It's almost here ...

Yes, football season is almost here. I can say that I am now officially ready for the season to start. I will be on the sidelines starting this Friday for high school jamborees, then I'm off to Indy for the preseason action in the new Lucas Oil Stadium on the 24th and 28th. I've got some D1 college games on the schedule and of course, Saint Francis on NAIA fame.

Here are a just few frames from the last couple of years that I ran across while trying to gather material for our preseason football tab, so I thought I'd throw them up for a little teaser. Did I mention I am available for assignments to shoot football for your publications?


<sub>09-29-2007 - West Lafayette, Ind. - Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen drops back to pass in the first half of the Notre Dame's game at Purdue on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007.
Photo by Chad Ryan.


09-29-2007 - West Lafayette, Ind. - Purdue defensive end Keyon Brown reacts after the Boilermakers' stopped Notre Dame short on a fourth-and-one play. Purdue beat the Fighting Irish 33-19 on Saturday at Purdue.
Photo by Chad Ryan.


Jerome Bettis erupts with emotion after diving into the end zone giving the Pittsburgh Steelers a 21-3 fourth-quarter lead over the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's AFC Divisional Playoff game at the RCA Dome.
Photo by Chad Ryan.


Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, left, throws a pass to Joseph Addai in the Colts' 45-21 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006, at the RCA Dome.
Photo by Chad Ryan.


09-29-2007 - West Lafayette, Ind. - Purdue defensive tackle Mike Neal and defensive tackle Alex Magee celebrate after the Boilermakers beat Notre Dame 33-19 on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, at Purdue.
Photo by Chad Ryan.



02-04-2007 - Miami, Fla. - Chicago Bears wide receiver Bernard Berrian, right, leaps up to make a grab in front of Indianapolis Colts cornerback Nick Harper in Sunday's Super Bowl XLI in Miami. The Colts went on to beat the Bears 29-17 to win their first Super Bowl Championship.
Photo by Chad Ryan.



11-04-2007 - Indianapolis, Ind. - New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss, left, catches a four-yard touchdown pass over Indianapolis Colts safety Tim Jennings in the second quarter of the Patriots 24-20 comeback win over the Colts on Sunday at the RCA Dome.
Photo by Chad Ryan</sub>

Jon Fitch loses title fight

By Chad Ryan

Jon Fitch may not have fulfilled his intention to claim the Ultimate Fighting Championships world welterweight championship on Saturday at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., but he proved he deserved to be there.

Fitch, a Fort Wayne native and the No. 1 welterweight contender, entered his fight against Georges St. Pierre in the premier match of Saturday’s UFC 87 pay-per-view broadcast as a heavy underdog despite not having lost a match in more than five years.

St. Pierre successfully defended his title, beating Fitch by unanimous decision (50-43, 50-44, 50-44), shutting Fitch out in five five-minute rounds. St. Pierre said on the broadcast that Fitch, whom he previously said was going to be his biggest challenge, proved his worth.

“He showed up tonight and wanted it,” St. Pierre said. “I said congratulations to him. His first title shot. He did awesome, and I told him that this loss is maybe the best thing to have happen to him. It’s going to make him stronger.”

Midway through the first round, it appeared the decidedly stronger St. Pierre would end it early. St. Pierre landed a big right hand that knocked Fitch to the canvas then proceeded to pound him to near submission, but Fitch was able to absorb the blows and keep St. Pierre in his guard long enough to survive to the second round.


Fitch came out dancing in the second round and both fighters traded blows while staying on their feet throughout the round. St. Pierre landed several sharp jabs, while Fitch worked the body and put together combinations.

St. Pierre nearly knocked Fitch out in the first minute of the third round with another huge right hand that landed flush on Fitch’s left eye. He went down hard and St. Pierre got on the mount then rained down punches and elbows battering Fitch’s badly cut and bruised face.

Once again Fitch took the beating, used his ground-fighting skills to get himself out of danger and got back to his feet to survive another round.

Fitch landed blows in the fourth round that opened up cuts to St. Pierre’s face, and the pair traded takedown attempts with each successfully blocking the other.

At the start of the fifth round, Fitch came out blazing, but failed to connect on anything solid and St. Pierre went to work taking the fight to the mat.

Although Fitch, who wrestled for Purdue, defends takedowns as well as any fighter in the UFC, St. Pierre took him down with ease in the final round, winding precious time off the clock. Fitch made a desperation attempt in the final minute, but St. Pierre’s strength proved to be too much.

Fitch’s mixed martial arts fight record dropped to 21-3, and his UFC record dropped to 8-1 with the loss.

_{**Disclaimer - I did not attend this event. This story was written after viewing the television broadcast.}

HTML coding is not my stick

Yes, that's right, I'm not a coder. I can do enough to get me by, but that stuff is best left up to the experts. But, due to me not having any experts on the Indiana Phoblographer paid staff I decided to do a little tinkering to the blog template.

I've done quite a bit actually, but I had not been able to figure out how to make photos appear bigger on the site. This is a photo blog after all, so I had to figure it out because I want my photos to be seen. The writing part, well, let's just say I don't get Playboy Sports Ilustrated for the articles.(Hi, honey!)

After finally finding a tutorial on how to do it, my photos will now be displayed in all of the grandeur. Sometimes I lean toward the edge of hyperbole, so bear with me.

So, I decided that my photo of Carl Edwards and his crew completing a pit stop at Chicagoland Speedway last month was worth a revisit. I still can't believe that sunset.

Afternoon Tennis

It's finally a little slower around here. Although our high school football coverage is about to kick into overdrive, this week was good for a slight breather. The last two days, I shot a couple of Fort Wayne city tennis tournament matches, and on both days we had great light. It made for some photos that were a little contrasty for newsprint, but what more can we expect from using recycled TP?

A story that came out of the tournament is the womens' championship will feature the youngest player in Fort Wayne tournament history to compete for a title. Twelve-year-old Leah Barnes beat out a women 30 years her senior in the semis to advance and face three-time defending champion Amy Recht. Check out Blake Sebring's story on last night's match here.

Here are just a few photos from the last two days.



<sub>July 31, 2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Leah Barnes, 12, returns a shot at the baseline during her semifinal match in the Fort Wayne City womens tennis tournament. Barnes beat Lee Dunstedter Thursday to face defending champion Amy Recht in the championship match on Monday at Swinney Tennis Center.
Photo by Chad Ryan.



July 31, 2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Lee Dunstedter reaches to hit a shot down the line in her match against 12-year-old Leah Barnes in the semifinals of the Fort Wayne City womens tournament.
Photo by Chad Ryan.



July 30, 2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Hunter Schouweiler keeps his eyes on the ball during his match against Weston Young in the mens' city tennis tournament on Wednesday. Schouwieler won the match 6-1, 6-1 and will face defending tournament champion and best friend Derek Carpenter in the semifinals.
Photo by Chad Ryan.



July 30, 2008 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Derek Carpenter pumps his fist after scoring a point in the second set of his match against Renato Costa in the mens' city tennis tournament on Wednesday. Carpenter, the defending champion, lost the first set, but stormed back to take the second set 6-0 before eventually winning the match in a third set tie-breaker.
Photo by Chad Ryan.</sub>