Captions

Last night St. Peter the Apostle's Rams butted up against the Savannah Christian Raiders. And the Rams went home with the bounty, leaving the field with a score of 20-6.

I stood atop the bleachers shooting video and taking still shots all during the game. Watching the boys play through a view finder is challenging, and I learned three years ago that I have a choice at football games:  I can take photos, or I can pay attention to the game. But I can't do both. Typically what I do is focus the camera on the point I want to get an image of--usually the ball or Lawson--and then as soon as the play starts, I press the shutter button, and it's anybody's guess what the picture will look like. So tonight I don't have a good analysis of the game because I opted for photos instead. But as I examined my portfolio last night, I realized how one little snap can capture something unexpected, and the image will make for some pretty fun captions.

For instance, in the photo below, Adam King (18) kicks off at the beginning of the game. I like this shot for several reasons:  1) Look at how flexible he is! He could be a Rockette! 2) I like how the other guys have his eyes on him. I don't know if they should be watching him or the ball, but they're all focused on the same thing, and I like the fact that I can see their eyes in this shot. 

Unfortunately, that kick went out of bounds, so the Rams had to do the kick over. I like the next photo better:

In this shot, Adam approaches the ball to kick it. But look at his left hand. A Savannah Christian cheerleader hung her bag on the chain link fence, and just as I snapped this photo, Adam was positioned in such a way that his hand is just over that bag. So he look like he's carrying a little pouch at kickoff. If I had tried to get that shot, it never would have happened.

I like the next picture too. In this shot Garrett Ducey (40) is all over a Savannah Christian player, but two other behemoths are heading right toward Mills Thompson (44). The look on Mills's face reminds me of that scene in the movie A Christmas Story when the little boy says, "Oh fuuuuudge."
I wonder if that was what was going through Mills's mind:

Drew Tison (#5) had a great game last night, scoring two of the game's touchdowns and also getting a beautiful pass interception. But somehow when I snapped this photo, I caught Drew in an unusual stance. Quarterback Adam King (18) is looking to Drew to hand off the ball. But Drew looks like he's about to topple over (I don't think that's what really happened):

 Remember the movie Bull Durham? Remember the scene where the players all confer on the pitcher's mound because Nuke's eyelids were jammed and his dad was in the stands, and Jose needed a live rooster to get the curse off his glove, and nobody knew what to get Jimmie and Millie for a wedding gift? This photo makes me think of that scene:

 Mills gets to the bottom of it. 

I like this shot too:

"Okay, we're going to do this thing one more time, but then we want to go to Coach's. We're getting kind of hungry out here."

This is a a poignant image to me. I don't like what happened to cause it, and I'm glad Drew walked off the field intact (especially after what happened at last week's game--yeesh!), but I do like that when a player is down, the others take a knee. Both teams. No questions. They just do it. And I think it's a shame that this practice doesn't extend itself beyond high school football, because when I see college players writing in pain on TV, it kinds of makes me sick to see the other team--even their own teammates milling around and getting ready for the next play. I'm always screaming at the TV, "Take a knee!" At least our boys have some couth.

Still shots are fun, but so is video. Here's a good shot of Matt Lowenthal (#24) scoring the Rams' third touchdown of the night:

And here's #5 Drew Tison scoring our first touchdown of the night:

And yes, the boys did get to go to Coach's after the game!