The day before William Jewell College’s homecoming football game, the football team released a music video to accompany an original song, “Answering the Call” – the new semi-official anthem of the team.

Written and performed by team members Donte Colum, senior business administration major, and Justice Taylor, senior physics major, “Answering the Call” hypes up the team before home games.

“We wanted to make a song that related to our team and provided energy for our guys and we also play the song as our walkout music for home games where we have played our best football,” said Colum of his brainchild.

Because Colum has been interested in rapping and hip-hop and has previously made other songs, he was excited to create an appropriate song to play over the stadium speakers. He reached out to Taylor to help make the song over the summer, and the two created the beat and lyrics.

“He sent me a couple of instrumentals and I wrote a verse to it. He picked up on the vibe and wrote his lyrics as well as the [chorus],” said Taylor of their collaboration.

The two recorded their song in the Pryor Learning Commons media room before playing it during the first week of practice for the team and distributing it on social media.

The team responded positively after hearing the song and making it the walkout song. They realized that making a music video could be a fun extension onto the song. Colum and Taylor reached out to Sam Sullivan, senior communication major, to produce such a video.

Sullivan is interested in video production, has made videos in the past and had wanted to make a music video, so he was excited to help.

“I was already good friends with Sam and have nothing but good words to say about him as a person and I knew he was an outstanding part of [our] video shows in [high school] so I reached out to him,” said Colum of working with his high school friend Sullivan to produce the video.

“[Sullivan] listened to our song and agreed to help and pretty much directed the entire video and gave us an outline of good places and times to get some good footage to put together. We then talked to our coaches and got permission to use the weight room, uniforms and football field and the rest was history. Our team was excited about the whole process and I think we all had a great time filming it,” Colum commented on the making of the video.

“We collaborated with Sam on some ideas and recorded the music video week three of the season but decided it would have a greater impact if we waited till homecoming weekend to release it,” said Taylor of the production and release.

The video was released Friday, Oct. 5 – during homecoming week before the team’s homecoming win against Southwest Baptist University – to amp up fans and players for the game.

“I had so much fun making that video with those guys. I love it when a group of people can get together and come up with something creative and fun and work to make a quality video. We got to use the football field late at night and act like a bunch of hooligans. It’s hard work and a lot of fun at the same time. It’s the reason why I want to get into the field of videography and production,” said Sullivan of working on the video.

The “Answering the Call” music video is exciting, spirited and engaging. It’s an expression of Jewell pride and a representation of the football team’s progress and improvement. The video can be accessed here and heard before Jewell home games.

*The Hilltop Monitor has permission from video producer Sam Sullivan to link and feature this video.

Photo courtesy of Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe