Stream The Gray Seasons Now On Amazon Prime

The Gray Seasons is a 2011 documentary from Robert T. Herrera that chronicles four years of women’s basketball at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. Shimmy Gray-Miller takes the SLU Billikens head coaching job despite the program’s lack of success and aging facilities.

It’s now available to stream on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

 

The Saint Louis University women’s basketball team was the preseason pick to win the Atlantic 10 this season. The Billikens are coming off the program’s best season ever, finishing in a tie for the A-10 Championship last season. Jackie Kemph was the co-Player of the Year and coach Lisa Stone was named the A-10 Coach of the Year.  They are flying high this season with a 14-3 record and a very legitimate chance at receiving the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid this year.

But the program’s success is a bit of a recent development. The 2011 documentary The Gray Seasons looks at a lower point for the Saint Louis University women’s basketball program, albeit with a few bright spots. It was a time of several transitions for the program and you could point to it as a part of the program’s resurrection.

The Gray Seasons trailer

 

The Saint Louis University women’s basketball team finished with a 4-23 overall record during the 2004-2005 campaign. Jill Pizzotti was let go in March of 2005 after 10 seasons at the helm. Flint, Michigan native Shimmy Gray-Miller was named the head coach of the Billikens after stints as an assistant coach at Washington and Arizona. Gray-Miller guided the Billikens through their transitions to the Atlantic 10 conference from Conference USA and from West Pine Gym to Chaifetz Arena.

Gray-Miller’s tenure got off to a strong start with her first recruiting class. It was highlighted by Theresa Lisch, Katie Paganelli and Maggie Hannegan, three players that Gray-Miller expected to contribute from day one. Lisch was named Miss Illinois Basketball as a senior at Althoff. Her brother, Kevin, starred for SLU on the men’s side.

Lisch would go on to set program records and lead the A-10 in scoring during her three years at SLU. In March of 2009, she announced that she would be leaving school after graduating that May to follow her future husband, Illinois’s Trent Meacham, as he pursued basketball opportunities overseas.

Robert “Bobby”Herrera is the St. Louis filmmaker that spent four years filming this documentary. The film had its first public showings during the St. Louis International Film Festival in 2011. The documentary is shot completely in black-and-white, with game footage spread among the filmmaker’s intimate interviews with Shimmy Gray-Miller and her players.

Check out an interview Herrera did with Filmmaker Magazine about The Gray Seasons.

If you have an interest in what goes on behind-the-scenes of Division 1 basketball and the emotional roller coaster the players and coaches go through, this documentary is for you. Stream The Gray Seasons now on Amazon Prime or watch it below via YouTube.

The Gray Seasons, a documentary about the Saint Louis University women’s basketball team

 

Want to see how far the Billikens have come since those days in the West Pine gym? Check out a Saint Louis University women’s basketball game at Chaifetz Arena.

Where Are They Now?

Theresa and Trent Meacham welcomed twins in August of 2016. Trent currently plays for a team in Lyon, France, where the family lives. Be sure to note the first sheepish conversations about the relationship in Gray Seasons and follow Theresa Lisch on her personal web page.

Katie Paganelli is featured prominently in Gray Seasons. She’s now an assistant coach at Texas State. Follow Coach Paganelli on Twitter.

Tony Francis is in his seventh season as the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Lindenwood. Francis spent eight seasons at SLU after a very successful head coaching run at Sliex High School in Lincoln County, Missouri. The Lady Owls won the 1A State Championship in 2001.

Shimmy Gray-Miller was let go by Saint Louis University in March of 2012. She’s currently an assistant coach at the University of Florida.

Amanda Kemezys played professional basketball in Europe after her career at SLU ended. She is now the head coach at her alma mater, Belleville East High School in Belleville, Illinois.

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