The basketball team at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark is the subject of a new docu-series airing on the streaming platform Quibi.
Produced by three-time NBA champ Steph Curry, “Benedict Men” is a 12-part series exploring the pressures faced by the elite players at the Newark school. But St. Benedict’s head coach Mark Taylor says that it turned into something much greater.
“It became more about what it means to be a Benedict man and getting out of your own skin and what hurts your brother hurts me,” Taylor says.
The series was filmed over the 2018-2019 school year and touches on not only the pressures of earning basketball scholarships, but also on the social and economic issues minority communities face.
“The reason we have the problems in this country that we have is because people of color, men especially, don’t feel their voice matters,” says St. Benedict’s Headmaster Father Edwin Leahy.
Leahy says that this is one of the reasons why he agreed to participate in the documentary.
“It shows they are running this place, day by day, they've got a voice, they can make decisions and we don't do for kids what kids can do for themselves,” Leahy says.
“Benedict Men” was supposed to debut in March during the NCAA Tournament but was delayed by the pandemic.
When asked what he hopes people take away from the series, Coach Taylor says, “I’m going to point to upstairs, again, divine intervention. It came out at a time that couldn’t have had more of an impact that matches a lot of things going on in society.”
Taylor and Father Leahy say that they are proud of the student athletes and hope that the series shows what St. Benedict’s is all about.
“We are an advanced placement course in basketball, but we’re also trying to prepare young men for anything that life throws at them,” Taylor says.