From Sport to Sport

11/5/2003

Some time during this fall football season I became the team's unofficial photographer. Sure the yearbook guy was there with his black and white images, but about game 3 I decided to walk right on down to the edge of the field and fire away with my digital.

Once I got down on the field, some of the other kids asked if I would try and get a shot of them, and sure enough, if you take pics of just about everything that is happening, you are bound to get most of the kids. Now the only problem is to sort through all those images, and get them cleaned up in time for the football banquet.

Early on in the season it was easier, because over the course of 9 weeks, we lost a lot of daylight. And even though the camera allowed me to shoot in low light, many of the images of the later games, and especially those taken past half time, are not the greatest.

But the boy was happy, especially when I caught him grabbing the quarterback just before he heaved him to the ground. Generally, I'm no fan of the sport, but when the boy is playing, I'm watching. The sporting season is winding down, and as a parent, I've been through just about all of them, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey football and let's not forget track.

I confess however, that the baseball games were the least well attended, but have made it to just about every other game, except for some of the junior high basketball ones - especially since that wasn't really the boy's biggest sport.

I think I ran up and down the field just about as much as the kids did during soccer, and I was known as the official "pacer" at the hockey rink. One mom in particular used to say to me if I was just standing and watching - "Hey NSR, get moving, it's bad luck if you are just standing still."

I think of all the sporting experiences however, it will be hockey that has the best memories, especially the year when we got to drive 600+ miles to the state championship games. We made great friends and the kids had a great time, even though they ended up 3rd in the state in their division.

Early in the second to the last game of the season the boy injured his ankle and he spent most of the game on the side line. Late in the 4th quarter he asked me to surrender his varsity jacket (hey, I never got to wear one in High School and the kids thought it was cool that I wore his) and I was able to fire off a couple of images without him knowing.

I miss wearing that jacket, it even clanks when you walk, because of all of the track medals sewn on the front. And hey, no flack, because when it came time to replace some of the ones that had fallen off, who do you think came up with the carpet thread and the big needle?

Sooner than I though I took a picture of his last kick-off of his high school years.

The team had a pretty good season, and although they were on a good winning streak for their last 3 games, beating one of the odds-on favorites for the state Championship was just not in the cards that Friday night.

Right after the game I came home and downloaded the 350 or so photos that I took, and about an hour later or so later, the boy came in. I expected to see red eyes, and I did, but the boys didn't really seem all that disappointed with their season, they were just sad to see it all end.

The boy told me that after the game was over he walked over, sat down and leaned up against the goal post. He stayed there till they turned off the lights, then he got up and said good-by to all his friends.

Time moves so quickly, and because it does, I decided to sit down tonight and try and chronicle a little slice of it all before the next event shows up on my doorstep.

Speaking of next events, the first pre-season hockey game is on Saturday.

Kewl, I get to wear the jacket again.