Former Suns Ball Boy Goes Digital
By Dustin Krugel
Posted: Feb. 3, 2001
If you ever want to swap Charles Barkley stories, former Suns ball boy Jae Staats is a walking encyclopedia full of them.
There was the time the Chuckster loaned the barely-legal-to-drive Staats his brand new V-12 Mercedes to fetch his forgotten dress shoes left at home before a road trip. This true story was chronicled in Arizona Republic columnist David Casstevens' 1994 book on Barkley, and Staats' encounters were even given a complete chapter entitled, "Hey Ball Boy!"
Then there was the time Barkley rounded up all the ball boys on one road trip and asked them to be his bodyguards as he maneuvered around a Houston mall besieged by autograph seekers to do his last minute Christmas shopping. Barkley promptly awarded his gift-carrying buddies expensive CD players for all their help and then tried to "hook up" his young friends during dinner with a waitress at Chile's.
While Staats' experiences with Sir Charles are the type movies are made out of, it was his experiences as a ball boy and intern which he used as a springboard to launch his own digital video business in the summer of 1998. Now "Chumpy," as Barkley used to all him, is instrumental in providing state-of-art video footage for the Suns' web site as a freelance videographer.
"Right now it is kind of exciting," said Staats, whose business is appropriately named BallBoy Productions. "Basically, with today's technology, I purchased a prosumer-level digital camera, updated my software on my computer and just created a whole non-linear editing suite at my house. Then I just started to get projects. I worked for an architecture firm. I did concerts, promotional videos, recruitment videos, just an assortment of things."
That's when the Suns called and asked for his help.
"They asked if I could digitize some video for them they wanted to put up on their web site," said Staats, who served two years as an assistant video coordinator for the Suns and video coordinator for the Arizona Rattlers, Arizona Sandsharks and Phoenix Mercury after his tour-of-duty as a ball boy was over. "So I'm like, 'Yeah, I can do that. I have the software for that. I can do that in a matter of minutes.'"
Without getting too technical, Staats explained the whole process of how he records footage of Suns games and events, and literally posts it to Suns.com within hours. In just the few months he's been working with Suns.com, he has already documented Tom Gugliotta's first game back after reconstructive knee surgery, Elliot Perry's first appearance in a Suns uniform at America West Arena in over four years, behind the scenes video from Suns training camp in Flagstaff, a "Day in the Life of the Suns Dance Team," and Gorilla highlights.
"For instance, when Rex Chapman retired, the Suns had me come down and film the press conference and then what I do is go home and dump that footage in my computer," he said. "I edit it and then encode it into the Real Media format, and just send that over the Internet to the people at NBA.com in New York. And boom, within hours, it's on the web site."
Having joined the Suns' organization as a skinny 12-year-old, Staats, now 27, but still on the slender side, is able to capture unique footage that others don't have access to.
"I have stayed in touch with the people at the arena, so the players still know me, as do the trainers and even the security guards," said Staats, who graduated from ASU West with a degree in American Studies in 1995. "So my ability to get behind the scenes is a lot easier than if the Suns hired someone brand new, fresh off the street. I know my way around. I know how the game works."
With BallBoy Productions (www.ballboy.net) still in its infant stages, Staats is building his company and obtaining more clients, and will soon release his first short movie, "The Steamer Cleaner," an independent film about a door-to-door salesman, who is struggling to make new sales.
"I'm still in the process of expanding my business and getting more jobs," he said. "But I also want to go into independent filmmaking, because there is a niche on the Internet for short films between one and 10 minutes long. You actually have the potential of thousands and even millions of people watching your film and that can open some doors.
"The technology in video seems like it is changing every day. I'm always on the web looking at what new software is out there. Is there a new camera? Is there a new way to encode for the Internet? I'm always going to the library reading books and magazines about video technology. I still feel like I'm kind of new to this.
When Staats envisions the potential impact that video technology can have on sports and Suns.com, he bursts with enthusiasm.
"Some people say the Internet will die off and all these e-companies are going bankrupt," he said. "I just think it is just going to grow further and further, and expand more and more. I think the popularity of it is going to rise. I think a lot of people when they are at work, they want to get caught up on the news, and they want to know what is going on with their favorite NBA team or their favorite player. If you read the newspaper it is limited. If you turn on the TV you have to wait for a program to come on, but with the Internet, it's just instantaneous.
"You can look up Shawn Marion or whoever is your favorite player and you can get his statistics, where he went to college, and what his shooting percentage was. I think adding video to that, the statistical part of the Internet, makes it that more entertaining and more interesting. I believe video is going to make the Internet just better to come to visit. People are going to come and say, 'Hey, I want to check out a 10-second clip from the game last night,' or 'I want to see an interview.' That is where I think it is going to move."
Now reunited with the Suns, Staats couldn't think of anywhere else he would rather be.
