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!