crocodile Hunter meets Old School.
My work is done here! Somebody go write this movie!
There you go: My sixth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!
Now it’s your turn. What would you do with this story setup?
Each day this month, I invite you to join me in comments to do some brainstorming. Gender bend, genre bend, what if. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when we play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.
See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.