See The Changes

In a cruel twist of weather, summer finally arrived in NEPA this weekend, making for a long hot day for the 12 teams in the 6th annual Patriot Cup soccer tournament. Our determined staff couldn't arrive until the 10 am games, (beauty sleep) but managed to stay out in the heat until the thrilling end of this pre-season festival, resulting in almost 700 photos from the day.

Many of you know that my youngest son graduated this past spring, and some have wondered how that will affect things here at FotoFink. At this point, it looks like I will be keeping at this for a while, but with a bit more variety. Holy Redeemer soccer and volleyball will still have a key spot here, but I would like to try some other teams, other sports, and should now have the time to do so. As a result, there are pictures from most of the 12 teams at the tournament on the site, (more on that later), with a bias towards teams/players/parents who have supported this endeavor (bought pictures) in the past.

Here are a few random thoughts from Saturday's excursion-

Pittston Primary Center is one of my favorite places to shoot. The backgrounds are, for the most part, amazing. The mountains in the distance, the wooded areas, the grassy hills all provide a much cleaner background than most fields. Generally, the spectators are up and out of the way from the sidelines as well, which is another big plus in that area. The picture at the top of this post is a good example.

I went in following 2 teams, HR, (of course) and Coughlin (by request of some parents at the Ian Pope Tournament). I was pleasantly surprised to find Crestwood there, and met some of the Pittston parents who seemed awfully interested in the site. Needless to say, this made for a busy day of shooting! I tried to get all of the teams in at least some of the shots, but...

This is just a rumor, but I was told that there was one team that withdrew itself (walked off) after one of their players was shown a red card. Had they played more, I likely would have had some shots of them in the gallery as well. No one asked for my opinion on this, but IF this was true, I am surprised and disappointed. There were lots of frustrations surrounding the officiating (I saw at least 8 penalty kicks in the matches I watched- that's absurd!) but there is always the question of whether that's the ref's or the player's faults. I'd like to think that at this level, we can teach more than just soccer, but leaving a tournament under any circumstance sets a bad example. Come on, even the Russians came back on the ice in '76.

After winning the Ian Pope Tournament last week, Coughlin took first place here as well. The Crusaders are accumulating a lot of pre-season hardware for the trophy case- Are they the team to beat this fall? It seems tough to argue otherwise, but feel free to leave a comment or 2 with your thoughts on the matter.

Give Holy Redeemer some credit, making the playoffs after meeting 2 other playoff-bound teams in the preliminary round. Given that, maybe we'd like to see a victory in the playoff round, but after 5 games in the hot sun- Our boys were spent.

I am not sure if it is as funny as Sal calling Noah Zurad "Nova" all season, but has anyone noticed the new player on the team? Ronnie May?

If you were wondering, the post title is a CSN song. I know that CSN is a few steps backwards in my lifelong project, but it seemed an appropriate for the day- we all got to see the changes to the teams from last season, and after all, the tournament was on the 40th anniversary of one of CSN's biggest performances. There are likely to be some other changes that you will be seeing around the FotoFink site as well- hopefully I'll get to them before the season actually gets started.

Enough blubbering from me-

Here are the pics from the tournament.

Here's the whole shebang.

Enjoy!

The Chain

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of another member of the FotoFink community. Lisa De Spirito, who's son Nick is pictured above, was recently taken from us at far too young of an age. That link will take you to her obituary, which seems to have all of the historical information about Lisa.

What is probably not known to most of you is the special link that Lisa provided here at FotoFink. The De Spirito's were neighbors of a family whose son played soccer at Bishop Hoban. This was one of the first years that I started taking photos, at the time it was mostly of my own children, with some others occasionally in the frame, almost by accident. As luck would have it, the Hoban parents were big FotoFink fans- there are a few of you out there who seem to have quite an addiction to the site, and believe me, you are appreciated. Lisa noticed the photos that were on her neighbors wall, and asked where they came from. One thing led to another, and shortly after I was taking pictures at the Crestwood games where her son Nick played. I'll credit that sequence of events with helping me to realize that there is a world outside of Hoban/Redeemer boys soccer. Until then, I was quite content to snap away at my son's games and no others. After a few Crestwood soccer games, I was shooting Jr. High, Field Hockey, Basketball- If you visit the site, you know the rest.

