Little Big Men

From the sidelines and the stands, they look out of perspective on the local high school football field. Despite the added dimensions that helmets and pads provide, youth football players still don't look all that big...they don't cover as much ground as senior players do under the Friday Night Lights. But when a camera shutter is able to catch them at key moments of a game...they look every much the part...they are an emulation of "the Pros."

Throughout the youth football ranks and ages, player sizes range from "more uniform than there is kid"...to "we don't have a jersey big enough for that kid"...and all sizes in between. The common denominator is the size of each athlete's heart...it's BIG. Abilities also vary in the youth game...but no matter what, the kids give it all they've got...week in, week out. One of the greatest compliments I ever received for my sports photos was from an ecstatic father who understood that his child is one of those kids that doesn't exactly dominate the first string line-up. He said, "Wow! You were able to make my son look like a real football player...Thank you, thank you so much!" I was humbled...all I did was capture the moment where his son actually did look like a real football player. How the perspective of things change when we look at them differently.

A New Year...a New League...Great Results

The governing body overseeing Oregon high school athletics (the OSAA) made a revolutionary, and somewhat controversial, move last year to realign its leagues from a four level system to a six level system. The net result was a balancing of the power closer to the respective student population of competing schools. For schools such as Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Oregon the realignment provided a more equitable level of competition for their league play.

For the second year, I was a volunteer coach for Glencoe's JV soccer program. Over the years, the school has developed a solid program. The league realignment provided Glencoe an opportunity take a leadership position in the Northwest Oregon Conference of the 5A division, and the program seized that opportunity this Fall. The Varsity boys finished first in the conference with an overall record of 15-1-1 and are in the midst of the playoffs for the OSAA 5A Championships.

The JV Team's success this year shows great promise for the program in seasons to follow, for they compiled an impressive 13-1-0 record with 76 goals for, 9 against. Defensively, the backline players were menacing, hard working and dominant in the air. The midfield was a combination of workhorses and play-making tactitcians, while up front a combination of quickness and artistic creativity produced the offensive threats resulting in the ball frequently resting in opponents' nets. Success at the JV level does not always guarantee Varsity success...but the Glencoe program has a solid foundation to maintain their leadership in the Northwest Oregon Conference and the newly formed 5A division.

What I Did During My Summer Vacation

Followers of my blog (and yes, there are some followers) have noticed that the updates drifted off in August. Well...like everyone else, my excuses are many and all relate to how busy it's been. No excuses...so let's catch up real quick...here's how the Summer wound up for 2006...

Condon's Fabulous Fourth of July
Nothing beats spending the Fourth in the North-Central Oregon community of Condon. The town hosts a full agenda of events during the holiday week and I had a great time shooting a handful of them. Highlights included the Fabulous Fourth Fun Run and Walk, the Kids Games at the high school, the Big Parade, the Soapbox Derby, Breakfast and Dinner in the Park, bagpipes in the Hotel Condon, Fabulous Fourth Fireworks...and the list goes on and on. Special appearance this year was Mother Nature with a Fabulous Fourth Electrical Extravaganza lighting up the evening sky. Nothing beats it...Nothing!










Camping at the Prineville Reservoir
The annual neighborhood camping trip destination once again was the Prineville Reservoir in Central Oregon. The weather was great...nice and hot. The boats were running sun-up to sun-down...pulling skiers, boarders and tubers. Lots of good food, drink and cases of sunscreen. It was a great week.








Beaverton Party in the Park
I had some fun assignments for the Beaverton Valley Times over the Summer, including shooting a classic car show that was part of the Party in the Park celebration sponsored by the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District held at the Howard M. Terpenning Recreation Center. Some very cool cars were on display...spent a few hours taking a ton of shots and chatting with owners, who had some great stories about their restoration projects.

