How Five Sooners Made the Holidays Happier

Two wrestlers and one student-athlete apiece from football, basketball and volleyball. Not necessarily the combination of people who you might think would collaborate on a holiday video, but these five talented Oklahoma student-athletes did just that.

Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey move over!

The video, produced by SoonerVision, features Nila Kasitati (football), Madison Ward (volleyball) and D.J. Bennett (men's basketball) and brothers Dalton and Dryden Dennis (wrestling), who lent their talents to a very stirring rendition of “I'll Be Home for Christmas.”

The SoonerVision crew brainstormed about what the annual video should include and decided to feature these student-athletes, some of whom it knew had plenty of musical talent.

While the student-athletes knew what song they were going to record previous to filming, they did not have a chance to meet to plan it because of their academic and athletic and schedules, Kasitati explained. But that did not matter once they started working together.

“We just came together that night, and there was good chemistry between all of us,” Kasitati said. “Then we came up with that beautiful little item there.”

The student-athletes sat down and started jamming, feeding off of each other at different times to figure out how to construct the song, Ward shared. Kasitati and Ward had sang together before but not with Dalton and Dryden.

Initially, the group worked with a fairly traditional version of the song, but as it went through the jam session, the song morphed into a hip-hop style with slap guitar and other elements, Dalton said.

After the student-athletes settled on a sound, the video was shot in one take without the use of an audio booth or editing. The only exception was Bennett's part, which was shot separately because the way the room was set up was not conducive to rapping, he explained.

The more fun we have and the more relaxed we became, the easier it was to create. The hardest part was trying not to laugh when Nila and I kept looking back and forth at each other in the middle of the camera rolling. I guess that goes to show how raw this whole thing was, though. I loved it.
Madison Ward

The student-athletes stood in a circle, with the camera spinning around to each of them. This idea came from a video from the band, Walk Off the Earth. The video was recorded in Holmberg Hall inside the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center on OU's campus.

“The more fun we have and the more relaxed we became, the easier it was to create,” Ward said. “The hardest part was trying not to laugh when Nila and I kept looking back and forth at each other in the middle of the camera rolling. I guess that goes to show how raw this whole thing was, though. I loved it.”

Bennett, who said he has the song on his iPod shuffle, wrote the lyrics for his section.

“In the beginning I felt like it was quite a hard song to put a hip-hop feel to it, but I saw it as a challenge and it ended up coming out pretty good. I like the end result of it,” Bennett said. “I put a little more time into this this project (than other projects) because it was more of a soft feel, so I had to not come off as too hard but in a jolly type way, so I just kind of calmed my voice down in it, so it took me a little bit longer.”

The experience was not only meaningful for the student-athletes but also one that the SoonerVision staff members working on it enjoyed as well.

Matt Jaques, Motion Graphics Designer at SoonerVision, served as the producer/director of the project. Jaques, who also works on all the intro videos for OU's teams, said the process was memorable.

“The student-athletes were such a joy to work with, and watching them work together and coming up with the arrangement was amazing,” Jaques shared. “Shooting the video was a lot of fun and one of my favorite products I have had the opportunity to work on. I am so proud of Dalton, Dryden, D.J., Madison and Nila.”

Sooner Sports TV reporter Jessica Coody said she enjoyed watching the student-athletes as they collaborated during their jam session and kept adjusting the song.

“The first run through was different from the second, from the third, they kept finding ways to add a little here or there. All off the cusp, too,” Coody said. “They were bouncing ideas off of each other and feeding off of each other and collaborated so beautifully. I was really in awe the entire time.”

Two other key parts in the production of the video were Max Toperzer, who helped with editing and film, and Eric Williams, who was in charge of lead audio and mixing the audio files.

The video proved that music can cross over into an athletic world, said Williams, who has worked with people in the music industry and does audio mixing and editing professionally.

“They definitely compare to people I have worked with professionally in the music industry,” Williams shared. “Their pitch, the way they arranged the song and how quickly they were able to arrange it, is what you see out of people who do musically professionally, on an everyday basis. It was fun to be a part of, fun to see them all come together and put something so incredible in such short time and with no editing.”

Being able to play together is what made the experience special for the student-athletes. Dalton said that for he and Dryden, who have their own YouTube channel, the chance to meet up with other musicians and play is what music is all about.

“That's what the spirit of music is for all of us who were involved,” Dalton said. “It is to come together and just make music and have fun.”

And they did just that – all while spreading a little holiday cheer.

Happy holidays from Nila, Madison, D.J., Dalton and Dryden and the rest of the OU Athletics family! Boomer Sooner!