28th Annual Eddie Meath All-Star Game 2010

This year the game took place on a hot July 4th day. This was a much better played game than last year. It was good to see some improved sportsmanship by everyone involved. Offensively, Clay Harris for the East and Adam Gruschow for the West stood out. Zach Cicero and Shawn Burke seemed to be in on every tackle and played great defense for the East. Click here for the rest of the pics...

Two Hornell players (Austin Dwyer #44 and Cody Recktenwald #56) pay homage to fallen classmates

The west all-stars warm-up before the game

West all-stars exit their locker room

East all-stars await the national anthem

Captains of the west all-stars greet a child honoree

Tom Rapone (#72) looks to make a block

Nick DiMartino (#1) gets by a tackler

Gannon Osborn (#12) and team celebrates his touchdown

Duell Smith (#23) eyes an open receiver

Manny Magliocco (#17) fires a screen pass to his receiver

Adam Gruschow (#1) is tripped up by David Tack (#3)

Cheerleading all-stars show off their moves at halftime

Spring Baseball

Finally was able to get a baseball game in amongst all of these lacrosse games. The East Orientals took on the Spencerport Rangers at Spencerport on April 4th. The game stayed pretty close through the first 5 innings that I was able to photograph. Spencerport ended up tacking on a bunch of runs at the end to win 8-2. Click here for the rest of the pics...

One week I'm sweating from the heat and the next week, like on Friday, it's snowing during a baseball game. I was prepared for the cold Friday afternoon but it definitely slowed down the hitting early. Pittsford Sutherland took on the Irondequoit Eagles at Irondequoit on April 9th. Most of the runs were scored late innings as the teams warmed up (but not the weather). Sutherland won the game 8-4 and the weather made me think that my Hawaii trip couldn't come soon enough. Click here for the rest of the pics...

Saturday, April 10th was a beautiful day and I was able to photograph two different games. The first was baseball at Rush Henrietta as they took on Honeoye Falls-Lima. Tough game for the Royal Comets as they lost to a powerful HFL team 16-3. Click here for the rest of the pics...

Arcadia travelled to Gates to take on the Spartans on April 12th. Gates strung some hits together to give them a decent lead and had some strong pitching to win 8-3. Click here to see the pics...

This was the last game I saw before going on vacation a few weeks ago. The game was played between the Cadets and Trojans on April 14th. Hilton's hitting impressed me as they were putting up runs almost every inning. There was a scary moment in the game when one of Athena's infielders was hit in the neck by a throw. He seemed ok as he was helped off the field. Hilton ended up winning the game 11-0. Click here for the rest of the pics...

I was glad to see these teams had their aces going for them when I arrived. I missed seeing Eich last year and wanted to get a chance to photograph him pitching. Wandtke for GC was great too, the only runs scored were due to some errors in the infield by the Spartans. Eich and the Saints came out on top 2-0. Click here for the rest of the photos...

The weather in the last week has been less than sunny and on Friday it looked like the clouds were going to drop some serious rain or snow. The sky opened up in certain areas over Gates creating a small hole in the dark sky. The game did only have a few sprinkles but the threat was always there. Hilton ended up beating Gates 14-5. Click here for the rest of the pics...

I had to shoot some more portraits in Canandaigua last Saturday, so I was able to shoot the Victor v. Canandaigua baseball game. The weather was windy with a little bit of rain falling for the first 6 innings. The Braves had taken an early lead but Victor came back to tie it at 4 sending the game into extra innings. Victor scored a run in the top of the seventh but hail stopped the game in the bottom of the inning. The game was called a tie. Click here for the rest of the pics...

January Basketball and Hockey

I want to catch up now that winter session is beginning to slow down. Saturday, Jan. 16th the Gates-Chili hockey team took on the Liverpool Warriors from Section 6. The game was very physical with a surplus of penalties and Liverpool had a very difficult time controlling the puck on the offensive end. The Spartans offense was too quick to the puck and put a lot of pressure on the Warriors goalie (who was outstanding). Click here for the rest of the pics from the game...

On Wednesday, January 20th, I was at Gates-Chili's gym to shoot both JV and Varsity boys basketball games. The Spartans were taking on the Brockport Blue Devils. This game was fairly easy for Gates once Imes, Brockport's big man, got in foul trouble early. Not sure how much better of a game it would have been if he was able to play more. The Spartans win big 75-34. Click here for the rest of the pics from the JV and Varsity game...

Two days later, Gates played Friday night against the Hilton Cadets. This was a great game as both teams played hard and it seemed to be a tale of two halves. Hilton started hot beating Gates to the basket and scoring often. Gates didn't seem to have the scoring touch until the second half where they fought back to take the lead. They held on to the lead and played like a different team in the second half to win 43-36. Click here for the rest of the pics from the game...

Thursday the 28th of January, there was another great hockey game involving the Gates and Greece teams. This time it was the Lightning facing the Spartans at Lakeshore Ice Rink. Gates-Chili led for most of the game but Greece tied it up in the third and went ahead with a little over 3 mins left in the game. The Lightning held on to win 4-3. Click here for the rest of the pics from the game...

