One today

Just one photo today:




_{May 25, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Homestead pole vaulter Emerald Eviston clears the bar at 10-feet-7-inches during Tuesday's Northrop Regional track and field meet. Eviston's vault was good enough for second place and a trip to the Indiana state finals next weekend. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

Magic Hour

_{Photo by Chad Ryan}

Last night (that's Monday, May 24th, for the two or three of you who''ll read this any day other than today) I shot and wrote about a softball sectional game in Angola, Ind., between Fort Wayne high school teams Bishop Dwenger and Concordia Lutheran. It was a good, close game most of the way through. Bishop Dwenger features the state's leading hitter, Andrea Filler, who's batting average was .723 going into the game, and Concordia featured Angie Doerffler, who hit .638 going into the game. Filler broke the 0-0 tie with a two-RBI double in the fifth inning, and the Saints went on to win 7-1. Filler, also the Saints' No. 1 pitcher, picked up the win and allowed just three hits - all to Doerffler, a Valparaiso recruit.

My editor wanted me to write a feature-style piece instead of a bland game story, and I gave it the good ole college try. I actually liked the end result, that is, until I read the copy editor's version of my story this morning. Nothing like changing a carefully-constructed lede to straight AP style to ruin the feeling of a story. Anyway ...


_{May 24, 2010 - Angola, Ind. - Bishop Dwenger's Andrea Filler watches the ball as it flies to the outfield during the first inning of the Saints' 7-1 win over Concordia Lutheran on Monday in the Class 3A Angola Sectional. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

So after the game I strolled down I-69 south back to Fort Wayne and decided to stop to shoot some updated photos at the new Parkview North construction project. Magic hour, the time just after sundown but not quite dark, was fast approaching and I like the set up to get photos of the shell of the building. I wish I could have shot from a higher location, but you take what you get, especially in these run-and-gun situations. So, in any case, I thought the paper could use pics of the building, and I wanted to get something before they wrapped the outside. The picture, shown above, isn't exactly what I wanted, but doing something like this makes for a much better design in the paper than using a standard building mugshot shot in plain, boring daylight. It's these kinds of nights where I wish I could just make pictures and not worry about having to write stories. I could do a lot more of these on-the-fly projects that I think our readers would appreciate. Oh well, on to writing something else ...

Game 2 video clip

Here is a short, roughly-cut video of some clips from Game 2 of the Turner Cup Finals between the Fort Wayne Komets and the Flint Generals. Fort Wayne won this game 2-1, an the goal in the video was scored by Matt Syroczynski in the second period, tying the game at 1-1. I'll put together a little more polished video with clips from all the games in the series after everything is wrapped up. Go to News-Sentinel.com for all of our Turner Cup Championship coverage with stories by Blake Sebring and multimedia by me.

Turner Cup Game 3 Pics

_{May 12, 2010 - Flint, Mich. - Flint's Jamie Schaafsma, center, celebrates after beating Komets defenseman Guy Dupuis, right, to slide the puck in the near side of the net for the game-winning goal at 12:52 of the first overtime to give the Generals a 7-6 win in Game 3 of the Turner Cup championship series on Wednesday at Perani Arena in Flint, Mich. Fort Wayne leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 with Game 4 scheduled for Friday in Flint. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

Here are a few photos from Wednesday's Game 3 of the Turner Cup championship series in Flint, Mich. After the Flint Generals went up 2-0 in the first period, Fort Wayne Komets forward Matt Syroczynski responded with two straight goals to tie it up. Flint scored again to take the lead, and the shoot out was on. Syroczynski scored again for the hat trick in the first period. From then on it was back and forth with both teams trading goals until Justin Chwedoruk scored what many thought would be the game winner for the Komets in the third period.





Down by a goal, Flint put on a huge rush in the last minute of the third period and managed to keep the puck in the Komets' zone on successive clear-out attempts with 15 seconds left. Flint center Bryan Smolinski picked up the puck near the left point, made a move to the inside and buried it past Nick Boucher with 9.8 seconds to go. Overtime.

The Generals killed off a penalty to start the overtime, and the play slowed a bit. Fort Wayne had several quality chances to score in the overtime, but it was Flint's Jamie Schaafsma who picked up a rolling puck behind Boucher, who thought he had covered it up. Schaafsma skated the puck behind Fort Wayne's net, drawing Boucher to the other side to protect against a wrap-around, then Schaafsma made a move back to the near side and slipped it the open net at 12:52 of the first overtime period for the game winner. Flint won its first game of the series, making the best-of-seven finals 2-1 in favor of Fort Wayne with Game 4 scheduled for Friday in Flint.

Game Winner

P.C. Drouin puts in the game-winning goal for the Fort Wayne Komets, beating Flint goalie Rob Nolan in the third period to give Fort Wayne a 2-1 win and a 2-0 series lead in the IHL Turner Cup championship series.

The last few weeks

Just a few photos from the last couple of weeks. Nothing too exciting, just some high school tennis, baseball, a visit with Dallas Cowboys defensive end Anthony Spencer and Fort Wayne Komets hockey. The Komets are up 1-0 in their Turner Cup championship series over the Flint Generals, which mean just three more wins to take their third-straight IHL championship.




_{April 27, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Blackhawk Christian No. 1 singles player, Morgan Bemisderfer, hits a backhand shot in her match against Bishop Luers' Samantha Rahrig, not pictured, on Tuesday at Swinney Park. Rahrig won the match 6-1, 6-3. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{April 27, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Elmhurst pitcher Matt Lepird throws a pitch in the bottom of the sixth inning of the Trojans' game at Concordia Lutheran on Tuesday. Holding a 3-2 lead in the final inning, Concordia came back to clip Lepird, scoring two run for a 4-3 win. Photo by Chad Ryan.
When talking with Sports Illustrated photographer Peter Read Miller we determined that we take these pictures just because we can. That's true, but they're still fun to try.}

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_{April 22, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Elmhurst second baseman Adam Sullivan, top, fires the ball to first on a double-play attempt as Bishop Dwenger's Russell Coonan ducks under the throw. The Trojans improved their record to 8-2 with a 9-3 win over Bishop Dwenger on Thursday at Elmhurst's Derbyshire Field. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{April 24, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Fort Wayne native Anthony Spencer, a Dallas Cowboys defensive end, smiles as he talks with old friends during an open-house event for the Next Level after-school program founded by Spencer's mother, Tonia Creech, on Saturday at the Prime Time Community Center at 3701 S. Calhoun Street. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{April 18, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Fort Wayne goalie Tim Haun watches the puck as he makes a save during the Komes' 2-1 win over the Flint Generals in the regular-season finale on Sunday at Memorial Coliseum. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{April 22, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - A young Komets fan watches as a scrum develops along the boards in the corner of the rink during the first period of the Komets' 4-2 playoff win over the Port Huron Icehawks on Thursday at Memorial Coliseum. Photo by Chad Ryan.}

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_{May 3, 2010 - Fort Wayne, Ind. - Fort Wayne Komets, from left, Justin Chwedoruk, Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock and Danko Mironovic celebrate Schrock's first-period goal in Monday's Game 7 of the IHL semifinal playoff series at Memorial Coliseum. With the win the Komets advance to defend their back-to-back Turner Cup Championships. Photo by Chad Ryan.}