This season, Oregon’s Koral Costa has packed two extra items when she’s hit the road with the Ducks softball team.
She brings a GoPro and a Sony Handycam, which help Costa and her Oregon teammates capture behind-the-scenes moments traveling throughout the country.
Oregon has produced weekly documentary-style videos that are about 10-15 minutes in length. The series, Keep It Real, features footage by Costa and others. The series has chronicled the ups and downs of the season, something Costa says she enjoys as a cinema studies major. She has an internship with the Oregon video department and writes a weekly journal on her contributions to the series, which usually comes out mid-week.
She loves finding good angles to film and capturing the realistic moments of the season.

“The whole object was to try and get the audience and fans to understand what it’s like to be a player,” Costa said. “Our goal is just trying to capture those in-between moments, showing how funny and personable we are.”

During games on the road, softball’s director of operations Megan Murphy contributes to filming. But it’s Costa who records on buses, airplanes and hotels and gives the camera to her fellow teammates, who have become increasingly comfortable recording themselves.

“At first, the players were shy, like ‘Don’t get me eating on camera,’ ” Costa said. “But now they’re used to the cameras being around. They grab the camera from me and start filming.”

Murphy is proud of the extra responsibilities Costa has taken on this season.

“This is such a fun team,” Murphy said. “It’s cool that everybody gets to see that.”

After a road series, Murphy or Costa hands the footage over to Oregon’s video team, which edits the takes. The clips are often combined with in-game footage from the television broadcast. They have also put out a few features this season, including a segment with the Lindvall sisters and their mom.

Costa said she loves looking up into the stands to see fans with “#KeepItReal” signs.

“They watch,” Costa said. “It’s neat to see that they care about what we do off the field.”

Joe Waltasti, the team’s athletic communications contact, was the first to pitch the idea. He said the series wouldn’t be possible without Costa, adding that collegiate players are used to sharing their stories on social media.

“It was definitely a guinea pig series in itself,” Costa said. “We were the first of its kind.”

Oregon coach Mike White said it’s helpful to have the team comfortable around cameras, especially with an increase in media attention in the postseason.

“I think the videos are a great way for the players to tell a story and hopefully get other kids interested in playing the sport,” White said in an interview with KWVA earlier this season.

Costa said the extra responsibilities “don’t feel like work at all.” She’s looking forward to replaying the videos and reminding herself of all the quirky, uncut and random moments of her final collegiate softball season.

“In four years, maybe even 10, I can show my only family what it was like to be a college athlete,” Costa said. “That’s neat. And so can the other players.”
Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne