Survive And Advance Directed By Jonathan Hock

Survive and advance directed by Jonathan Hock is a film which follows the late Jim Valvano and his NC State team in their under-dog journey to winning the 1983 NCAA Championship. Captured through the NC State team, and real footage 30 years on, as well as Valvano. Survive and advance is about a team, led by a once in a lifetime coach, who demonstrates the importance of a dream, belief, and a how a team can become family. It was interesting not just from a coaching/sport psychology perspective, but from a life one. The story is told effectively through both humorous and solemn moments all which made me stop, think, and reflect on life.

When Valvano got the job as NC state’s head coach in 1980, the biggest thing his players recall 30 years

The start of 1983 was rough, with star player Derek Whittenburg injured, the team went on a downhill slid, but Valvano spoke about being the “first believer” and the team knowing, he believed they could do it. Thurl Bailey in 1983 said that Valvano carried them when they got down. Coaches can talk as much as like, but if players don’t believe what they’re saying it means nothing. Valvano was a coach who players trusted, and respected, when he said they could do it, they believed him, and for a team that’s huge. Valvano spoke to them about taking it one game at a time-‘Survive and advance’. NC State came back, and went on a run of extremely close games to win the ACC, players recall- now it looks like practice, we’re cutting down the net, they can now see what Valvano had been seeing all along, they believed. The NC State team went into the NCAA, and made it to the final where they were complete underdogs, they won by 2 points in the final second-true NC fashion, and achieved the ‘dream’ through nothing but belief, mental toughness, and

As Jim Valvano said, the NC team, taught us about hope, dreaming big, Persistence-never giving up, and love. We can all take something away from this film. I enjoyed the way the film was put together, there was no narrator, but archival footage, the team 30 years on, and footage of Jim Valvano was used. This is really effective as it allows you to experience the journey from many perspectives, provides insight into the team, all which add an incredible depth, a level of interest and meaning to the film, as well as allowing the viewer a unique insight into what it was like in 1983. I did, however, feel that the inclusion of Jim Valvano being pushed out of his job was unnecessary and it felt a little out of context and disjointed from the rest of the film. As Valvano said in his famous ESPY’s speech, we should think, laugh, and cry every-day, and this film certainly provided all