Cross country playmaker (boy)

Pueblo Central High School’s Dominique Rael is this year’s cross country playmaker on the boys side of things.

It is always an extra challenge when I have to shoot two photos of athletes in the same sport in the same season. It means that I have to come up with two unique images to illustrate the same sport. But the cool thing is that I love challenges. And while the athletes may be in the same sport, they most certainly aren’t the same person, so that is where I start.

As it turns out, Dominique was actually taking part in two different sports in the same season. Pueblo Central High School didn’t have enough athletes to field a soccer team and a cross country team at the same time so Dominique signed up for both.

I wanted to illustrate Dominique’s dual sport season even though he was selected as the playmaker for cross country I wanted to make soccer a part of the photo.

I asked him to meet me at a local soccer complex and to wear his varsity cross country uniform. Dominique showed up and was a great subject. I lucked-out as there were a group of guys having an informal soccer practice on one of the fields at the soccer complex.

We found a piece of ground near where the soccer players were practicing and I set things up. I asked him to take up a position with his back to the soccer field and to get into a hurler’s stretch and actually lean forward and really stretch. I think that this was more difficult than all those times I had Sarah run toward the camera for the girl’s cross country photo.

You see, I had to wait for there to be good soccer action going on in the background before I could get the photo I wanted. He needed to be stretching the entire time to make this work. It did work and we got the image I was hoping for. However, I am afraid that Dominique had a difficult time walking when we had finished and he went to stand up.

Hopefully by now the cramp has worked it’s way out of his hamstring and Dominique can walk with out that pesky limp.