Glades Central, Pahokee take center stage in new series

With just two episodes remaining in Michael Jordan’s buzzworthy miniseries “The Last Dance,” viewers may be searching for another documentary to help satiate their sports fix.

If you’re into high school football, you may be in luck. On Thursday, storied programs Glades Central and Pahokee take center stage in an eight-part series on CuriosityStream. The documentary series “4th and Forever: Muck City” will chronicle the 2019 football seasons for both programs, leading up to their annual season-ending showdown, the Muck Bowl.

Spearheaded by production company Jupiter Entertainment, the docuseries profiles the players, coaches and communities for the historic programs, which have combined to win 12 state championships and produce dozens of NFL players. In addition to highlighting the past season, the series takes a behind-the-scenes look at life off the football field in Belle Glade and Pahokee.

“We wanted to do a high school football series, but one that wasn’t like any other high school football series,” executive producer Todd Moss said. “Everybody knows about the collegiate and pro prospects that come out of there, but we wanted to see what is the community that develops these great programs and what makes them succeed on a level besides wins and losses?”

Film crews spent nearly the entire football season following the Glades Central and Pahokee football teams, Moss said. After gaining approval to shoot the all-access series over the summer, the crew descended into the local communities a week before the regular season. The production team had roughly 18 members, most of whom are based in South Florida.

Aside from practice and game footage, the series follows players at school, study programs and their homes, among other places. While football clearly plays a large role in the series, Moss said he wanted to delve into life off the field and explore what makes “Muck City” so unique.

“Each episode we wanted a broader lens on the community, an aspect of the studentathletes, the players and the support staff and then the game themselves,” Moss said.

“There’s football action and you see some great, amazing kids giving their all and a lot of talent on the field. But we weren’t as concerned with the final score of every game as to what went [into] getting these kids to perform at that level.”