West Albany High School is getting national exposure as the setting for a video about an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

“MRSA: The Ticking Time Bomb,” produced and distributed by Tec Laboratories Inc. of Albany, is set mainly at West Albany. It features speaking appearances by Athletic Director Rich Sipe, head football coach Randy Nyquist and assistant wrestling coach Gene D’Agostini.

The 11-minute DVD also features comments from Central Linn cheerleading coach Natalie Walker and Silverton High School Principal Jodi Drescher, and clips of practices of West Albany and Linfield College sports teams. It is narrated by Larry Burris, a 1981 graduate of South Albany High School.

MRSA is short for Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a particularly aggressive staph infection. Tec Labs makes an ointment called StaphAseptic, which was created specifically to protect against this form of infection.

The company has been mailing its informational DVD to high schools around the nation as part of a free kit about MRSA.

Sipe is friends with Steve Smith, the president of Tec Labs, and said a conversation between the two led to the video.

The company did its film work over a few months this spring, West Principal Susie Orsborn said.

“Staph infection is a scary thing for all of us. We were glad to help support this, because it’s something that we take really seriously here,” Orsborn said.

So far the only case of MRSA diagnosed in a mid-valley athlete has been at Lebanon High School, where a football player has recovered from the infection. But West has had to cope with staph, and coaches do give athletes the StaphAseptic product to use on scrapes and cuts, D’Agostini said.

The school’s participation in the video was voluntary, and the DVD does not mention the product, spokesman Gary Burris said. “We did that on purpose so it was more educational. It’s not an advertising piece per se.”

The company’s direct product advertisements do include a mid-valley tie, however: a picture of 2006 West Albany graduate Garrett Burner, a wrestler. Garrett is the son of Mike Burner, a West assistant wrestling coach and Tec Labs employee.

“He’s been all over the country,” Gary Burris said.

So far, video exposure hasn’t led to any Hollywood film offers for West staff, Sipe said.

“I’m waiting for ‘Son of MRSA’ to come out,” he quipped.