State Track, Day 2....

The great thing about the second day of the state track meet is after working 18+ hours the day before, the second day is a "short 12-13 hours. However, from 9am until almost 5pm it is literally almost non-stop shooting, almost 1,400 images worth. The Saturday afternoon session this year was the Class 1A and 3A meets. This year we had a bunch of 3A kids in addition to usual heavy dose of 1A kids.

The day started in the morning with field events. The good part was that they were spread out enough that I could spend a little time shooting each event. Then around noon the running started. Luckily all of the field events were done during this tie and I wasn't going to have to worry about being in two places at once.

This year, we had a couple of teams that were vying for state titles. Both the Munday boys in Class 1A and the Big Spring girls in 3A had a chance to win. And after a strong performance the day before the Albany girls had an outside chance at winning. Munday ended up running away with their title, literally. Big Spring had a few races that they came up short in and Albany couldn't pull off a win in the mile relay. I ended up getting a few nice frames from the meet, but overall, I think I was happier with what I had shot the day before even though I ended up having a lot more keepers on Saturday.

State Golf Day 2,

The second day of state golf was a lot more of the same that I had shot in the first day. I did try to change things up a little bit in trying to focus on the one local kid and the players who had done well the previous day. I was thinking being able to spend a little more time with them would allow my shots to be a little better. There were a couple of shot I did like. I was able to pull out my wide lens and shoot a few different things. While shooting over at the Class 1A tournament I ended up pulling out my iPhone to shoot a couple shot of the players teeing off. I did this since the camera on the phone doesn't make and shutter noise while allowed me to shoot during the player's backswing, which is normally a huge no-no. But, since it made no sound I was able to shoot it and the player never knew. I'm glad I tried to make a few practice frames since the shutter lag of the iPhone camera is quite a bit more than my Nikons.

State Golf, Day 1...

Going into the week, I was thinking that shooting state golf this year was going to be a lot easier than the past since I didn't have to split thing with tennis. Damn, was I wrong. This may have been the toughest time I've had shooting golf in a long time, mostly just because of the sheer number of golfers we had in the tournaments. Normally in the past we'd have a couple of teams competing and I could spend time shooting the better teams and then grab a few shots of the others.

This year, though, we had six teams competing in three classes and in Class A there were two boys and girls teams. Not to mention a bunch of individual players. To break this down: I had to shoot on three different courses, and when the girls start of the back nine, the boys start on the front. Basically, I was spending a whole lot more time walking the golf course (since in my 10 years of doing this, I'm yet to find the rumored media cart that is allegedly out there) carrying all my camera gear around with me. When it's just a couple of teams I can spend a few holes watching players, seeing how things develop. This time though, I was shooting a player for a hole and plotting where or who I'd be shooting next at the same time, it really kind of sucked.

The other problem I ended up running in to was most of our teams and players were all having bad rounds at the same time. It was rather uncharacteristic of what I was used to shooting in the past. The only good thing coming out of all of this was that golfers playing bad usually translates into sand shots or nice facial expressions. So, even given all of the time constraints, I managed to pull off a few decent shots, though it was mostly of players not pulling them off.

Two Games, Two Towns, One Day...

Now it's getting down to crunch time for basketball season. Which means I'm bouncing all over the place, much like I do in December, but not quite as long a road trips. On Friday, we had the Region II-1A girls basketball tournament here in town and Wylie was playing in the Region I-3A tournament in Lubbock that night.

In Abilene, Hamlin was playing Muenster in the regional semifinals. They had made it this far last year and lost in the same game last year. So they were hoping the results would be different this time. The first quarter was pretty tight, but then in the second quarter Hamlin went cold and was having a hard time with Muenster's tight press. Hamlin ended up losing the game in the same round they lost in last year. With a tight schedule I was only able to shoot the first half of the game, but luckily I was able to get a few decent shot before heading out for the 150 mile drive to Lubbock for my next game.

In Lubbock, Wylie was in a familiar spot, playing Shallowater, the same team they played in this round last year. It was kind of a weird game, Wylie's star player, Peyton Little, struggled in the game only hitting five field goals. The rest of the team though picked up their games and played really well, with four players finishing the game in double figures. Despite Little's struggles Wylie still ended up winning the game easily. Ironically, the "bad" game she had, she still ended up with 20 points going 9-10 at the free throw line. Setting them up for a rematch of last year's regional championship game with Kennedale.

Back Outta Town for more Baseball...

It was right around a year ago that I was shooting Stamford beating Forsan for the chance to make its first trip to the state tournament in baseball. On that night I shot probably my favorite baseball photo of the year. Well, this year Stamford was playing again, in the regional finals, this time against Hamlin, and the situation was a little different. They lost the first game of the series so they were going to have to win two. I found myself racing up there since I had a couple other assignments that needed to be done and it was a 5pm game in Graham.

By the time I got there, it was the fourth inning and Stamford was winning a close game. That's ok, while I was afraid I'd missed a lot there was plenty to come. In the bottom of the seventh inning, down by two, Hamlin tied the game up with a homerun. Then in the top of the eighth Stamford's Hagen Hutchinson scored on a great dive into home plate. Thank god for the LCD screen on my camera. I thought I had it but just had to check to be sure. I did, crossing my fingers I zoomed in to be sure it was sharp. Big sigh of relief, it was.

So, now that Stamford had won the first game and I had a great shot of Stamford I needed one of two things to happen. Either, Stamford wins the second game or Hamlin gives me something better if they won. It's tough enough getting one shot I love during a game, so getting two was completely implausible. The other impending problem I was seeing was time. It was nearly 8:30pm when the second game started. And the way the first inning was starting, this game looked like it may last four hours! Stamford scored in the top of the first, then Hamlin scored three, but the inning ended with a great play at the plate. After that it seemed like the wheels just completely fell off for Hamlin. Stamford came out and scored tight runs in the top of the second. Hamlin got back up and couldn't answer. Stamford came out the next inning and put up more. Stamford ended up winning the game in a blow out with a mercy rule win. It was really kind of a sad ending for such a great series and close rivalry between two evenly matched teams. Plus it made Stamford's celebration a little anti-climactic. That's ok, I got to run the shot of Hutchinson diving across the plate. The top photo is actually my favorite, however, I ended up going with the one of him with his hand on the plate (below), I think it did a little better job of telling the story.

Division Rivalry... In the Finals...

Stamford and Hamlin are less than 20 miles apart, are district rivals and having been battling each other pretty in much every sport this year. However, both their baseball teams were about as evenly matched as you could get. They tied for the district championship splitting the regular season games (here are the photos from their first game of the season that I had shot), then Hamlin took the one-game playoff. So it was only fitting that they would end up playing each other for the regional championship and the right to go to the state tournament.

At the start of the game, both teams were playing really sloppy. Hamlin's pitcher couldn't throw strikes and Stamford couldn't field the ball, committing five errors in the first three innings. I'm guessing it may have had something to do with nerves. They played at McMurry University's Driggers Field in Abilene (probably one of the nicest D3 baseball fields in the country), in front of the biggest crowd I've ever seen at that stadium. The stands were packed and there were fans 2-3 deep along the fences on both sides of the fields.

It had all the feel of a huge game and after the teams calmed down they started playing like they deserved to be there, but Hamlin had already had the lead. Stamford clawed back to within a run, but just couldn't get back ahead. Stamford was the home team and had the last at bat, but just couldn't finish it off and Hamlin won it it 6-5. Despite really bad play at the start of the game, it turned out to be really fun to watch, and a good start to the three-game series.