Producer re-releases film about former IU diving coach on DVD

Years after its original release, New York film producer Steven Montgomery re-released a 25th anniversary edition of "Hobie's Heroes."\nThe film documents legendary IU diving coach Hobie Billingsley and his training of young divers. The new version has been updated and includes several new bonus features.\n"The images of the film are breathtaking," Billingsley said in a statement contained in the DVD extras. "'Hobie's Heroes' shows everything I was trying to do and hoped for in my career as a coach. I have never found the film to age, for its message is as pure as it was when it was first made."\nBillingsley served as IU's head diving coach for 30 years, from 1959 to 1989, and trained six Olympic medalists during his prestigious career.\n"A lot of coaching is about perseverance and having faith in yourself," Billingsley said. "You try to continue to make people better as you try to make yourself better."\nMontgomery, a former Junior Olympic diver himself, first came into contact with Billingsley while attending his summer diving camp in Indiana. After graduating from New York University and beginning a career as a filmmaker, Montgomery decided that Billingsley's story was worth documenting.\n"People around Indiana often spoke of Hobie as a legend," Montgomery said. "Sports are often used as a metaphor for life, and Hobie was able to help people overcome their fears. I felt that his story is very inspirational for everyone."\nThe original edition of "Hobie's Heroes," released in 1980, was broadcast on TV stations such as PBS, Nickelodeon and USA. The documentary, filmed in Bloomington, helped introduce the sport of diving to many viewers. \nAlthough "Hobie's Heroes" won film festival awards in the 1980s, it was originally filmed on 16mm film, a deteriorating medium, Montgomery said. \n"In a way, the updating was a preservation effort," he said. "I wanted a new generation of people to see this movie."\nTwenty-five years later, Montgomery reunited Billingsley and the original cast of divers and filmed an update to the original version, including several new bonus features.\nThe DVD provides viewers with an update on the divers, including a review of what the divers have accomplished since their training along with how their time training with Billingsley shaped the rest of their life. In another bonus feature, Billingsley is shown reciting the "Judge's Oath" during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. \nBillingsley recently celebrated his 80th birthday in Bloomington. Many of his former divers and fellow coaches, along with Montgomery, were able to share the occasion with the former coach. \nBillingsley still possesses the characteristics that made him such a successful coach and motivator, Montgomery said. \n"He looks different, but he still has that same vigor and an incredible sense of humor," Montgomery said.\nMontgomery said he believes his film has the power to inspire its viewers because he himself has found inspiration from working with Billingsley. \n"Over the past 25 years, Hobie has come to mind often," Montgomery said. "He taught me that it is part of the meaning of a person's life to struggle"