St. John's Basketball: City Title Champions

The best thing about photographing championship games is the emotion of the players right after. I often plot to figure out the best place to be to capture that emotion well before the game is over. It all happens very quickly and is usually over before you know it. I must say...I totally missed it this time.

Purchase Prints Here

DeMatha Basketball: City Title Champions

DeMatha returned to the City Title game for the third straight year and eventually took their third consecutive championship after beating Theodore Roosevelt 52-50 at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. People inquired about the downfall of DeMatha basketball after their 50 point loss to St. Anthony's earlier this season on ESPN. Yet, here they are again winning games and collecting trophies.

I don't have much analysis to contribute about the game, but I do like that each team came out with their solid color away uniforms. Vibrant.

Purchase Photos Here

Eastern vs. Roosevelt Boys DCIAA Basketball Championship

This game was pretty exciting. Roosevelt Rough Rider guard Ezell Starks put in a layup at the buzzer to break a 60-60 tie with Eastern High School. The Rough Riders will represent the public schools in DC's City Title game which pits the public school champ versus the private school champ.

Purchase Prints Here.

Tardy for the Party

I showed up early, but was mad late. My arrival at Coolidge's gym was at 7p, an hour before the game started. I strolled in like I had time to kill, glanced at the clock and noticed 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter of this JV game. But as I soon discovered, the JV team didn't play that night.

What I did see of the game was pretty good. Coolidge was down 4 in the middle of the 4th but ended up winning by 8 with a flurry of steals, defensive stops and easy lay-ups. Shout out to my man Derek who was injured but still cheering from the end of the bench.

Way Back Wednesdays: DeMatha, Coolidge and Caron Butler

When I first walked into the Frank R. Williams Center, I thought to myself "this is no place a camera can or should be used". The dark cavernous arena was home of the Coolidge High School Colts and the annual Caron Butler Classic. The Classic was a showcase of local high school basketball teams hosted and sponsored by the former Washington Wizard.

The date was December 4, 2007 and the final game was between Coolidge and Dematha coached by Vaughn Jones and Mike Jones, respectively (both alums of the DeMatha program). I don't remember the fine details of the contest, but according to this video, DeMatha won by two. This photo was taken with a 70-200mm lens at 1600 ISO, 1/320th at f/2.8. The most interesting thing about this picture are the people in it and all the basketball talent that lives in the DMV. From left to right, Philip Green, Derrick Washington (Coolidge), Quinn Cook, and Josh Selby.

Time Machine Wednesdays...I mean Way Back Wednesdays

Last week I started Time Machine Wednesdays in which I would go back in my archive and find a picture from waaaaaaayyyyyy back in the early days of my illustrious photography career. In the 8 days since I've unfurled this guaranteed rating increasing series, I've already made two mistakes. One is that Time Machine Wednesdays lacks the alliteration needed for this to be remotely successful. The other mistake: today is Thursday. So I will attempt to fix both problems by now calling it Way Back Wednesdays and dating this entry as if I posted it yesterday. Enjoy!

This is the photo that started my foray into sports documentary work and my infatuation with Coolidge High School. On August 15, 2006, I took this picture in the Coolidge locker room. The previous day, I talked with then head coach Jason Lane about a photo project I wanted to do that involved documenting the team throughout the season. I showed up about 10 minutes late after getting lost and the first thing he said was, "I knew you were coming but I didn't know you were going to be 15." The gift and the curse of the baby face. I was actually 23 at the time and didn't know I would spend the next 4 football seasons at 6315 5th St. NW.

Shout out to (l-r) Greg "G-Dot" Bagley, Kobi Williams, Wayne Ouzts (sitting) and Alfred Williams.

Phoenix Suns

I spent much of last basketball season shooting purple and orange; the main colors of the NBA's Arizona franchise. This season I predict doing much of the same. Last Wednesday, they actually played each other. Coolidge took another lopsided loss to their locker room (this time to Gonzaga 76-45) but again, the season is in diapers. Shoutout to this rematch in the City Title game...maybe?

Purchase Prints Here

The Return of Calvin

I just read that John was Calvin Coolidge's first name according to a very reliable source (Wikipedia). It's an interesting fact, but it has little to do with this post. The return of Calvin has everything to do with the Colts being back on the hardwood and in their first game of the season, they went up against defending City Title champion DeMatha Stags. DeMatha, a national powerhouse, opened a brand new gym pitting two teams in which both head coaches Vaughn Jones (Coolidge) and Mike Jones (DeMatha) were former Stags.

Coolidge took a 70-41 beating but hey, it's a long season. Plenty of time for them to get better and plenty of time for me to make some decent frames. Shout out to 30th presidents all over the world.

Purchase Prints Here

Roosevelt @ Dunbar Football

Football fluctuates back and forth between basketball as my favorite sport to shoot. Night football is dead last on that list. Friday night lights might be fun for some but not for me. Unless of course Coach Taylor is on the sidelines. Anyway, during their homecoming game, the Dunbar Crimson Tide beat the Roosevelt Rough Riders 40-0. Tough break.

Purchase Prints Here

McKinley Tech Football...and so it begins.

August is here and football practice on the local high school scene has started. For the past four football seasons, I'd been reporting live from 6315 5th St. NW aka Calvin Coolidge High School. It's like I graduated! Some things went down in March and former Coolidge coach Jason Lane is now leading the helmeted high-schoolers at McKinley Tech. Now I'm shooting them. Colt no more. Trainer for now. Shout out to the Maroon...or Burgundy...I should probably figure that out.

Purchase Prints Here

No Pads: McKinley Tech Football Passing League

It's still very early in the preseason for high school football. As part of the preparation for the Friday night battles in August, the DCIAA schools participate in a passing league which consists of 7 players on a side, one football, no pads and no helmets. The receivers sure up their route running and catching and the defenders work on pass coverage. No pads means no tackling so the receivers are subject to some vicious shoves disguised as two hand touches. McKinley Tech lost to Dunbar in the last game which eliminated them from the passing league playoffs. Tick tock tick tock until late August.

See More Photos Here