Tualatin Crawfish Festival
It's a 56 year old tradition. The city of Tualatin, Oregon proudly celebrates...the crawfish! Members of the local VFW began the festival after their new lodge was completed in 1951. At the time, crawfish were hugely abundant in the Tualatin River that ran through town, so the forefathers of the event saw fit to celebrate and promote crawfish. The tons of crawfish sold and eaten at the festival today are now shipped in on pallets from Lake Billy Chinook in Central Oregon. I shot multiple festival events on the Saturday of the weekend event, including a cycling criterium, the Crawfish Festival Parade, a model powerboat regatta and...of course...the famed crawfish eating contest. The winner downed 97 of the crustacean in 15 minutes. You had to see it to believe it.

Little Big League

Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez, Edgar Renteria...they all started here...where the bat was over half their size...a throw from third to first rarely made it all the way...and innings usually ended by meeting the maximum run limit rather than by three outs. This is T-Ball and Rookie Ball, where the concepts of baseball are learned and the joy of the game is instilled in a child's heart. In between the muffed catches, the trips while rounding the bases or the daydreaming in the outfield, the skills of the game begin to develop and occasional feats of athleticism surprise and thrill parents and coaches.

The girls are not left out of the fun...Little League has equivalent softball programs for the young ladies aspiring to follow in the footsteps of Jennie Finch, Jessica Mendoza, Crystl Bustos or Lisa Fernandez to play for the U.S.A. National Team.

The Road to Old Trafford

As most the soccer world was fixated on the road to Germany for the 2006 World Cup, U-15 club teams from around the United States had their eye on a different road that could potentially lead them to the historical grounds of the Manchester United Football Club, Old Trafford. Their ticket? Winning the U.S.A. finals of the Manchester United Premier Cup hosted on the Nike World Campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

During the Memorial Day Weekend, twenty boys and twenty girls U-15 club teams from throughout the U.S.A. battled for the honor to represent their country in the finals. For the boys, it meant a trip to Old Trafford in Manchester, England. For the girls, the finals were an invitation to the prestigious Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Oregon weather treated its guests to a variety of conditions...Traditional Spring downpours along with gorgeous sunny skies. The impeccably manicured grounds of the Nike World Campus provided excellent conditions throughout the weekend.

Ohio FC Mutiny from Dublin, Ohio won the honor over the Dallas Texans from Dallas, Texas in a penalty kick shootout after regulation play of the qualifying final ended in a 1-1 draw. In the ladies competition, So. Cal United from Thousand Oaks, California topped the Vardar Soccer Club of Rochester Hills, Michigan to earn a trip to Sweden.

Metro League Tennis

A recent assignment for the Beaverton Valley Times took me to the Tualatin Hills Recreation Center to shoot a match between Aloha and Southridge High Schools. The Southridge ladies edged out Aloha after the total games won and lost needed to be calculated between the teams after the match and set scores were tied. When it was all added up, Southridge 79 games won against Aloha's 68 turned out to be the deciding factor.

LAX Explosion

If you are looking for a story about a big kaboom at the Los Angeles International Airport, this isn't it. The LAX Explosion is the sport of lacrosse, commonly abbreviated as "LAX," that has burst on the youth and high school scene in Oregon. The sport has experienced tremendous growth in the last couple of years. With a combination of skill, speed and hard hitting, lacrosse is the perfect morsel for the palate of the youth of America seeking a new taste for an old sport. Introduced by early Native American Indians, lacrosse plays similar to hockey, sans the skates and the players get to keep their teeth.

The Oregon Youth Lacrosse League is the organizing body for all that is lacrosse in Oregon. The league consists of 33 high school boys teams and 24 girls teams, along with a healthy crop of youth teams between the ages of 11 and 15. How much fun is the sport? Just ask the Hillsboro JV Team, which in their first game of the school's premier season for the sport, tied their game against an experienced team from Century High School with a desperation shot from over 35 yards out from goal in the final 10 seconds. As if the nature of the game for the kids were not enough, a start like that sealed the deal...they were hooked.