BEVERLY — Chances are, the memory of your game-winning Little League hit lives on only in the hazy recesses of your mind.
Two enterprising Beverly residents say they have a better way to preserve such sports moments — on DVD.
Greg Deschenes and Mike Anderson have formed a company called GM Sports Productions. The company plans to videotape and announce local sporting events, from youth basketball games to college football games, and sell DVDs of the production for $20. They've also reached a deal with Comcast to broadcast some of the games on a regional cable channel.
Deschenes and Anderson both work full-time in the mortgage industry. Deschenes, 38, owns VIP Mortgage Corp. of Danvers, and Anderson, 40, is a mortgage consultant for The Mortgage Specialists in Peabody.
The Beverly natives have been involved for years as volunteers for Beverly Little League and are avowed fans of local high school sporting events. They say it's only natural that parents, especially, would be willing to pay $20 for a professionally made DVD of their child's game, complete with music and graphics and color commentary.
"When I was 11 and 12, that was the best time and I have nothing to look back on," Anderson said. "Twenty years from now, people will be able to watch it."
The company has purchased all of the equipment needed to videotape and produce a DVD, including a camera, computer, voice and video mixers and wireless headsets. Anderson and Deschenes have taken editing and production classes at the Apple store at the Northshore Mall.
Last month they taped the five championship games of the Beverly YMCA Kiwanis Basketball League and sold about 50 DVDs. Anderson announces the games while Deschenes is the cameraman.
Some of the games will also be shown on Comcast Channel 283, which GM Sports has leased on Thursday nights from 7 to 9 p.m. starting May 15. The channel can reach up to 61 communities.
People can watch those games for free, but GM Sports will make money by charging local companies to make a commercial and air it during the games. Kaylor Productions, another local company, will assist in producing the ads.
Anderson and Deschenes acknowledge that the new venture is a major time commitment. But as longtime fans of local sports, they also describe it as a labor of love.
"We've both grown up in sports our whole lives," Deschenes said. "We get to continue our childhood."
