Church Ball is a 2006 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 about a basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team from an LDS church ward.

This family-film and comedy was filmed in and around Provo, Utah

Provo, Utah

Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...

 and is distributed by Halestorm Entertainment

Halestorm Entertainment

Halestorm Entertainment is a film production and distribution company based in Orem, Utah. It was founded in January 2001 by Kurt Hale and Dave Hunter...

.

Plot synopsis

The team has failed to make it into the church tournament in the past twenty years. Due to rumors of this being the last year of the league, former team coach, and now Bishop

Bishop (Mormonism)

Bishop is the highest priesthood office of the Aaronic priesthood in the Latter Day Saint movement. A bishop is usually the leader of a local congregation of church members. The Latter Day Saint concept of the office differs significantly from the role of bishops in other Christian denominations,...

 Linderman (Fred Willard

Fred Willard

Fred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...

) has called Dennis Buckstead (Andrew Wilson

Andrew Wilson (actor)

Andrew Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor and director. He is the older brother of actors Owen and Luke Wilson.-External links:...

) to coach a team made of clumsy misfits to the championship.

Church expectations of brotherly love, sportsmanship, and fellowship fall prey to competitive fierceness in the effort to win, while Dennis works to bring unity and cooperation.

Production

The basketball games in the movie were filmed in the Salt Lake Park Stake's Stake Center.

It was also during the filming of this movie that actor Gary Coleman

Gary Coleman

Gary Wayne Coleman was an American actor, known for his childhood role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman...

 met his wife, Shannon Price. In an interview during an April 2009 broadcast of the Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...

radio show, Coleman described his dissatisfaction with the film's quality, remarking that watching the production process was like "giving monkeys cameras and lights".