VALDOSTA – The wait is over.

The long-anticipated docu-series “Titletown High” premiered Friday on Netflix.

The eight-episode documentary that hit Netflix at 3 a.m. Friday follows the Valdosta Wildcats during the 2020 football season – the first under controversial head coach Rush Propst.

Ahead of the premiere, The Valdosta Daily Times tracked down “Titletown High” director and executive producer Jason Sciavicco to talk about the documentary and the thoughts that went into production. Sciavicco was also the man behind the 2006 hit MTV reality series, “Two-A-Days,” that chronicled Propst and the Hoover (Ala.) Buccaneers’ quest for an Alabama state championship.

“Two-A-Days” lasted two seasons on MTV prior to Propst’s resignation as head coach at Hoover on Oct. 30, 2007.

Q&A with Jason Sciavicco

We have ‘Titletown High’ premiering this Friday. Now that it’s finally here, how do you feel about everybody finally getting a chance to take in what you’ve worked on?

JS: “I’m so excited. I’ve been looking forward to this, obviously, for a while. It’s a project that we’ve been working on for a little while now and obviously, there’s so much buzz and attention just here in the last week – especially with ET (Entertainment Tonight) doing features on it and GQ India doing write-ups on it, listing it as one of the top new shows to watch in the world, which is obviously huge. Even different countries are starting to talk about the show, so it’s an exciting time for us for sure. I’m excited for the community of Valdosta to finally be able to check out the program and Friday couldn’t come soon enough.”

With “Titletown High,” how long did it take start to finish for production?

JS: “Production originally was scheduled to go from end of July, beginning of August until the second week of January. Then, as typical with these kinds of shows, once you go into the editing phase, you come back and do interviews to kind of tie things together and just get their thoughts for those different scenes. 

“So, that was the plan and everything kind of happened in early spring and then we went back to shooting for a little while to capture some more stuff to kind of finalize the stories. The last ounce of shooting we did was actually June of this year.”

Going into this, you have that former relationship with Coach Propst. How did that factor into the decision to do this documentary?

JS: “Valdosta High School has always been on our radar. Obviously, we’ve done several of these kinds of series – the high school sports docu-reality series. Valdosta’s always kind of been on our radar as we look at schools to do it on. So when a buddy of mine, Brian, sent me a text and he said, ‘Hey, did you see Valdosta just hired Rush Propst?’ I hadn’t stayed in contact with Rush, but as soon as he sent me that text, I said, ‘Oh, this could be really interesting. Let’s go look into it.’

“The process of how these shows work is you go and spend some time and you talk to the different people that would be involved in the series, make sure we have the access and we can get the access. We spoke with the school board and the superintendent and the athletic director, Coach Propst and did some early interviews with several different players and came to realize that, obviously, this could be a tremendous series for us. We put a little sizzle reel together and worked with the network on the series and then, obviously, getting it picked up by Netflix.”

With Propst, you had obviously worked with him on “Two-A-Days,” what’s your relationship like with him and how much input did he have on some of these things?

JS: “Rush had zero input in the series at all. Not any input. I think Rush and I’s relationship is good. I’ve always been up front and transparent with him that we have to tell a fair and balanced story and that’s what we have to do and that’s what I’ve always done. When we did ‘Two-A-Days,’ that show quickly became a huge success and became MTV’s No. 1 series. I think he would tell you there were things that he wishes we didn’t put in that series, but my commitment to all the people that I work with is we’re going to tell a true, fair, balanced story and the subjects of our stories obviously control that. They control what’s going on in their lives and how they handle things and so we’re just there to document it.”

You did the “Two-A-Days” series with Hoover and now “Titletown High.” In your opinion, how do the two series differ and how do they compare?

JS: “I think they’re very similar. All around the media right now, they’re bringing up ‘Two-A-Days’ and how this is 15 years later – the same creator/producer, the same coach/different school kind of thing. Look, I’m not going to hide behind it. I think it’s very accurate. I think there’s a lot of similarities between the two series. I think, at the core of what this series is, is a coming of age story around these kids. The point of view is really from these kids and how they balance and handle the pressures from not only Coach Propst and his staff, but the community.

“You’re in Valdosta. You understand, football is like a religion there and the pressures these kids are under to perform at a high level and kind of get the team back on track. From our interviews, there were a lot of people upset in the community that Valdosta hasn’t been winning like they had and they were unhappy with them constantly losing to Lowndes and Colquitt and those kinds of teams. They brought Rush Propst in for one reason, and that was to win football games.”

Overall, you’ve spent a lot of time down here filming the show. What are some things that you learned about Valdosta and the community doing this series?

JS: “I love Valdosta. I think there’s a lot of great people. I really enjoyed my time down there. The people are very friendly. They’ve really welcomed us with open arms. We had full access to the school and the players and the team and the community and the town. It was a great experience for me. Valdosta’s a great small Southern town that a lot of people don’t know about and I’m excited for not only the country, but the world to be able to be introduced to Valdosta because this is a series that not only airs domestically in the United States but airs in over 135 countries and 38 different languages. Valdosta is going to go from being the small Southern town to still a small Southern town, but known all over the world.”

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.