March 1st, 2010
As you may or may not know, March Magic is now upon us.
No, not March Madness, that distinction belongs to NCAA college basketball. I mean, Michigan high school basketball. The season was a long one, but we are finally down to the make or break, win and move on, or lose and go home. we have some great local teams right here in our own backyard. First off, the girls district tournaments have begun as of March 1st. The boys tournaments don’t begin until next Monday. While Freeland is the only high school locally hosting games in the district match-ups. There are many local teams playing all over the area.
The Hemlock girls powered their way past Bullock Creek 63-32 today and Freeland beat Shepherd 61-39. The Jankoska sisters double teamed Shepherd with 39 combined points. Jenni had 21, and Tori had 18. Their defense forced many turnovers which almost put the game away in the first half, if not for a spunky Shepherd rally. Jenni had 5 steals and sister Tori recorded 7. Yikes. Those girls can play.
In the earlier game Hemlock’s Peyton Apsey led a potent offense with 22 points and 6 steals, while 6 foot tall Shelby Herrington added 18 points and had 4 blocks. The Huskies out scored the Lancers, 27-5 in the second period to pull ahead and then blew the game open by out scoring them 18-4 in the third period. These two teams play again on Wednesday right back there in Freeland. Alma Plays Hemlock at 6 p.m and Chippewa Hills plays Freeland at 7:30 p.m.
The boys are finishing off their last regular season games, and then wham, right into the district tournament next week, ready or not.
Heritage will play host to some great boys games. Our very own Arthur Hill Lumberjacks and Heritage Hawks will take on Flushing and Owosso, respectively. Saginaw High is waiting in the wings to play the Ah vs Flushing game, hoping to get a third shot at a team which beat them twice during regular season. But this time will be different. The losers season will be over, far short of it’s goal.
But wait, Freeland is also hosting some boys games. Remus, is taking on Shepherd in game 1, and Bullock Creek will play Freeland in the second. Waiting with bye’s are Alma and Hemlock.
Now, those are some ball games to see. Now, lets go cheer on our teams.
Tags: Arthur Hill High School, Bullock Creek High School, Freeland High School, Hemlock High School, Heritage High School, Jenni Jankoska, March Magic, MHSAA district tournaments, MHSAA March Magic 2010, Peyton Apsey, Saginaw Sports, Shelby Herrington, Tori Jankoska
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February 14th, 2010
The #2 Lumberjacks did not fare so well in a big match-up this weekend against #3 ranked Romulus at home. It was an exciting game as a Lumberjack fan in the first half as Maurice Jones popped in a few three-pointers to help give Arthur Hill a lead at the end of the first half.
As soon as the second half started everything went down hill. Romulus had a plan, and that was to not let Maurice get inside, and control the boards. As soon as the half begun, it was the Romulus three-point show. When a lane was not open, they passed it inside, usually to a man under the basket all alone. Combined with the fact that they controlled the boards, the game got out of control real fast.
That’s pretty much how the entire second half went. Second shot opportunities by Romulus was devastating for the Lumberjacks. Jones tried to get them back in the game with some three-pointers of his own, but nothing doing. Not a single one would fall in the second half. There would be no fourth period heroics. Arthur Hill’s ten game win streak was over, jeopardizing their #2 ranking.
Saginaw High defeated this same Romulus team about a month ago, but their big men went inside and rallied in the fourth period for a great overtime comeback win.
Speaking of Saginaw High, they won this past Friday, ending their four-game losing streak.
The state districts will begin in a few short weeks (March 
and rankings wont matter anymore. One loss and it’s season over. Only the toughest teams will get the chance to play at the MSU, Breslin center on March 25-27 in the state semi’s and finals.
Get out and support our local athletes and cheer them on, so they may have the chance to represent our city in East Lansing.
See ya at the games!
Tags: Maurice Jones, MHSAA Finals 2010, MSU Breslin center, Saginaw Arthur Hill, Saginaw Arthur Hill boys basketball, Saginaw Arthur Hill vs Romulus boys basketball, Saginaw High, Saginaw High Basketball
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February 8th, 2010
last Friday I had the privilege of watching the Hemlock Huskies host the Valley Lutheran Chargers in boys basketball.
The games was part as a series of TVC Conference crossover games and has pitted some of the top teams in each division against each other. That has turned out to be a very entertaining series of match-ups. On Friday Hemlock and Valley Lutheran was no different.
