When the TV production class at Winslow High School needed to find a student athlete to feature in a documentary about overcoming obstacles, Shaheem Muhammad was an easy choice.
Muhammad, 18, was a standout basketball player who battled personal tragedies that could have derailed his senior year. But he refused to give up, and now he hopes to inspire others with his story about resilience.
“I believe that you shouldn’t give up,” said Muhammad. “I want people to just persevere.”
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The six-minute documentary, Piece by Piece, chronicles his struggles that began when he was seriously injured in a bike accident last year. Then, Muhammad, who has two younger siblings, was displaced from his home in September and landed in foster care because of family problems.
The documentary was produced this spring by students in Norm Ingram’s advanced television and radio broadcasting class as part of an annual tristate regional high school film festival competition sponsored by NFL Films in Mount Laurel.
They had three weeks to come up with an athlete among the school’s 1,200 students, and tell their story about adversity and resilience.
After Ingram, Muhammad’s basketball coach, recommended him to the class, Muhammad became a unanimous choice. Ingram, an educator for 17 years, convinced Muhammad to share his emotional story that he had not told to many people.
“He had a story that was inspiring and could help change people’s lives,” said Ingram, 41. “He’s a high-level kid, just a hardworking young man.”
The seven-member film crew led by senior Terry Harris III, who served as the director, handled all aspects of the production, including interviewing, filming and editing. Harris, 18, a senior, has known Muhammad since elementary school but was unaware of his recent struggles.
“I was surprised and shocked,” said Harris, an aspiring cinematographer. “It was something I never would have expected to happen to someone who sits next to me in class every day.”
The documentary, which opens with dramatic music and the sound of glass breaking, got its title from Muhammad’s shattered life and how he painstakingly put things back together.
“Life can be broken like glass. But can the pieces be put back together?” asks Mark Mark Joazile, the narrator.
Muhammad matter-of-factly tells his story in the documentary, which is available for viewing on YouTube. The producers said it was a tough interview because the well-spoken Muhammad has a lot of pride and keeps his emotions private.
Derek Jordan, 17, the project’s director of photography, said he wanted to convey the anguish that Muhammad experienced, but send a message, too, that “whatever you’re going through or whatever challenges come your way, you shouldn’t stop trying.”
Muhammad recalled crossing a street on his bike in 2023 when he was struck by a car with dim lights. He suffered a fractured wrist and cuts that required stitches. A track runner, he was disappointed that he was unable to work out while undergoing rehabilitation.
“The pain, the fear — it was hard to deal with,” Muhammad said in the film. At times, he acknowledged that his frustration erupted in anger, sometimes against teammates.
Muhammad fought his way back and eventually resumed his track activities.
“I stayed in Winslow just to finish out my senior year of high school,” Muhammad said. “I wanted to make my mother and my sisters proud. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could really do it.”
Misfortune struck his life again a week before the 2024 basketball season when Muhammad was put in foster care. He didn’t see his mother and two young sisters for months. The specifics were not disclosed in the documentary.
“I lived in a lot of places growing up,” Muhammad said. “As your environment changes, it is difficult to stay the same.”
Still, his senior year, he was named captain of the Winslow basketball team. His teammates described him in the documentary as a good leader who is funny and outgoing and “the coolest guy you would ever want to meet.” Added another: “Every team needs a Shaheem on the court.”
In an interview last week in the school’s broadcast studio, Muhammad, who rarely showed emotion in the documentary, struggled to maintain his composure when asked about his mother. The two speak “here and there,” he said.
Despite his personal challenges, Muhammad stayed focus and maintained a 4.0 GPA. He graduated last week and plans to attend Rutgers University in New Brunswick as a physical therapy and exercise science major.
“Nothing stops him. He’s one of the hardest working kids I know,” Ingram said.
The documentary concludes with a message conveyed by the narrator:
“Let Shaheem’s story show you that situations do not define us, and that a better life is in reach. If we give up, our future becomes opaque. But resilience can open up windows not yet seen. No matter how far we fall, any life can be put back together. Piece by piece.”
The documentary won second place in the film competition in May, and the school received a $5,000 award, which will be used by the video production program. The school previously had three first-place finishes.
Ingram said producing the documentary was a learning experience for the students, and taught them team work, organizational skills and time management.
Previous projects produced by students focused on a basketball player who had just arrived from Nigeria, a football player coping with the death of his father, and another recuperating from an ankle injury, he said.
“These kids sometimes are going through a difficult time in life,” Ingram said. Next year, he wants the class to identify a female athlete to feature. “The good students are usually the kids who are just trying to survive.”
