Happy Independence Day

On Friday night, July 3rd, the Avery Ranch golf club held it’s annual Independence Day bash at the clubhouse.  Katie came home from school and joined us w/the Cohen family as we were treated to a terrific fireworks display.  Click the picture to see some of the photos I took of the event.

Leander defeats Cedar Park for playoff berth

The stakes were high when the Cedar Park Lady Timberwolves hosted the Leander Lady Lions friday night in a district battle to see who would qualify for the UIL softball playoffs.  It was a very well-played game that turned into a pitches duel until the late innings.  Neither team mounted a serious offensive threat until the top of the 7th when Leander had base runners on 2nd and 3rd and failed to score.  The game went into extra innings with Leander again putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  But this time, they capitalized by bringing in the game-winning run.  Congratulations Leander and Cedar Park both!

Be sure to click the picture to see all the photos from the game.

Doing a little freelance work with Hill Country News

The Hill Country News is a local paper that covers mostly the Williamson country (Cedar Park and Leander) areas of Texas.  It’s a great paper that has alot of articles that the larger Austin American Statesman doesn’t carry.  It does a particularly nice job of cover the high school sports scenes.  I had worked very closely with Robert Thomas taking soccer pictures.  Well……I got a call this week to help take more sports shots to help out.  It’s something I was interested in as I love doing photography and the chance to help out the paper too - well, that’s just fun.

So, my 1st assignment was today taking shots for the Vista Ridge boys baseball game against Westwood.  I got there a little early and had a chance to watch and photograph a little bit of my 1st ever Lacrosse game.  It was Vista Ridge -vs- Harker Heights.  I didn’t have a clue of what was going on or the rules.  But it looked like alot of fun.  It was definitely alot higher scoring than baseball or soccer.  After about 15 minutes of shooting, I got around to shooting the boys baseball.  I stuck for the 1st 3 innings with the good guys up 4-1.  You’ll have to visit the paper to see the final scores.  They publish updates every Tuesday and Friday.

The men Rangers lose to Stony Point 3-1

The Vista Ridge Ranger team took to the field today with a slim chance to stay in the playoff hunt against Stony Point.  Whatever chance they had quickly vanished as Stony Point built a 3-0 lead and made it stick for most of the game.  The Rangers had a few chances and managed to add a consolation goal with 45 seconds to go in the game.  The boys will face Westwood on Monday night in their last game of the 2009 season.

Lady Rangers celebrate senior night

On a very cold, wet, and generally nasty night in central Texas, the Lady Rangers paid tribute to the class of 2009 with a 2-1 victory over Stony Point.  I didn’t take pictures as it was just too nasty to get the camera out - but I did take some pictures of the half-time festivities.  In a tradition that started with the school’s first graduating class (2007), all of the seniors recorded a message to the team that was played during halftime.  Most of the girls reflected on their memories of their time at Vista Ridge and encouraged their teammates by calling out some of their “special” gifts and talents.  Like all seniors that have gone before them, this was a very special group of girls.

Lady Rangers needing win lost to RR 2-0

The Lady Rangers entered the game needing to win 2 of the last 3 to qualify for the playoffs. With their backs against the wall, the Lady Rangers played lights out for most of the game, but still lost 2-0 to the Round Rock Lady Dragons.  The 1st half belonged to the Lady Rangers both offensively and defensively.  But as it sometimes is in soccer, they just couldn’t get it in the goal.  They entered halftime tied 0-0.

The 2nd half began as the 1st ended with the Rangers continuing to apply the offensive pressure.  Just when it looked like the Rangers had the momentum, Round Rock got a quick transition goal when their forward got behind our last defender and out ran everyone to put the 1st goal on the board.  The Lady Rangers continued to fight and still had chances on what seemed like countless corner opportunities.  With 15 minutes in the game, Round Rock put the game away when their midfield connected on a ball that was just a little tall for our goalie.  To the Rangers credit, they never let up and fought all the way to the end.

The Lady Rangers will return to action Friday night at VRHS where they host Stony Point.  This will be senior night where the graduating class will be honored at half-time.

a win against Round Rock to keep pace with Cedar Park for the final playoff slot.

Men’s Rangers tie Round Rock 1-1

The Vista Ridge men’s soccer team went into Dragon stadium trailing by 2 points for the 4th and final playoff slot.  Although they defeated Round Rock in earlier district play, this game was back and forth with a slight advantage to the Rangers offensively.  But on one of those nights where you might have a slight advantage, the Rangers failed to capitalize and came away with a 1-1 tie.  Click on the picture to see all the game-time photos.

Lady Rangers fall to Cedar Park 3-1

In the rubber match between these 2 squads, the Cedar Park Timberwolves beat the Vista Ridge Lady Rangers 3-1.  This was a must-win game for Cedar Park having entered the game in 5th place - just out of playoff contention.  For the Rangers, it was a must-not-lose game to ensure they kept their 3rd place spot with a great shot of making the playoffs.  Cedar Park struck 1st with less than 12 minutes gone into the 1st half.  They built up a 3-0 lead before the Rangers were able to notch one when Alex Ancira scored midway through the 2nd half.

Vista Ridge will play host to 3rd place Round Rock Tuesday night in a must-win game as they are now tied for 4th with Cedar Park for the final playoff position.

Lady Rangers fall to McNeil 3-0

I was out of town during the week but a quick update on Tuesday night’s game.  The Lady Rangers beat Georgetown 3-1.

Now, for Friday night’s matchup against McNeil - this game wasn’t pretty nor was it close.  McNeil struck first less than 10 minutes into the game to take a 1-0 lead.  The Rangers had a few shots to try to even things up but nothing connected.  McNeil scored again before half to take a 2-0 lead into the halftime break.  During halftime, Coach Cook told the girls that again skill-against-skill and matchup-for-matchup there was no reason for us to be trailing or not in the game.  The issue he said was that the team was not playing as a unit.  The 2nd half presented a few more opportunities for the Rangers but again, they failed to connect.  McNeil padded their lead and won 3-0 against a very uninspired performance by the Rangers.

My opinion - it’s my blog so I can write what I wish.  The Lady Rangers have the potential to go very deep in the playoffs but at this point in their season will be fortunate to make them.  Their competition in the next 2 games (Cedar Park and Round Rock) are also in the hunt.  A loss against either will likely eliminate the Rangers at worse case.  At best case, they would need help.  It would be a shame as this team is a good one.  But my view from the sidelines is that they are indeed not playing as a unit.  The unity evident in pre-district play hasn’t been there since starting district.  There are cliques within the team and it’s showing on the field.   It doesn’t matter how many individual good players there are - nobody is good enough to carry the team on their own to victory at this level of competition.  It’s gut check time for the Rangers.  I hope they realize their potential and decide they want it for each other more than for themselves.  If they can do that - they’ll be fine.  If not, this season will likely go down as a season of could-have-beens and might be the 1st Vista Ridge varsity soccer team in history to not qualify for the playoffs.  That would be a shame.

Dell Children’s Medical Center Fundraiser

This Saturday I had the privilege of taking photos at the 1st annual 5K and 10K runs benefiting the Dell Children’s Medical center.  About 100 runners came out to Williamson county park to participate in the run and braved typical February weather in Austin.  The runs started with the weather comfortable and warm and ended with light rain, windy, and cold.  Oh well - gotta love it when it was 82 earlier this week.

All of the pictures are located in my galleries under “Events”.  You can click on any picture below and be linked directly to the gallery pages.  All proceeds from picture purchases will be donated to the fundraiser.  I want to thank Rita and Nova for inviting me to participate.  I had a ball!

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