The Chargers jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Huskies got on the scoreboard. The rest of the first period the Huskies played catch-up. With under 1 minute to go the Huskies had a small run of their own to take the lead at the end of the first period.
The Chargers had a surge of their own taking the lead back with 5 minutes left in the half. That lead was never lost again. The Chargers held that lead into the half.
The chargers took right off where they left off and stretched their lead in the third. In the final period the Huskies tried hard to fight back the lead but fell short. They tried to hit a few 3 pointers but they would not go in all game long. They had a shot at getting back in the game late, but could not convert some free throws.
It was a very good game. I almost did not want to leave because it was so cold that night and the cold air literally took my breath away. I am not a big fan of the cold or snow which is why I don’t ski, sled, skate or anything else in the cold.
I have some photos of the game in the gallery and have even posted the game video highlights. It was a little tough shooting with strobes as I had a tough time getting a good angle with no shadows. The only place to set up had a backboard in the way. The gym is vary small and was tightly packed with fans. Even the cheerleaders had a very small area to stand in. Which just happened to be in the same area I use to shoot from. On some shots I had to stand behind them and shoot between their heads. I moved almost under the basket with my 50mm lens but I had very little room to stand there as the ref needed room to maneuver. There was a doorknob in my back almost the whole time and I was worried a player would run into me and the doorknob would get slammed into my already bad back. Well, I made it out of there safely and am looking forward to the next game.
See you there!
Tags: Hemlock boys basketball, Hemlock Huskies, saginaw high school basketball, saginaw high school sports, saginaw michigan high school basketball, Saginaw Sports, Valley Lutheran boys basketball, Valley Lutheran chargers
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February 4th, 2010
I’m sure you have noticed that I have changed my banner logo. i thought it might suit the theme of my blog a little better than the previous one.
For those of you who are new to this blog. I am a professional sports photographer who shoots high school, middle school, college, youth and some professional sporting events. I post information about the events I shoot at hoping to give a little advice about sports photography and covering the event.
I get to watch and talk to a lot of upcoming athletes hoping to play at the college level with a professional career in mind.
Stick around and learn your way around a sports venue and hopefully gain some photography skills. I also take out interested photographers to teach them first hand. Contact me if you are interested in doing so.
I will be shooting at the Hemlock vs Valley Lutheran game Friday and at the Dorian Dawkins Basketball Classic this weekend at Delta College, where some of the best high school players in the state will play. The #1 nationally ranked high school team will also be there with the #2 nationally ranked high school player, It should be a great weekend of ball. I’ll tell you about it later.
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February 3rd, 2010
This is a little late, but if you did not go to saturdays rematch between Arthur Hill and Saginaw High you really missed an excellent to see Saginaw County’s basketball talent at it’s best. There will probably not be a better match-up until playoff time. Even then it might not meet this games intensity and all-around talent. 
Arthur Hill currently ranked #3 in class A, had Maurice Jones. I feel Jones solidified his standing as the top Mr. Basketball candidate. He has already committed to USC, which is a disappointment, since he is not going to be in a U of M or MSU uniform next season. But, I’m sure he did what was best for him and his education and who can blame him for that? Not me. I believe education comes first and he is going to get one.
Saginaw High currently ranked #4 in division A, and defeated #1 Romulus last weekend has a few players of their own, including Tommie McCune. McCune was scouted out last week in Detroit by none other than MSU coach Tom Izzo.
The game started out with a Trojan offensive which saw them jump out to an early lead, that was cut to one-point bey the end of the first period. In the second period, the Lumberjacks pulled away to a 40-35 advantage.
In the third period, The Lumberjacks kicked it into high gear offensively and defensively. They out-scored the Trojans 20-7 and then held on for the win.
There were some moments of bad sportsmanship which almost caused a huge problem. It was quite sad, but it didn’t ruin the day. The game went on.
The Trojans defeated #1 Romulus last week in overtime which helps the Lumberjacks. I am a little disappointed that they did not climb in the rankings and Romulus is still #1, but what can you do? Saginaw High fell all the way down to #15. Yikes (depends on what rankings you read).
see you at the next game!
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January 30th, 2010
I spent the evening at Buena Vista to cover the boys varisty basketball game between the division 3 #3 ranked Knights and highly talented Flint Northwestern. The game was a rematch between the teams, with the Wildcats winning the first match-up.
This game was different, with the Knights running away for the 73-62 win. Things started out rough for the knights falling behind in the first period, 22-16. The Knights however were just warming up. With strong shooting and tough defense they rallied back to take a 33-28 lead at the half.
