The Newburgh Free Academy boys basketball team almost did it tonight. Took Rice HS of NYC into overtime, and lost by two. This team really, really showed a lot of heart and pure guts. It was a pleasure to photograph a lot of their games this season, and be around kids who to the man don't know the meaning of sports prima dona. No overpriced salaried players here. Just pure basketball, good coaching, and great support from the school's administration, parents and fans. Their starting five are all juniors, so it'll be interesting to watch this championship team together again next year. -cg. Newburgh's Marcus Henderson (#3) reacts after his last second shot fell short, giving Rice HS a 70 - 68 win in overtime in their 2009 Federation Tournament Championship game at the Glens Falls Civic Center in Glens Falls, NY on Sunday, March 29, 2009. Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON
This from yesterday at a state gymnastics meet. I always preach making "detail" images while on assignment, either for work, a client or myself. Thought this one kind of worked nicely...
Jacqueline Combs waits to perform her routine on the uneven bars during the 2009 USAG Level 9 State Championship Meet for 15 - 16 year olds at Sports Fitness and Fun in Florida, NY on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Times Herald-Record/CHET GORDON
*Now at 7:30AM, on a rainy Sunday morning, I am packing up the hot-rod again for the two and a half hour drive back to Glens Falls, NY for more championship basketball covering the HS kids from Newburgh Free Academy this afternoon. They play the NYC Champion Rice HS. Oh yea, that slide show from their state championship run is still coming... -cg.
Well, It's taken a little longer than expected to recover from my coverage of NFA's semifinal game on Saturday and championship game on Sunday up in Glens Falls, NY. When I say recover - I mean just that. Physically, mentally and even for a few moments, emotionally. Covering Newburgh Free Academy (NFA) the past two seasons really meant a lot to me and it's very rewarding to see them win the big game, on the big stage. Not only did they defeat the #1 ranked HS team in the state, Niagara Falls HS, they beat them good. By 20 points. The game was literally over in the second quarter, and NFA never looked back. Technically working in the Glens Falls Civic Center (GFCC) proved to be a bit of a challenge for me photographically on Saturday. Making the nearly 3 hour drive upstate is just long enough to be a nuisance, and returning home the same night is down right difficult. Doing the round trip, 300-mile drive two days in a row is miserable...
*Rewind back to Saturday's mindset & observations in the semifinal game against Uniondale. Initially this game wasn't on our work schedule, but since I had an open schedule, I took the initiative at 7AM to make the drive up. This alone proved to be one of the most important decisions of my weekend coverage. I particularly needed to see the arena since I'd never worked there, familiarize myself with the workflow operations like wi-fi accessible networks for the media, clean bathrooms and most of all - media hospitality. See: food! (There wasn't any, so I'd mentally file that tidbit away for Sunday's arrival for the title game...) I wasn't happy at all with the available light in the arena, and realized that I'd have to return home to retrieve a full set of Dyna-Lite strobes for Sunday's Final game if NFA got past Uniondale. They did. The light was pretty bad. Game time exposures were ISO 1600, 1/200th. sec. @ f/2.8. Blah. Flat. Ugly. As dark and bland as any HS gym. I'd overshot a ton of images - with plenty of them slightly out of focus and with motion blur even at this level. I couldn't stand it the whole game, and was already thinking of how I'd install my strobes early Sunday morning. There were other photographers in the arena working the other divisional games on strobes, so I knew I wanted my images for the Sunday's championship game to "pop" too. Obviously images made with arena strobes have a much better "feel" to them and this was what I'd been preparing for all season anyway. (Don't forget the impending 300 miles that still awaited me to head home after the game & return early Sunday morning.) I ended up moving 9 photos back to the paper from the game, so I knew that would at least justify the trip by sending more photos than the wire service guy. The above photo at right of guard Marcus Henderson driving to the basket made Sunday's back page, and was a nice preview to NFA winning, and advancing to the final game, but I wasn't happy at all with the quality. Yuck!
*Fast-forward to early Sunday morning. OK this was going to be big and deserved a big effort. First I had to head out to Middletown (60 miles R/T) at 8AM to pick up two additional strobes from a colleague, before heading up the NYS Thruway yet again. It was as if I knew the route in my sleep. Considering I woke myself up at 4AM thinking about Pocket-Wizards, Super-Clamps, radio transmitter frequencies I could use in the arena, and installing a remote camera if I had time, I was as ready as I'd ever be. In other words - I was a wreck. Remember to eat something I kept repeating on the two & a half hour return drive up. I did. And added plenty of fluids too.
