Friday Night Lights: Model v Trion

I shot the Governor’s Cup college football game yesterday, and after that and the two prep games the night before, I am all footballed out. But, per the request of my dad’s neighbor Tim Kelley (hi Tim), and the fact I really don’t want to do laundry… The second of the prep games from Friday – Model v. Trion.

Now that they’re tearing the old school down, it’s not quite a weird going back to my ol’ alma mater. Still, I haven’t been to a regular season football game their since my freshman year of high school (which was… 2000? Somewhere around there). (Somehow the way schedules worked out last year I only shot one of their preseason scrimmages) .

Not much has changed. You got more people wandering around and socializing than watching the game, the parking sucks, the bathrooms are scary and Model lost. As early as a couple miles away I could tell something was different though and it didn’t hit me  I pulled past the “full” sign in the parking lot and promptly found a space (or 10), it hit me.

ISO 1600 1/320 sec @ f/4 at 9 p.m. Ahhhhhh.

HOLY BALLS. Model – the school that for sure has the worst field lighting in the county and rarely funding for anything athletic wise – got new lights. Blinding bright beautiful wonderful sweet lights.

Big sigh of relief for me, as when I tore out of my house running a bit late earlier that day and thought my speedlights were already in the truck… they weren’t. Suck.

I only got to shoot about a quarter of the game. I left before the half at Armuchee and went straight to Shannon via Hwy 140, but even then there were only about 3 minutes left in the third quarter when I got to the school. Given the usually bad parking was worse due to old school tearing down and new school construction, I had to leave a few minutes before the end to ensure I didn’t get stuck sitting in the parking lot for 30 minutes picking at my belly button lint and waiting.

Anyway… how ’bout them Devils…

That’s Model’s new head coach in the middle. I still can’t get his name right. Suffet. Sugget. Surret. Something like that. Talking to him at a few practices though, he’s always been very nice and helpful, which is always appreciated. Usually the high school coaches are great, but occasionally you get some real buttholes mixed in. Not the case with this guy.

I swear like half the kickers in the county wear the number 20. Or at least two of them. I don’t get it.

You see the light? Insane. Photo would have worked better if I had the time (or just gotten lucky) to wait for everyone to stand up and cheer, even better if there was a little wind to pick up the flag. Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of that. It’s a photo to look out for at later games, I reckon. Still enjoyed Harvey Palmer’s announcing though. I’m gonna have to email him about that.

Despite a fourth-quarter comeback, Model lost 14-7. I kinda felt bad for the kids, cause they played hard, and the program has improved. They play Armuchee next week. Should be an interesting game.

So there you go Tim. Now I gotta go clean this house before the local hazmat team comes and quaratines it…

Yay football.

Oh yeah…

For the story and gallery…  Prep Central: Trion downs Model 14-7 by Jeremy Stewart

And for previous 2009 prep football on the blog:

• Aug. 29: Unity Christian v. FCA
• Sept. 4: Adairsville v. West Forsyth
• Sept 11: Armuchee v. Dade County