Friday Night Lights: Unity Christian v. FCA

Unity Christian School has had a varsity football team for all of like… two or three games now, and last week I got the pleasure of covering their first home game, where they played Somethinganother Christian Academy. Except it was in Calhoun, because it got rained out the night before. And it was on a Saturday afternoon instead of a Friday night. And then we still go rained on. Alot.

And there’s nothing better that football in the rain. Especially in the day time, because then you actually have a chance at seeing what the hell is going on.

I probably should have lit out of there once the rain really started coming down, but rarely do I get a chance to shoot high school ball in the daytime, much less have time to shoot the whole game if I want to. And my cameras are double sealed magnesium alloy (i.e. waterproof, for the most part, at least when it comes to rain, as long as you wipe em down and dry em out when you get home) so whatever. Really though, my truck was in the shop so I was driving my folks old farm truck and uh, lets just say the windshield wipers are less than impressive.

It drizzled here and there during the first half – which took an hour and a half to complete, making it the longest damn first half I’ve ever worked -  but otherwise stayed dry and the light was actually kind of great. The clouds defused that blazing 3 p.m. sunlight quite nicely.

Touchdowns require push ups from the cheerleaders. Which is always hilarious, as you can see.

And then… it started to rain…

No worries though. Calhoun has Astroturf!

And there adorable little mascots got soaking wet too, which was sort of pitiful, really.

They were a little too aware of the camera so I never quite got the photo I wanted out of it.

This is Rob:

Rob is a friend of my dads. I can’t ever remember not knowing Rob. He used to be a track / cross country coach (thus the connection), but now he’s the principal at Unity Christian. He ran over my cat Whiskers when I was 8. I still haven’ let him forget it. Overall he’s a nice guy though.

And I missed the end of the game because I was taking pictures of kids jumping in mud puddles. I already had my action, and my viewfinder was so fogged over I was having to rely on AF tracking to focus anything because I couldn’t see.

Everyone was so soaked by this point – didn’t matter if you had an umbrella or hid under the bleacher or whatever, you were still drenched – the parents didn’t seem to care their kids turned a small drainage ditch into a slip n’ slide.

It took my shoes four days to dry out after this game. I guess I could have thrown them in the dryer, but shit, it’s a brand new dryer. I will not endanger my baby for some crusty old sneakers.

Oh yeah. Unity Christian won 14-8.

For more 2009 prep football on the blog:

• Sept. 5 – Adairsville 21, West Forsyth 34