To some, I qualify as a wheelchair athlete. 

In 1989, I embarked on a 41-day and over 1,000 mile wheelchair ride alone around Indiana. It was an absurd effort by someone who was out of shape, not expected to live much longer, and whose closest thing to athleticism previously had been a junior high stint in putt-putt golf and a last place finish in a local mini-marathon. 

I'm not exactly inspirational athlete material. 

Over the years, I've kept wheeling long distances. I always finish, never quickly. 

I always fight. 

The same is true for the Fall Mountain Regional High School football team featured in Brantley Palmer's low-budget feature doc Contenders. If you're looking for your usual feel-good inspirational sports doc, I'm not sure that Contenders actually qualifies. It's inspirational, I suppose, in a weird way because it's about an underdog team in what feels like an underdog town in a state that isn't exactly known for its high school football. 

When we get these high school football docs, and at least a couple cross my desk every year, it's usually some inspirational sports story set in a place like Texas or Oklahoma or some other locale known for its football prowess. 

Contenders is set in New Hampshire. 

I challenge you to name one thing you actually know about New Hampshire. 

If it sounds like I'm knocking New Hampshire, I'm not. Having been there a couple times, I'm rather fond of the state that you could likely bike across in one day with a population less than that of my home city of Indianapolis. The White Mountains are stunning, and any state that gave us Adam Sandler is alright by me. 

But back to Contenders. 

I think every state has that high school football team that is a perennial pushover. As we're introduced to the Wildcats, we're also made aware that they've not only never won a championship they've only had a handful of winning seasons in their long history. A regional high school, essentially a high school that s a merging together of several different communities, Fall Mountain doesn't seem ideally suited for a a sports doc. 

No, not even a low-budget sports doc. 

As often happens in this kind of documentary, a glimmer of hope arises when a Fall Mountain alum arrives in 2017 as the latest in a long line of part-time, barely reimbursed coaches. Orion Binney isn't so much hoping to take the team back to its glory days because, well, they've never had glory days. 

Could that be about to change? 

A tag line like "It doesn't matter if you win. It only matters if you fight." may tell you just about everything you need to know about Contenders, a good doc about good kids coached by good coaches who actually care about these good kids. Contenders also is about this good little town that had largely forgotten about this team until a glimmer of success begins to arrive, and then suddenly they start to get the kind of support that helps them feel like a team. 

With a sub-six figure budget, Contenders isn't your usual highly edited, overly stylized sports doc. It's an observational, honest sports doc about a high school football team that may or may not ever win a championship but there are bigger lessons at play here. 

I turned 60 this past fall. I've spent over 35 years wheeling long distances often raising money for good causes. The only time I've ever won a race is when there's a wheelchair division and I'm the only wheelchair. My joke, of course, is that I also came in last. These kids? They win at the important stuff because they never quit. I mean, sure, we all love winning and not just winning at life lessons. But, underdogs deserve a sports doc and Contenders is that sports doc. 

Contenders is still on the indie fest circuit. Here's hoping it gets picked up by some indie distributor to give these kids the wider audience they deserve. If you get the chance? Check it out for yourself. Better yet, have your kid, you know the one who's an average athlete but who shows up anyway, watch it with you.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic