Memorial Day and high school sports

Since our wedding season doesn't get underway in earnest for a couple of more weeks, I spent a good portion of this long weekend doing something that I haven't done since I moved back to Wichita: I freelanced for The Wichita Eagle. I had four assignments in two days that included a portrait of Larry Tyson, the commander of VFW Post 6957 in Haysville. The instructions with the assignment said to make him look like a veteran on Memorial Day and suggested that we go to a nearby cemetery. As I pulled out of the garage to make the Sunday morning assignment, I spotted the Old Glory that my father gave to me after moving into a new house earlier this year. I took it with me and I'm glad I did. There wasn't anything at the cemetery that would make a good picture. One of his colleagues from the VFW is holding the flag while my flash is to my right on a stand.


My portrait of Larry carried Monday's front page.


After the cemetery, I grabbed some lunch before meeting up with Eagle reporter Bill Wilson to work on a Memorial Day lake story. We headed to Cheney Reservoir where I met the Lang family from Hutch. I had this vision of shooting from a boat, perhaps of a skier or passengers, but the Langs' boat, named Family Time, was the only one to go in the water while we were there. Here William lets his 6-year-old daughter Taylor take the helm.


Saturday I covered two state championships. Interestingly, both games featured one of Wichita's two Catholic high schools. Also interestingly, they both lost. Bishop Carroll's softball team rallied for a nine-inning 1-0 win over last year's 5A champ, Ark City, in the semis, but dropped championship 3-0. BC's pitcher in both games threw all 16 innings on Saturday and is seen here walking through the frame while the opposing team celebrates. Definitely an impressive performace regardless of the final outcome.


After softball was over, I scooted over to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium to see Kapaun drop the Class 5A baseball final to Topeka Seaman. When I arrived, the scoreboard indicated that the home team had a 3-0 lead. I assumed that Kapaun was the home team. It wasn't until the fifth inning that I realized that the team I thought was winning indeed wasn't. Fortunately, I made a couple of decent plays of Kapaun losing though this one didn't make the paper.