Another Sad Day for the Redwood Giants

MARIN COUNTY | California

I wish I knew more about football so I could put my finger on why my Redwood Giants keep losing, but they just do. They seem a better team than their 1-8 record this season would indicate. Saturday they went down 10-15 to Drake High School. There’s one last game next week.

Maybe it’s just because we’re approaching the end of the season, but my action photos are starting to all look the same to me, so Saturday I spent a little more time focusing on the sidelines.

Khari Haynes has become my personal favorite this season. He’s a little guy who plays with lots of heart, even when hurting.

Khari Haynes

Coaches and players did their best but losing is never easy.

Every Trip to Paris Deserves a New Camera

MARIN COUNTY | California

Rica and I are going to Paris next May so that I can attend one of Peter Turnley’s street photography workshops. Since I’ll be walking around a good part of the day, I thought this was a reasonable enough excuse to buy a new camera. It’s an Olympus OM-D, recommended by Ming Thein, a Kuala Lumpur based photographer whose blog I’ve been paying attention to lately.

I spent an hour this morning at the Golden Gate Bridge giving the camera its first outing.  Besides being small and light, its main feature for me is extremely fast focus, making it easier to record decisive moments.

My Redwood Giants Keep Falling

At heart I’m a sentimental person, which might explain why I hold on to the few things left from my childhood, even old report cards filled with C’s D’s and F’s. Sentimentally might also explain why it’s upsetting to me when Redwood High School continues to lose football games. I didn’t go to school there, but Sina Nesper did.

Sina, some of you remember, was the Rotary Exchange student who lived with us many years ago while she attended Redwood. She now lives in Switzerland and is a psychotherapist, an occupational choice I like to think I helped influence.

Sina Nesper (far left) visited California with her Swiss German Family. Many years have gone by but it seems like yesterday.

Anyway, when VarsityPix.com gave me the chance to photograph high school sports, Redwood High was the obvious choice.

The Redwood Giants have lost seven of their last eight football games, but I haven’t given up on them. They have two more games this season, and as I think Alexander Pope once wrote, hope springs eternal.

These are some of the photos from the Novato and San Marin games.

Redwood Football 0, Terra Linda 6

MARIN COUNTY | California

Redwood keeps trying but mostly falls short. So far this season they’re 1 in 5.  Last Saturday Terra Linda scored only six points, but Redwood was unable to answer.  They missed two opportunities to tie the game in the fourth quarter when one pass fell short in the end zone, and Terra Linda intercepted a second with less than five minutes left in the game. We’ll see how they do this Saturday against Novato.

Those Marin Catholic Kids

MARIN COUNTY | California

Those Marin Catholic kids much have something special in their Wheaties. They scored 51 points in last Saturday’s game against Redwood High School. And that was in the first half of the game. They were courteous enough to moderate their offense in the second half. The score ended 51 to 12.

One of the things that interested me most happened before the start of the game. The entire Marin Catholic team crossed the field to shake hands with the Redwood players. I thought this was a classy gesture.