Well, the weekend is finally over for me up in Glens Falls, NY. Two round trip drives covering just over 600 miles for two HS Playoff games just about wiped me out. Shot available light on Saturday in their semi-final game, and decided right then and there that I'd have to return all the way home on Saturday night and retrieve a full set of studio strobes, cords, clamps, "wizards" and everything else needed to "light-up" the Glens Falls Civic Center for the championship game on Sunday afternoon. It was basically a 'no-brainer' call for me professionally, especially since this was the first time I'd ever seen this minor league hockey arena, let alone had to shoot state playoff caliber basketball on deadline. Why not 'light-it-up' for the title game if our local team, Newburgh Free Academy advanced on Saturday...?
I will surely post more images here tomorrow and discuss some of the pros and cons of working the championship tournament this weekend. It was almost a perfect Cindarella ending to a demanding, yet rewarding season of HS basketball coverage and a lot of fun making truly consistent imagery. -cg.
Three of my multiple-picture feature stories published last December were recognized by the NPPA's Monthly News Clip Contest (National Press Photographer's Association), earning a 1st., 2nd., and 3rd. Place for the month. Here's the link to the NPPA's results page above: NPPA / MNCC. December 2008 Region 2
I had written earlier about each assignment and you can find those earlier posts here on the blog by clicking the links here:
*I must say it's very rewarding professionally and even a little humbling to be continually recognized by the organization I've been a member of for most of my photojournalism career. -cg.
My paper put together a piece for the web where sportswriter Kevin Gleason and I talk about covering Newburgh Free Academy's State Quarterfinal upset on Will Bouton's dramatic last second three-point shot beyond half court, to defeat Mt. Vernon 71 - 70 last week. "I Love This Game...!" -cg.
Here's a take on some of my favorite images (and outtakes at the end) from the 10 games I've covered in various venues so far this month in the HS Section IX Playoffs here in our coverage area. I will update with a shorter version and clean up some of the captioning as well. Enjoy. -cg.
*(Use the arrows at the bottom left of the player or click the image to scroll forward through the slideshow. Enable full screen viewing by clicking the 4-way arrow icon above the credits button at lower right of the player. )
As longtime NY sportscaster Warner Wolff would say, "Let's go to the videotape...!"
After a much needed full day off yesterday, I'm finally getting around to harnessing my thoughts on Friday night's State Quarterfinal games over in Westchester; including Will Bouton's heroic heave that gave Newburgh Free Academy their one point win over longtime rival Mt. Vernon. In making those images, most of it still remains a blur in my head. Just before Kadeem Dinham (#24 in white) of Mt. Vernon scored off an offensive rebound at the other end of the court, giving them a two point lead with 1.8 seconds left, I do remember sliding over closer to the basket and resting the "long" camera with the 300mm along the basket stanchion; as I wouldn't need that camera anymore to shoot downcourt. I'd already made what I thought might be the game winning image of him banking in the putback with the "short" camera, including a complete view of the scoreboard. (this is the similar look of Minisink's Stefanie Dolson missing a one & one from the line, with the scoreboard showing 1.1 seconds remaining. Even though she had 36 of their 44 points, that image told the story of their loss a week earlier.) Mt. Vernon players began to cheer and fans streamed onto the court. Newburgh had called timeout though, and .2 second was put back on the clock. The court was cleared and now there were two full seconds remaining. A lifetime by NBA standards, and my experiences. I didn't figure it'd be over for NFA or anything. I wasn't upset, I wasn't shocked. It was just basketball at it's highest level - in this case an extremely important HS Playoff game for the kids I'd been covering all season. I do remember now that everything sort of went quiet inside my head. It was kind of weird actually. I was truly "In the Zone" and nothing else mattered. I'd worked extremely hard all season - purposely installing multiple strobes at just about every HS game I'd covered and at some of the bigger games, utilizing three and sometimes four cameras. Just last weekend I'd installed a backboard glass remote camera & the following day a remote in the stands at a different venue, aiming that camera back down toward the basket for a different view of players going to the bucket. With my years of covering NBA and major college games in the NYC market, all this proved to be added experience, combined with an intense patience and timing, as I knew I was about to take a measured breath, and sight-in on this last play. I don't know if I looked for the inbounds pass from the other baseline or if I was just "keyed" on watching Bouton. All I knew is that I was "on him" through the camera, saw him clean with the defender all over him, and fired! One shot. From my knees. On arena strobes. BANG!!!
