Minisink Warrior Cup Game
Every year, the Minisink Valley Warriors square off against the Delaware Valley Warriors in a game they like to call the Warrior Cup Game. Similar to the Bell Game between Minisink and Port Jervis, the Warrior Cup Game has been an ongoing event for a long time between the two rival schools!
This year, the matches were held at Minisink Valley. After Loretta was done with the wrestlers portraits, she setup her lights in anticipation of the Junior Varsity and Varsity matches.
One of the Junior Varsity matches (from the angle we were at) looked like it should have been a pin …
… but when it wasn’t and the time ran out, the Minisink wrestler had the same reaction most of us did …
After looking through all of the shots from the evening, this is one of my favorites because of a few reasons. I like how only the Delaware Valley wrestler is looking at the camera and just his eyes are illuminated by the flash. I also like how his entire team is positioned behind him in the background … adding to the struggle you see in his eyes …
This was also a big night for Brendan Byrne as it was his 101st career win …
Minisink Cheerleading Competition
What a weekend! It all ended yesterday with an incredible football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals … but all began with a very long day covering the 2009 Minisink Valley Cheerleading Competition!
For the second year in a row, we covered the Minisink Ultimate Cheerleading Competition in Slate Hill New York and this year was bigger, better and featured nearly 50 cheerleading squads! Needless to say, we weren’t expecting to have the kind of response that we did!
As we started setting up our table and background, people began swarming our table – checking out all of the cool cheerleading products and custom action posters we had on display. Almost immediately after we finished setting everything up, we had a line of cheerleaders who couldn’t wait to have their picture taken for their own poster!
Once everything was setup and running smoothly at the table, I headed over to the judges area to setup a single light, high above the crowds, to help illuminate the cheerleaders during their routines. When all of my settings were just right, I found a nice, comfortable spot on the hard gym floor in front of the judges and started snapping away!
Just the same as last year, it was still tough to anticipate the next jump, kick or flip – even after watching some of their warmup routines! However, I decided to shoot with two lenses this time – our 70-200 and 24-70 – which allowed me to capture a bit more of the action! Here are some of the shots from Saturday …
With the 24-70, I figured I would use the best timing that I could to try and capture some full team jump shots … here were two of my best …
But the best part of the entire day was capturing an entire routine … and seeing some of the shots that I caught! While the judges were doing their thing, I would browse through the images I just captured to see if there was anything that needed to be removed and would often come across images just like this …
People in the stands must have thought I was a little crazy as I would have my head down, looking at the back of the camera, would come across an image like this and just start laughing all by myself!
One image that I came across brought me right back to last year! Remember this girl from our post about Frozen Face Cheerleaders?
Well … guess who I captured again …
A Stunning Upset For Minisink Valley
The second part of our mini series covers an incredible football game between Minisink Valley and Newburgh Free Academy for the Section IX Football title.
Unlike Friday night, Saturday was a bit colder once the sun had dipped below the horizon. As we made the hour and a half long journey up to Dietz Stadium in Kingston New York, we talked about how we were going to cover what was sure to be an exciting game between two very strong High School teams.
The last matchup between Minisink and Newburgh was a very close game. Coming down to the final minutes in the fourth quarter and only a few points between them, Minisink held on strong to defeat them for the third time in nearly a year. However, Saturday night was going to shape up a little differently …
Both teams played very strong in the first half, only moving the ball a few yards during their posession. By the time halftime came around, Minisink was ahead by a little more than two touchdowns. As I followed them into the locker room for some “behind the scenes” shots, I completely forgot how cold it was outside and just how warm and humid the locker room actually was. When I finally cleared my lenses of the fog … I snapped some shots of the team as they prepared for the second half of this tough game.
As the final minutes of the game ticked away, Newburgh found some extra strength within and put up a strong fight for the title. With just thirty-five seconds left in the game, Newburgh tied everything … sending the game into overtime. Unfortunately, it was already 10:30PM and with an hour and a half drive ahead of us and an early morning wedding on Sunday, we made the tough decision and left the game just as the overtime matchup got underway.
As we headed home, friends from the sidelines provided us with up-to-the-second updates as the game progressed. With each team scoring another touchdown, they entered double overtime …
In a stunning upset for Minisink Valley, Newburgh was the first to score and won the Section IX Football title. While Minisink may have lost, everyone on the team played an incredible game! Even though they lost, here are some “highlight” shots from the game …
A Cool Minisink Varsity Football Slideshow
Cover Contest Runner Up!
Action News, an industry specific publication, held a cover contest a few months ago and invited submissions from SEP (Sports And Event Photographers) members. We gladly submitted a few of our images from the past year and after patiently waiting … we finally got the call!
While we didn’t win the grand prize, we did manage a runner up spot! This image …
… captured during a High Point Soccer match, was the one the judges loved the most and will be featured on the cover of Action News later in the Spring of 2009 along with our interview!
We’ll be sure to post some excerpts once it’s published! I think that’s pretty good considering this was our first time entering our images in a competition!