I had an amazing meeting with the brand director at Dick’s Sporting Goods. He had been thinking about a pet project for several years on the Emotional Side of Youth Sports and said he wanted to unleash me on the mission.  The idea was to photograph the Emotional Side of Youth Sports. He wanted me to capture what youth sports FELT like.

 

For a story on Track & Field, I went to my assistant's high school in Upstate NY where he was still well connected with the Track & Field team.  The shot put and hammer throw kids had never been photographed, I laid down in the cold mud and shot from underneath.  I shot kids studying the schedules and throwing up after races. I shot the boredom in the buses and boxes of donuts consumed in seconds.  Mostly I captured the passion these kids had for their specialties.  That moment in their life when they could rise above by discipline, grit, and pushing themselves past where they could ever have imagined.