Buena Vista never looked back. They had a well rounded effort, with five players scoring in double figures. Led by George Goodman’s 24 points. Devante Jackson had 14, Malik Houston and Derrick Washington each scored 11 and Dequavion Hogg had 10.
Thee game was ended with an exclamation by the Knights who completed an awesome alley-oop dunk at the end of the game.
The facility was not a camera friendly place to shoot. the gymnasium was rather small and tightly packed. the worst part was that EVERYBODY kept walking in front of me. I have never seen so many fans just walking along the sideline and baseline of a game, during the game. there wasn’t much room to get around but this was crazy. many shots were missed, but what can you do.
There is a nice young lady who is training right now, and I gave her the best spot on the other end of the court. I did not want her to get frustrated with the fans and right now she is learning how to get great shots in continuous focus setting. It takes some getting practice to get a good focus on moving players. Especially when other players are constantly moving in front of the ball handler. We both shot using a strobe setup (Alien Bee 1600’s with a radio transmitter and receiver) and using different frequency’s. We can usually get away with an ISO of 250 or 320, a shutter speed of 250 (some camera have a higher or lower sync speed) and an f-stop of 4. Take a few test shots and go from there. I have not gone through the photos but by doing a little chimping (looking at the photos on the LCD) she did pretty well and is learning fast. Composition is very important, you almost always need the ball in the photo and faces. A shot of them running away with just their backs and the ball is unacceptable. Players and family like to see their faces when they view the photos. you want to see expressions on the players faces also. Sometimes that can make the photo.
All in all it was an entertaining, and these guys can do very well in the future if they can settle down early and not try to push the tempo against a good defensive team. I’m sure we’ll see them go far into the playoffs at the end of the season.
See you at the next game!
Tags: Alien Bee 1600's, buena Vista, Buena Vista varsity boys basketball, Fint Northwestern boys varsity basketball, Michigan
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January 23rd, 2010
WoW, what a game.
If you failed to make it to Saginaw High Saturday evening to see the Trojans take on undefeated, class A #1 ranked Romulus, you missed out on quite an exciting game. The game had plenty of action by both teams and lots of fouls. The teams took turns hitting great shots. Romulus with their 3-point shooting and Saginaw High with their inside game gave everybody plenty to cheer about.
One player stood out above the rest. You’ve heard his name before I’m sure, Tommie McCune. The 6′7″ junior center from Saginaw High scored 28-points and had 24-rebounds for a huge double-double. DeAnthony Arnette had a good game also with 19-points, 5-rebounds, and 6-assists.
In the first half of the game tho, it belonged to Romulus. They kept hitting three after three slowly edging their way out to a 19-15 advantage after the first period and then 36-25 halftime lead.
All hope for a Trojan win seemed to be slowly slipping away. But the Coach Lou Dawkins and the Trojans did not believe that.
The Trojans came out in the second half more determined and aggressive offensively. Saginaw High, taking the ball to the hoop created problems for Romulus. The Trojans crept their way back into the game, ending the third period 50-41. The fourth period got a little crazy. The Trojans at first tried to get closer by shooting some three’s, but those shots missed their mark. Then they went back to an inside game, and broke the fourth period loose. McCune jammed a monster slam to get the Trojans within two late in the fourth but Romulus got back out to seven. Finally Saginaw High got back to within two-points and Arnette was at the charity line to try to tie the game. He was as good as gold at the line in this game and sunk both free-throws, to tie the game with 13-seconds left. The Trojans held them off and sent the game to OVERTIME!
Arnette again hit some big free-throws in OT, hitting 3-of-4. The Trojans out-scored Romulus 16-12 in OT for the win 78-74.
It was a big win for Saginaw High and the Saginaw area. Coach Dawkins said that it was one the most dominant performances by a player he has coached, talking about McCune. Besides the 28-points and 24-rebounds, McCune accounted for drawing seven of the eleven charging fouls called on Romulus.
Arnette hit 13-of-14 free-throws and was 10-for10 in the fourth period to go with his 5-rebounds and 6-assists. Travion Babers hit 14-points on the night.
It was a big win for the Trojans who improved to 8-2 on the season and are sure to rise in the rankings next week. They are currently at #7, with big games against Belleville and #4 Arthur Hill next week.