All bedlam broke out as the crowd erupted onto the court. There was no way to avoid being run over, so I headed for midcourt. Never saw Bouton until I made my way up into the stands to try and make images of the "Jubo" (Jubilation of the players going nuts...) All I had in my hands now was the "short" camera with the 70mm - 200mm lens, and that view would be too tight for me to be in there with the crowd mixing it up with the players. The only wide angle lens I'd brought into the building was securely clamped in the basket stanchion padding as a remote under the net. That camera view proved itself again, as I'd made nice game images from the earlier Kingston girls defeat over Mt. Vernon (right) and the wonderful image (top) of Bouton's shot pasted in the net, with Mt. Vernon's Dinham (#24) looking up at the ball in shock. I don't remember at all how I fired that remote camera - but I do vaguely remember seeing a bit of the ball in mid-air heading for the backboard, and careening into the net. If you click the image & look closely at the frame you can see Bouton now seated on the floor past half court at left and even 0.0 on the game clock above the far basket. Game Over!
*Here's how the shot came about in the final :33 of the game. Video is from my colleague at the paper, John Pertel:
Everything imaginable worked out in covering those two games. As I mentioned in the earlier game post below, I'd arrived early enough to learn that the college had arena strobes, and I could utilize them for the games. There was wi-fi in the gym for media, meaning we could work at courtside. There was plenty of room for photographers and "tee-vee" cameramen along the baselines and the bathrooms were close-by.
A "best-of" slideshow highlighting my coverage of this month's coverage during the past 10 games of HS Sectional and Regional Playoff games is coming real soon... Promise. Now on to Glens Falls, NY next weekend for the HS State Championship tournament games. (*Fingers crossed.) -cg.
It was some night...!!! I don't think I've had this kind of excitement in shooting sports since the days when I regularly covered the Knicks, Yankees, etc. while on the pro sports beat earlier in my career. Both of our local teams I covered last night won and now they both advance to the NY State Semi-Finals Playoffs up near Albany, NY next weekend. The Kingston girls beat Mt. Vernon 58 - 55, and the Newburgh Free Academy boys beat perennial powerhouse Mt. Vernon 71 - 70, on a 3-point buzzer-beater by Will Bouton from beyond the half court stripe with two seconds left. Bouton had 17 points to lead the NFA scorers, and was the instant hero of the game. I was in "The Zone" most of the night, and was extremely happy (almost giddy actually) that the sports information director there at Pace University let me utilize their arena strobes, which saved me the meticulous set-up & breakdown time and headaches of working with my strobes in an unfamiliar gym. The college also had wi-fi in the gym, allowing all the media to work directly from courtside press row. Big, big help.
More about the games tonight, as I have a regular workday to get to. Stay tuned... -cg.
Two of 'em in fact. The hottest ticket in town for HS playoff basketball anywhere in the area. For both Boys and Girls in their NY State Quarterfinal games over in Westchester at Pace University. The two best schools in our coverage area that I've been covering all season, Kingston HS girls and Newburgh Free Academy boys are playing Mt. Vernon HS in games tonight. The games are in my old stomping grounds and I'm really getting pumped to see them both playing for this opportunity to continue in the state tournament if either team wins. That's why I know I'm going to have the "Best Seat in the House..." Look for a slideshow of a selection of last weekend's games as well tonight's match-ups posted here ASAP. (Sorry I didn't get around to posting any game action from last weekend's six games that I covered. The previous Iraq War Anniversary portraits (earlier link below) and other daily work kind of tied me up the past few days...) -cg.
The Newburgh Free Academy boys basketball team almost did it tonight. Took Rice HS of NYC into overtime, and lost by two. This team really, really showed a lot of heart and pure guts. It was a pleasure to photograph a lot of their games this season, and be around kids who to the man don't know the meaning of sports prima dona. 
