Lutheran South Academy vs. St. John XXIII Football

Ahhhh yessssss. Early September marks my first football game of the season. This year, the Lutheran South Academy Pioneers took on the St. John XXIII Lions. Two years ago, St. John XXIII was known as Pope John XXIII but I was completely unaware of the late pope's transition to sainthood. But I am now aware, as are all of you. The good thing about last Friday's game and most games in September is that the Earth takes it's sweet time rotating away from the sun so I was able to partake in some pretty good light during the race to nightfall. The bad thing about last Friday's game was that Lutheran South got a good amount of rain throughout the day so every step I took on the sideline mid-way through the first quarter, was a rain soaked mess. The Pioneers ran away with a 49-7 victory en route to a 2-0 record on the season. #FootballBack

Kingsley Keke for the Houston Chronicle

Two weeks ago, high school senior athletes around the country signed their National Letter of Intent to play sports for various colleges and universities. With all the high school football in the air in this here great state of Texas, you can imagine how big this day was for those student athletes. I got the call to head out to George Ranch High School in Richmond, TX to photograph Kingsley Keke, a 6' 3" 290 pound defensive tackle. Keke, as he is so affectionately called, is heading to Texas A&M this fall to help bolster an Aggie defense that many pundits think is non-existent. Shout out to Kingsley and good luck in College Station!

QB/WR Jake: Part III

Five years ago while living in Washington DC, I shot an awful lot of high school sports (shout out to DCSportsFan). Depending on what season it was, I was shooting a game almost daily and had visited many different high school athletic fields and gymnasiums in the DMV. Sometime in October 2009 a parent reached out to me to photograph her son, Jake, who was the starting quarterback of the Maret Frogs. The first game I shot was pretty much played in a monsoon but the second game had better weather and a Maret victory.

Fast forward to October 2014 where I am contacted by the same parent with a similar request. She wants me to photograph Jake again, but this time he's a WR at Kenyon College in Ohio. Pretty cool right? Right?! I traveled to Ohio, where the weather was just a little bit cooler, to photograph Jake play the Allegheny Gators. Fun Fact: Kenyon just ended the season with a 1-9 record...guess who their one win came against? I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Ballegheny Tators. I am the good luck charm.

So here is a very superficial visual view of Jake's senior years of high school and college football, respectively. Big shout out to Jake and his family and smaller shout out to Homage, where I finally made a pilgrimage.

Lutheran South Academy Football: Homecoming

Back to back posts on Lutheran South Academy Pioneer football...they must be doing something right. This time, they sent the Second Baptist Eagles back to Woodway and Voss with a 54-42 loss and started homecoming off in style. The Pioneers got a monster of a game from senior RB Justin Matthews with 355 yards rushing and 5 TDs. Shout out to the Homecoming Queen who was quite surprised to get a W of her own.

Lutheran South Academy Football

Is this my first football post of the season? Nope, it's my second...but the first with some real Friday night lights action. A couple of weeks ago, I returned to Lutheran South Academy to photograph a bunch of teenagers toss around the old pigskin. The Pioneers rolled the Danbury High School Panthers 57-19 in a game that went by pretty quickly thanks to a running clock after the first half. I'll be back there tonight for the homecoming game so I'll report in the near future with the results of their performance...and mine.

Lutheran South Academy Football

As you can tell, I'm getting all of my football posts together shortly after the end of the high school football season. I spent a few games photographing the team for Lutheran South Academy who had high hopes for a TAPPS state championship. They ended up with an 8-3 record and a tough 25-24 loss to Hyde Park Baptist in Austin. Shout out to one of my favorite sports venues to take photographs...the locker room.