Make sure you DO NOT MISS the Trojans play the Lumberjacks in a rematch of their earlier game in which the Lumberjacks handed them a loss in an exciting game. Maurice Jones scored 36-points to lead Arthur Hill. But unlike the first game, this game will be a conference game and will be a must win for Saginaw High to get within reach of the leading Lumberjacks. Although the Lumberjacks are 6-0 and the Trojans are 4-0 in conference play.
SaginawSports.com was on hand and photos and video will posted of this exciting game soon!
See you at the next game!
Tags: Romulus boys basketball, Saginaw High coach Lou Dawkins, Saginaw High DeAnthony Arnette, Saginaw high School boys basketball, Saginaw High Tommie McCune, Saginaw High vs Romulus boys basketball 2010
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January 17th, 2010
Arthur Hill played host for the 38th Saginaw County Wrestling Championships Saturday morning.
All of the counties best wrestlers were on hand to compete for a title. Swan Valley brought a slew of wrestlers hoping to win their fourth straight county title. The Vikings won last year and managed to make it to last years state semi-finals before bowing out. They are charging up to make a deep run in this years state tournament, after making it to two straight semi-finals.
Swan Valley did not disappoint, they had seven wrestlers finish with a title, Birch Run did not finish far behind in points and had two wrestlers with a title of their own. Swan Valley’s senior Darius Wass won his fourth title, only the ninth wrestler to win four in the history of the event. He was also awarded the lowers weights MVP.
Saginaw High only took seven wrestlers to the championships and came away with two wrestler win a title. Quinton Moore won a second straight tile for Saginaw Highs only wrestler ever to win two county titles.
Heritage High school managed to tie for a third place finish but did not have any title winners.
All in all it was a great meet to watch. five mats were laid out and I am sure the event coordinators had their hands full. It was a tight situation to shoot in, it was packed in the gym. I was able to use an on-camera flash as a strobe was just too bulky and dangerous to set-up with so many people packed in. Even the balcony was full. I had to crouch down in front of a scorers table and there was barely any room for that. Check out the gallery and look for video to be posted soon.
Tags: Arthur Hill, Heritage High School wrestling, Saginaw Arthur Hill High School, Saginaw County high school wrestling, Saginaw County Wrestling Championships, Saginaw High School wrestling, saginaw wrestling, Swan Valley Wrestling
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January 16th, 2010
Sorry folks, I seem to have been missing in action for a little while.
I went to Chicago recently and was really busy and did not find the time to write. I had intended to. I had plans to write on some subject of interest but failed to find the time.
I did do some shooting recently. On Thursday I traveled to Heritage to shoot some boys basketball. I took along a strobe I recently ordered. I had a few other strobes but this was a new one, more powerful. Now shooting with strobes is different than without one you could imagine. The game at Heritage was a freshman game followed by a JV game. the crowd was sparse and very few of the seating was pulled out, so I had plenty of room to work with.
I set up my light and set the camera accordingly. First off I set the iso to 250, shutter to 1/250, and f-stop to 4, jpeg fine (raw is just not needed). I took a shot and it looked good. I was glad to be able to shoot at iso 250 as there is very little noise at that setting. The lens I usually have to shoot is with the 50mm 1.8 lens. But this gave me the option to shoot with the 80-200mm 2.8 lens that I love for football. It is a fast focusing sharp lens, that should be in everyone’s bag. I put it on and, NICE! I was able to shoot all the way out to half court and get a full body shot or a waist up shot. The lighting was still very good and I love the new strobe. I plan on ordering some more. The strobe ordered was a Alien Bee 1600 used with the Cybersync CST transmitter and a Cybersync CSR receiver. A real simple setup with the strobe on a 10 foot stand pointed up and reflecting off the ceiling. There were a few issues with some shadow but very little. I was free to move around as far back as I needed to get some baseline shots. I am very happy with the results.
On Friday a young lady who is now training with us, used the setup with great results at a Swan Valley basketball game. It was the first time for her to shoot with strobes and she had no problem getting some very nice sharp action shots with the set-up. She picked up right away with where to stand for the best light (behind you) and had very few probs with shadows.
The only problem is that I could only set up one strobe on one side of the gym as the band set up in the other corner of the balcony (where I set up the strobe to be out of the way of fans and closer to the ceiling for better light).
Check out the gallery!
Tags: Alien Bee 1600, Cybersync CSR, Cybersync CST, heritage high school basketball photos, saginawsports.com, Strobes, Swan Valley basketball, swan valley basketball photos
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