I knew Lisa, but not very well. She was energetic and involved enough to act as my contact person for the Crestwood team. I ran into her on some sidelines, I worked with her to get pictures for the seniors and the senior night program at Crestwood. I believe her daughter played field hockey, and I met her husband a few times at the games. Many of you are probably better suited to write about what a nice person she was- That was certainly the impression I had. I make note of her passing here because of the important role she played in bringing this site to where it is now. She was an important link in "The Chain" of events that brought FotoFink to it's current glory. Whether you knew Lisa or not, if you are somewhere other than Holy Redeemer, or involved in a sport that is not soccer, you are in her debt if you've enjoyed any of the photos on this site.

Nick is a strong player, I suspect he will be an important part of Crestwood's team this fall. I hope the entire De Spirito family will take some comfort in the condolences offered by all of us here in FotoFink land.

No game photos from this post. Here is a poster I made up at Lisa's request, highlighting Nick's games last season. Rest In Peace.

Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts

FotoFink's summer hiatus ended Friday night with the first annual Ian J. Pope memorial Soccer Tournament at the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome. You can all be grateful that there will be no recap of "how I spent my summer"- I don't want to give anyone any ideas to steal for their back-to-school essays. Besides, for the most part I was here in NE PA- I spent my summer like everyone else- trying to stay warm & dry.

You may recall that Ian Pope held a special place here in the FotoFink world, so this tournament was a perfect way to start off a new season of pictures. 12 teams came out to support the cause, coed rosters from different area schools, with a wide range of skill levels. Somehow though, this seemed to be about a lot more than winning soccer games. The spirit of the evening seemed to be more one of comraderie rather than competition, as we all seemed to realize we were there for a greater good.

When Ian passed on last December, we were all shocked, reeling, and at a loss for what to do. Ideas fly around during a time like that as we all want to do something. "Let's retire his number", "Let's make wristbands with his initials", "Let's have a soccer tournament in his memory" Time passes, and as we begin to accept our world without our friend, many of the ideas from that time are tabled. I don't view this as a bad thing, it is just how things are. For all of us, in whatever different way, life goes on. As a result of all this, the very fact that this tournament has happened is a huge testament to Ian's impact on all of us. The Dome doesn't fill up much in the summertime, but Friday night there were hundreds of us there, remembering Ian as a friend, teammate, opponent, classmate, or family member. There were easily as many spectators as players, which is unheard of for U-19 soccer. This was one more credit to a fine young man who left us too early.

100 years from now, players will be able to come to the centenial celebration of the Ian J Pope Soccer Tournament without the heavy heart that many of us had for the inagural version. For now, we take solace in the fact that we were able to do something good in memory of a friend, come together in a way that we hope he would appreciate, and preserve his memory for posterity.

While the cause was good, and the occasion serious, the evening actually was filled with good times, as I hope Ian would have wanted. Nate Albrecht, who we will likely be seeing a lot more of on the Royals field this fall, kept pestering me for the "money shot, Mr. Fink- Did you get the money shot?" I'll say yes, Nate, here it is. Stay tuned though, our best work is always yet to come.

This gentleman, on the other hand, insisted on a "victory shot" Since he was leaving before the finals, I guess it was more a case of wishful thinking.

Team Albrecht/Manchester Divided made a strong case for the most creative/best uniforms, but in the end I have to give that award to these guys (mostly girls, actually) and their creative wordplay. I was a big fan of Saturday morning cartoons as a little FotoFinker, so seeing these shirts had me singing the theme song in my head all night, and looking up that link restarted some childhood fantasies about Melody, the blond drummer. I'll stop on that note, as I don't want the blog to get one of those "parental warning" notices.

The Polka-Dotted Daisies made a nice run, and had about 1/2 the team in some cool shirts, but I think the biggest impact they made all evening was on this play. The player on the bottom is probably wishing he was home watching Melody right then.

Best team picture ever? I think so.

You're welcome, Olivia.

As I edited these pictures, I kept looking for one that would summarize the night. I came up with the one at the top of this post, mostly in memory of Ian. Ian had become a dominant player in the air, winning the vast majority of head balls that came his way. Throughout the night, I kept thinking that Ian would have liked this tournament. He would have liked this particular play. And he would have won this ball.

Those of you following the trip through the album collection may have been stymied by my title this time. I'll save you the google and give you this link to an obscure song by one of my favorite bands. How does that tie in? It's a fundraiser- buy Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-shirts. In fact, feel free to buy some photos too. I'll make a donation to the scholarship fund based on sales of these shots for the next 2 weeks. I'll follow up on another post to explain how little progress has been made on my lifelong project.

On to the good stuff-

Photos from the night are here.

Team photos, If we were able to get together to take them, are here.

All the FotoFink goodness is here.

Enjoy!