ChimpersCage

Well, the first really rainy night I've spent shooting football this season. Not really a downpour, more of a nuisance rain. The night went the way of the West Wildcats who left the Tigers with little more than a goose egg by the end with a score of 41-0. There were plenty of touchdowns and great runs, but my highlight of the night goes to the West kicker who put several kickoff out of the end zone and one of them through the uprights. What a trick. I haven't seen anyone at any level do that for a long long time. I'm sure the 15 mph wind didn't hurt, it was mostly at his back but was blowing a little left to right as well. At the other end of the field, he drove it to the 7 yard line. Congrats to the Wildcats. Get ready, the Raiders approach. 20091002 Urbana v West - Images by Alan Look

The weekends have certainly been busy in Bloomington, Normal and McLean County with some classic matchups. Last weekend, Normal Community entertained Normal Community West on the gridiron. It never seems to matter who is ranked where when any of the intercity teams meet one of the others, this game was no different. Most gave NCHS Ironmen the nod, and they did eventually win over the Wildcats of NCWHS. The Cats fought had and kept the score tied till past the halfway point. Not the run away game that some expected. 20090925 NCWHS v NCHS - Images by Alan Look On Saturday there was so much going on something had to be left out. The day started at intercity vollyball. Several good match ups with no clear winner. The torunament ended up with 3 teams 3 and 1. I came away thinking that Central Catholic had some of the best fundamentals, but the worst luck. They seemed to miss the critical poinst when needed the most. Several galleries from the intercity matches. Go here: http://...

What a weekend. I'm ready to sit back and enjoy someone else's work. NFL will be on later. Friday night football took me to Colfax for the Mustangs hosting the Raiders from Iroquois West. It was a better game than the score showed. Each team started the game with no wins on the season. Ridgeview remains winless. One thing I guess I missed last season that I noticed this season is the lack of cheerleaders for Ridgeview football. Come one come all, let's get that tradition restarted. Colfax needs to fill the stands as well. The only downfall last Friday night was the aphids, but surely you can put up with those while supporting your team. Heck, they don't even sting! Saturday, Illinois State honored 2 of the best that ever graced their sports program, Will Robinson and Doug Collins. If your too young to remember their story, check it out. Will was the first black head coach in any NCAA DIV 1 program. Doug of course is now a broadcaster, but he was also a 4 ti...

Last night was more volleyball. The Cougars of SIU-E were sent packing in 3 sets by the local ISU Redbirds. Some of the action is captured below. 20090915 SIU-E v Illinois State - Images by Alan Look

20090911 Decatur MacArthur v Normal West - Images by Alan Look Seems like I get to shoot this match up every year, same this season. Shooting all the time, it's often hard to get a real feel for the game. This one was no different, but I did get a sense of lots of missed opportunities for each team. The offense on each side got over 30 points, and the defense of the wildcats seemed to have a lot of highlight, but they were also spotty enough to let the Generals past them one too many times as the Generals came out on top this game.

Friday night the action at Hancock began at 4pm with intercity foes Uhigh and Bloomington Central Catholic at odds on the gridiron. The Saints of CCHS came out on top at the end of the 4 quarters 33-7. The defense of the Pioneers of UHS looked good getting a number of sacks, stops and blocked passes but they just couldn't outlast the toughness of the Saints. Then it was on to the half of Intercity played under the lights, the Normal Community Ironmen matching up with the Raiders of Bloomington High. The Iron heated up and struck first high stepping into the north endzone and following up with a PAT. In the 2nd half, the Raiders botched a field goal attempt by not getting the ball down. THe handler picked it up and the Raider scored a TD instead. The score at the end was 21-14. Between games the athletic directors awarded a participation plaque to Sandy Adams of YouNameItSports. A big thanks to the weather Gods, temp and sky were wonderful. 20090904 Intercity Football - Image...

Volleyball season has started. I spent most of my time this weekend shooting the Redbird Classic - a 3 session (6 matches) affair between the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts, the Runnin' Bulldogs of Gardner Webb, the Mavericks of University of Texas - Arlington, and the host school Redbirds of Illinois State. It's always difficult for me to tell who exactly won, especially this year since I only made it to the Friday and Saturday evening Redbird games. Fridays was a little lopsided with the Redbirds sweeping the Runnin' Bulldogs in 3 sets and in fairly handy fashion. The Saturday afternoon game I heard most online and the Redbirds and Mavericks went 4 sets and the Redbirds came away on top. Saturday evening the 'birds fell to the Golden Eagles in 4 sets. The birds took the 1st set on Saturday evening before falling flat on their feet the last 3, often passing on in bound balls they thought were out thus giving the points to the GE's. 2009 Redbird Volleyball Clas...