New visit to an old place

January 27, 2017

Take friends, basketball and great building... and you'll get a fun evening. And I'll be honest, I could wax poetic for a few hundreds words about loving old gyms with character. Of course, the Beatrice City Auditorium, home of the MUDECAS Basketball Tournament, would immediate rise toward the top of the list. But for the first time tonight, I was able to visit the York City Auditorium, host of the Crossroads Conference (CRC) Basketball Tournament.

I met up with the Striv Sports guys who were already there broadcasting the action.

I tried just taking it all in.

The basketball was good. But so was the crowd. And the old Auditorium did it's job.

Brief aside: I continue to be thankful for all of the hard work and passion of countless of people that help maintain these facilities and types of events. I feel like these events need young people to get involved. So if you appreciate events like this, get involved! Donate some time or money to these organizations!

It's the seats. The baskets. The scoreboards. It's intimate, while also being a big-time atmosphere. And it makes me glad I made the trip out to York! Thanks again to the Striv crew for hosting and being good company!

MUDECAS 2017 Basketball Recap

January 16, 2017

The 88th Annual MUDECAS Basketball Tournament wrapped on Saturday night as the Parkview Christian defeated Falls City Sacred Heart for the Patriot's first-ever MUDECAS basketball title. It was another crazy week of 32 teams playing 40 games at two sites. For the opening rounds and semifinals, I helped photograph games again for the Beatrice Daily Sun. Be sure to check out the Daily Sun for tons of coverage.

For the third-place games and championship games, Striv Sports came down to the City Auditorium to live stream the action. You can check out the game replays and results.

As usual, MUDECAS was amazing. Tons of close games -- including another buzzer-beater by the Sterling boys to win the B Division. And it is always great to see so many other media members, coaches/athletic directors, students & community members. This year also marked the first MUDECAS Basketball Tournament since the passing of Jane White. The tie-dye medal ribbons for the newly-named Jane White All-Tournament Team were just one of the many signs of Jane throughout the tournament. Numerous teams wore tie-dye warmup shirts and there was even a spot on media row reserved for Jane.

I've included 50+ of my favorite images from this year's tournament. It's always hard to try to narrow down photos to share after so many games. I hope you enjoy them and see you next year at the City Auditorium!

Back to Basketball

December 02, 2016

High school basketball season means a few things. For at least today, it meant getting a little time to pick up my camera again. Johnson County Central kicked off the winter sports season with a pep rally and the season opener versus Mead.

Here are a few of my favorites from a little 8th Period P.E. class, the winter sports pep rally and the girls & boys varsity games. Enjoy!

2016 Striv All-Star Classic

June 08, 2016

In June, it's always nice to photograph a little basketball. And it was a special day to hang out with the Striv crew covering the 2nd Annual Striv All-Star Classic presented by Cornerstone Bank on Saturday, June 4, 2016, at York High School.

I know you came for the photos, so I'll keep this short. But it was fun to watch these high school kids battle it out on the basketball court one more time. The games didn't disappoint, with the girls' game almost going into overtime (a 73-67 Orange Team victory) and the boys' game reaching 100 points (107-94 Blue Team), as predicted by some of the Blue Team players.

On a personal note, it was also great to see a few of the players I've covered the last few years. Between Johnson County Central's Mitch Faris & Sam Sterup and Freeman's Alexis Holland & Emily Lenners, I have probably covered more than 30 of their basketball games.

Here are a few of my favorite photos. I may be adding more later as I sort through my more than 60 GBs of photos. If you are looking for the Striv Sports recap story, you can read it here.

Finally, I owe a big thank you to Taylor (@taylorsiebert), Eric, Tony, Jessica and others for making Striv such an awesome group to work with and just be around!

2016 Boys State Basketball Recap

March 15, 2016

For the 2016 NSAA Boys Basketball State Tournament, I photographed the last three championship games -- Class D2, Class A and Class C2. The crowds were again great, following a fantastic Friday night of C2 semifinals at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Covering state basketball is always a blast. And working with all of the NSAA officials & Callam Sports Photo has been great. But also seeing a lot of familiar faces on the sidelines and in the stands is also one of the benefits of being at state.

But enough with the words! Here are 30 images from this year's boys state basketball!