As junior Malakai Bravard runs up and down the court, he can see a familiar face with a camera in hand, ready to shoot the next play of the game.

Throughout the season, Bravard’s mother Megan Bravard has been filming and creating mixtapes and college recruitment videos, and taking photos for athletes from SHS and other schools in the state.

She has come to be known by the name of Naptown Mom Highlights on Instagram.

For her, this all started when her son started playing basketball in second grade.

“I started recording when my son started playing, and I just taught myself that way,” Megan said.

As her son has grown older, her highlight videos have grown from being filmed with a phone to an actual camera. 

Her videos have gained more variety, with her shooting clips of middle school students one night and then highlights of UIndy basketball the next.

Though she started it for her son, she has been able to feature some underappreciated athletes who are not the first recruits that colleges look at.

“I started to want to get the underrated kids some shine,” Megan said. “There are a lot of great basketball players in this city that go unnoticed, so I try to get some light to those guys.”

Although it is not her full-time job, which is running a barber shop in Greenwood, the hours she spends working on the highlights could be considered a full-time commitment.

For some of her clips, she will take pictures of the highlights she wants to post right away, but it can take her up to an hour and a half for her to create a full game highlight of a team or certain player.

“The games are roughly about an hour, (and) it sometimes takes about an hour to go through,” Megan said.

Her son has been thankful for what his mom has done with the highlights throughout his middle school and high school careers.

“I really appreciate what she does,” Bravard said. “She’s been recording since middle school, (and) she gets a lot of people’s names out there.”

Bravard also has been around the state shooting videos and taking photos for athletes who don’t go to SHS. As of Jan. 28, her most recent post was of a player from Crispus Attucks High School.

Most of her posts contain high school basketball highlights, but she also does youth leagues and city leagues along with other sports like wrestling, volleyball and football.

Players on the SHS boys basketball team think that what Megan is doing is helping them be seen by the public.

“It’s cool,” junior Samuel Lloyd said. “We get more recognition this year, more clips and everything of the games.”

Megan believes that creating the videos helps her and Bravard be closer and makes her more engaged in her son’s games.

Bravard believes that by the creation of the videos, he is able to become closer with his mother, and she has been more engaged in his game.

“It has made our relationship stronger,” Bravard said. “She started understanding basketball more. We can have conversations about it, and I’m glad she can get the film for me.”

Though this takes up a lot of time for Megan, her and Bravard have had their relationship grow  as a mother and son.

“I think it brings us pretty close,” Megan said. “Sometimes he’s annoyed with it because I always have a camera in his face, but other than that, I think he likes it.”