Girls basketball played on Friday the 29th against Greece Arcadia. Gates girls fought hard through this game and almost pulled off the upset as they lost 53-52. This was the most physical girls basketball game I have ever witnessed. The inside girls battled for every loose ball and rebound. The young Gates' guards were great again for the Spartans. I also photographed the JV game before the varsity. Click here for the rest of the pics from the JV and Varsity game...

Gates Basketball v. Hilton and Arcadia

Basketball season officially started for me Tuesday night as the the Lady Spartans took on the Lady Cadets at Gates-Chili H.S. Hilton came out strong early with a 15 point lead and held onto to a double digit lead most of the game. Gates fought back to bring it within three points with a great full court press. The Spartans couldn't hit some important buckets late and Hilton held on for the win 55-48. Click here for the rest of the pics...

The Gates-Chili boys varsity team played Arcadia also a few days later Friday night. This was a very sloppy game played by the Spartans as they went down early in the first half by double digits. They fought back just like the girls did earlier in the week but they couldn't get enough stops to slow down the Titans. Arcadia finished off the Gates team with a 55-49 score. Click here for the rest of the pics...

Busy Week of October Sports

As usual, I am running way behind because of a ton of photos and work this week. I am bunching the last week of shoots together to get me caught up. I am really trying to fit in the rest of the GC sports so no one is left out and increase my galleries on MaxPreps. I also am shooting other schools and working with a few papers and that is also taking away some of my time for this blog.

Last blog I mentioned shooting soccer Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday was a day of shooting cross country. I was able to shoot my first running of the year and it took a toll on the whole week. The number of photos and edits took so long to finish it backed up all the rest of my galleries for the week. Anyways, check out the boys and girls varsity cross country shots by going to the gallery down below. The teams included the Gates-Chili Spartans, Pittsford Mendon Vikings, Batavia Blue Devils, Greece Odyssey Leopards, and Churchville-Chili Saints. The meet took place in Greece at Basil Marella Park.

Thursday and Friday were days off due to weather and a cancellation but still I was behind on my edits. Saturday, I woke up early and shot Gates girls soccer as they took on the Hilton Cadets. As I arrived, I noticed that one of the Hilton players was on the ground being tended to. The Hilton goalie was hurt during pre-game and left the field for medical care. Hilton used there back-up and Gates took advantage to win 2-0.

After the soccer game was homecoming football at Gates-Chili as they welcomed Irondequoit in for a 3:00 pm game. The game was as expected and Gates took a big lead with their powerful running game. On a side note, Irondequoit's starting QB did not dress for the game and GC's defense harassed the back-up all game. The end score was Spartans 34, Eagles 0.

Sunday I was up early again to a cloudy, rainy day of Chili Lions football. I shot two games and went right home to continue on with my edits.

Monday, I wanted to get one more gallery of tennis before their season ended. I was able to photograph a few sets of Gates first round sectional match against Greece Lightning which combines Arcadia and Olympia. They ended up moving on in their bracket with a 6-1 win.

Tuesday, I knew East Rochester field hockey was going to be playing Gates at home and wanted to get some shots of this amazing team. They have been the top team in this area and New York state for a while now. I knew the game would not be close as GC lost 9-0.

Finally a break and I am almost caught up!

Gallery: Cross Country meet

Girls Soccer: GC v. Hilton

Football Gallery: GC v. Irondequoit

Football Gallery: Chili Lions

Tennis Sectionals: GC v. Greece

Field Hockey Gallery: GC v. ER

Yellow Cards First, Tackle Later

Friday night was a busy night for me. I had a bunch of photos to edit from the previous night and wanted to shoot two Gates-Chili games that night. I knew it was going to create a busy weekend of editing but, I shot them anyways.

First game was girls soccer as GC faced off against the Greece Arcadia Titans. It was my first girls soccer of the high school season and it was a very physical game. There were 3 yellow cards given out during the game and this unsuspecting Arcadia player received the only red card of the match. It must of been something she said because their was no real hard contact before the referee blew the whistle.

I liked this shot as the lady Spartans celebrated after they scored their only goal. Brianna Szczepanski (22) celebrates with a teammate as the Titan player can't bear to watch.

Once the cards were out and over with, Greece kept control of the ball and scoring to win 4-1. Here junior Blythe Sheridan (11) keeps her eyes on the ball before controlling the kick.

The second game Friday night was GC football at the stadium facing off against Churchville-Chili. The battle for Chili brings a certain vibe to the crowd because these two schools are so close to each other. The Spartans were prepared and ready to play hard after a tough loss last week. They wanted to show that they still are in contention to defend last years championship.

Gates always comes onto the field as one and here they prepare to run into the middle of the field.

The Spartans stadium is very poorly lit for night games. GC may have a new gym and pool but, new lights should now be on the short list. Poor lighting is a sports photographer's nightmare, so I decided to use some off camera flash. I super-clamped my flash to the bottom of the monopod and ran the cord along it up to the hotshoe. This method limited the red eye results as you can see in this shot of Eli Thomas (32) receiving the hand-off .

Thomas had a great game, showing his power that he had last year. He dragged defenders down field all night. Gates other two backs were big on the ground too. Here Levester Tucker (28) points to the sky after a short run for a TD.

GC ended up beating Churchville 34-13, as Gates proved that they are still a power in Monroe County football.

Check out the Soccer Gallery: Arcadia v. GC

Check out the Football Gallery: CC v. GC