Hello, This is Michele from Sports Illustrated...

...my first thought after answering this call on my cell phone was, "Oh no, a solicitation for me to subscribe to SI." But that thought was quickly purged from my brain as Michele finished her opening statement..."I am an assistant photo editor and I was wondering if you might have any photos of Kevin Love."

Imagine the thoughts that were now rushing through my head. In a cool, composed tone, I simply answered, "Sure I do. What type of shots are you looking for?"

Long story short...I had my first submission to Sports Illustrated make the cut and was published in the March 10, 2007 "March Madness" issue and on the SI.com web site. It is quite a thrill to achieve this milestone. The photo is of Oregon prep basketball star Kevin Love and is used in the SI Players section in the leading feature sections of the magazine. I was shooting the Les Schwab Invitational High School Basketball Tournament in December when I captured a nice shot of Love about to hammer a fast-break dunk (my LSI blog post featuring the SI photo of Love). The SI editor asked me to upload a handful of shots to their database. I submitted some good images of Love, but I figured the one selected was a front-runner for potential publication. The SI editor found me through my SportsShooter page and Googling Love's name....it pays to capture photos!

A special thanks to Craig Mitchelldyer who sponsored my application to SportsShooter and whose work has been an inspiration as I have developed my skills and knowledge that provided the opportunity to make it in SI. It was also nice to hear from him that my shot made SI when he opened up his copy, saw the photo and called to congratulate me....I hadn't known it made the cut until then. Thanks Craig!!!

Photo Published in 03/10/07 Sports Illustrated


Photo Published on SI.com (link)

Mothers and Sons

A very important chapter closed Saturday on the hardwood of McArthur Court in Eugene, Oregon for two mothers of prominent Oregon high school students. Four years of joy, disappointment, excitement, apprehension, rewards and failures ended when the seconds ticked down to zero and the arena buzzer cued the start of a victory celebration for a team from a modest Southern Oregon town while bringing silent moments of hollow reflection upon the dethroned champions from the suburbs of Portland. As the teams reacted in their respective manner, each mother was quick to seek out their sons. One mom embraced her two boys, who as teammates, celebrated with such a degree of emotion each were brought to impassioned tears. The other stood on a chair and gently hugged her giant of a son and kissed his temple as he held in his emotions of a dramatic loss and gazed down court watching his rivals celebrate wildly.

Kris Singler, mother of South Medford star recruit Kyle Singer, and Karen Love, mother of Lake Oswego's gift to UCLA Kevin Love, shared deeply emotional moments with their sons, but with South Medford defeating Lake Oswego 58-54 for the OSAA 6A Basketball Championship, their emotions were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What the two women shared equally at that moment in time was closing the four year chapter of successes, setbacks and stresses of being the mother of an elite college recruit. As both mothers held their sons tightly during the post game celebrations, each may have be experiencing very different emotions in respect to the game's outcome, but very likely they shared very simular feelings as each reflected on her son's remarkable high school careers.

On the Way to a Championship

When a team is ranked number one in the state and favored to be in hunt for the state title, it doesn't make the road any smoother. It may bring pressure; it may put the fear into weaker opponents; it may raise confidence; but the one thing it doesn't bring is a guarantee of a state championship title.

St. Paul High School from the Willamette Valley carried their No. 1 ranking all the way to Baker City, Oregon this weekend, site of the OSAA 1A Basketball Championships, and managed to close the deal by winning the whole enchilada with a 54-49 overtime victory against Joseph High School of northeastern Oregon.

After a first round bye, St. Paul earned their way to the tournament with a home court 45-22 win over Imbler High School. I have shot some St. Paul football and basketball games over the past couple of years. St. Paul High School has a strong commitment to athletics and receives tremendous support from the community. It is characteristic of all the small towns all across the state of Oregon where the high school is a central point of the community. The spirit is refreshing, which makes shooting small school athletics a lot of fun.

Spoilers

The Westview Wildcasts spoiled Jesuit's perfect Metro League record on the last day of league play with a 52-41 home victory in front of a spirited student body dressed in a sea of red t-shirts imprinted with "Pack the Pit" on the front and "Beat Jesuit" on the back. It was senior night at Westview, and with a very unexpected loss to Southridge a few weeks earlier spoiling the Westview's chance to challenge Jesuit for the Metro League title, thumping the Crusaders provided some degree of satisfaction for the second-place Wildcats.

As the OSAA Basketball Championships get underway, Westview has a good chance to become spoilers once again. Their strong finish at the end of league play has provided critical momentum in time for the playoffs. Some consider Westview as a dark horse that can not be overlooked as the state tournament gets underway. With 6'-11" junior Andy Poling and 6'-9" senior Trevor Siefken, Westview has the size to do battle with top-ranked Lake Oswego and South Medford. If the Wildcats bring their "A" game to the state tournament, Westview just might not be done spoiling other teams' post-season plans.