"I've grown up with the Suns," he said. "It feels like my second family. I don't know if I ever envision a day where I don't have some kind of contact. It feels like it is a part of me."
Posted: Feb. 3, 2001
If you ever want to swap Charles Barkley stories, former Suns ball boy Jae Staats is a walking encyclopedia full of them.
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| A Day in the Life of the Suns Dance Team: |
28.8+ ISDN+ |
| Highlights from the Suns Open Practice: |
28.8+ ISDN+ |
| Game Night with the Gorilla: | 28.8+ ISDN+ |
Then there was the time Barkley rounded up all the ball boys on one road trip and asked them to be his bodyguards as he maneuvered around a Houston mall besieged by autograph seekers to do his last minute Christmas shopping. Barkley promptly awarded his gift-carrying buddies expensive CD players for all their help and then tried to "hook up" his young friends during dinner with a waitress at Chile's.
While Staats' experiences with Sir Charles are the type movies are made out of, it was his experiences as a ball boy and intern which he used as a springboard to launch his own digital video business in the summer of 1998. Now "Chumpy," as Barkley used to all him, is instrumental in providing state-of-art video footage for the Suns' web site as a freelance videographer.
"Right now it is kind of exciting," said Staats, whose business is appropriately named BallBoy Productions. "Basically, with today's technology, I purchased a prosumer-level digital camera, updated my software on my computer and just created a whole non-linear editing suite at my house. Then I just started to get projects. I worked for an architecture firm. I did concerts, promotional videos, recruitment videos, just an assortment of things."
That's when the Suns called and asked for his help.
"They asked if I could digitize some video for them they wanted to put up on their web site," said Staats, who served two years as an assistant video coordinator for the Suns and video coordinator for the Arizona Rattlers, Arizona Sandsharks and Phoenix Mercury after his tour-of-duty as a ball boy was over. "So I'm like, 'Yeah, I can do that. I have the software for that. I can do that in a matter of minutes.'"
Without getting too technical, Staats explained the whole process of how he records footage of Suns games and events, and literally posts it to Suns.com within hours. In just the few months he's been working with Suns.com, he has already documented Tom Gugliotta's first game back after reconstructive knee surgery, Elliot Perry's first appearance in a Suns uniform at America West Arena in over four years, behind the scenes video from Suns training camp in Flagstaff, a "Day in the Life of the Suns Dance Team," and Gorilla highlights.
"For instance, when Rex Chapman retired, the Suns had me come down and film the press conference and then what I do is go home and dump that footage in my computer," he said. "I edit it and then encode it into the Real Media format, and just send that over the Internet to the people at NBA.com in New York. And boom, within hours, it's on the web site."
Having joined the Suns' organization as a skinny 12-year-old, Staats, now 27, but still on the slender side, is able to capture unique footage that others don't have access to.
"I have stayed in touch with the people at the arena, so the players still know me, as do the trainers and even the security guards," said Staats, who graduated from ASU West with a degree in American Studies in 1995. "So my ability to get behind the scenes is a lot easier than if the Suns hired someone brand new, fresh off the street. I know my way around. I know how the game works."
With BallBoy Productions (www.ballboy.net) still in its infant stages, Staats is building his company and obtaining more clients, and will soon release his first short movie, "The Steamer Cleaner," an independent film about a door-to-door salesman, who is struggling to make new sales.
"I'm still in the process of expanding my business and getting more jobs," he said. "But I also want to go into independent filmmaking, because there is a niche on the Internet for short films between one and 10 minutes long. You actually have the potential of thousands and even millions of people watching your film and that can open some doors.
"The technology in video seems like it is changing every day. I'm always on the web looking at what new software is out there. Is there a new camera? Is there a new way to encode for the Internet? I'm always going to the library reading books and magazines about video technology. I still feel like I'm kind of new to this.
When Staats envisions the potential impact that video technology can have on sports and Suns.com, he bursts with enthusiasm.
"Some people say the Internet will die off and all these e-companies are going bankrupt," he said. "I just think it is just going to grow further and further, and expand more and more. I think the popularity of it is going to rise. I think a lot of people when they are at work, they want to get caught up on the news, and they want to know what is going on with their favorite NBA team or their favorite player. If you read the newspaper it is limited. If you turn on the TV you have to wait for a program to come on, but with the Internet, it's just instantaneous.
"You can look up Shawn Marion or whoever is your favorite player and you can get his statistics, where he went to college, and what his shooting percentage was. I think adding video to that, the statistical part of the Internet, makes it that more entertaining and more interesting. I believe video is going to make the Internet just better to come to visit. People are going to come and say, 'Hey, I want to check out a 10-second clip from the game last night,' or 'I want to see an interview.' That is where I think it is going to move."
Now reunited with the Suns, Staats couldn't think of anywhere else he would rather be.
"I've grown up with the Suns," he said. "It feels like my second family. I don't know if I ever envision a day where I don't have some kind of contact. It feels like it is a part of me."
