Ben McKeown

Last night I was in Durham shooting the Hillside vs. Douglas Byrd playoff game.  The winner would win the chance to move to the state championship game.

It was cold.  Very cold.  And the temperature kept falling.  An icy wind penetrated my thick boots and covered my toes, which by the end of the game felt close to frostbitten.  Even shielded by gloves, my fingers were stiff and hard to use.

Despite the biting temperatures, a palpable and collective electricity filled the facility.  Players, coaches, photographers, and fans all recognized the importance of the game and thus seemed to place a bit more energy into the implementation of their respective roles.

I remembered why I love high school sports.

There is hardly anything more valuable than learning how to operate as a team, how to put every ounce of your soul and body into the pursuit of a common goal.  It is for this reason that sports are a vital part of the school experience, as vital as any math or history class.  Their importance comes not in the form of wins that may be accrued or even in the form of competition, but rather in the form of an ever-applicable set of skills.  I can attribute much of what I believe are my positive traits to what I learned as a member of my football team in high school.

Additionally, I am drawn quite strongly to the raw and unfettered emotion that accompanies high school sports.  The incentives are completely intangible, making the desire to play well an almost spiritual pursuit.  The absence of a tangible reward brings out the true humanity in each participant.

The game finished on a questionable and devastating call against Hillside.  The final score was 9-7 in favor of Douglas Byrd.  These images presented depict an outpouring of the aforementioned spiritual and human elements.  My goal is not to exploit the anguish of the players and coaches, but rather to tell their story, for its importance is universal.