Playmakers part I

Centennial High School soccer player, Ian Parker, leaping at Liberty Point.

There are stories behind most of the images that I make for The Chieftain some of them are even worth telling.  Here is one of them.

When I begin planning for the "Playmaker" series I do some research on the internet. I look for photos that others have made of the sports of the season. I google the sport and then look at as many photos as I can to get ideas. I may use the entire idea or just a part of it in my photo.

I found an idea for a soccer photo where the soccer player was stopping the ball with his chest. I thought I might get this to work but I added one of my favorite backgrounds, Liberty Point. Liberty Point is a high bluff that overlooks Lake Pueblo and Lake Pueblo State Park. There are some pretty amazing background possibilities there at dusk so I thought we'd give it a go.

Centennial High School senior, Ian Parker, was the athlete selected. I got in touch with him asked him to bring his varsity uniform, a ball and a buddy to toss the ball. Ian went one better, he brought to buddies, one to throw the ball and one to shag the throws that may get away from Ian.

Ian Paker stands on a rock near the edge of Liberty Point.

 As it turned out having the second helper was both a good and a not-so-good thing.
Ian was leaping into the air from a flat rock (in photo above) that was about 6 or 7 feet away from the edge of the bluff/cliff that dropped a couple hundred feet or so.

The ball got away from Ian a couple of times. The first time his buddy moved toward the ball was unable to get to it before it dropped the entire distance to the bottom. Of course when it stopped, it came to rest in a cactus. So Ian's friend and soccer teammate, headed down, what could loosely be referred to as stairs, down to the ball.

After the run-in with the cactus, the ball was starting to go flat (it was the only ball that Ian brought). So we rushed to get some more photos before the ball went totally flat.

Then it happened again. The ball was heading for the edge of the bluff when Ian's buddy went into over drive. He dove head first after the ball on the shale-covered ground to get the ball. He slid across the ground and the sharp-edged stones grabbing the ball and stopping inches away from going over the edge.

He had saved the ball but nearly lost himself. His buddies got a great laugh out of his efforts, but he climbed back up from the edge with the ball and new bleeding wound for his efforts. I told him that I didn't want him doing that again.

A ball could be replaced, but he couldn't.