Jessica Waters Jessica.WatersEdge@gmail.com

Portfolio:Sports and Outdoor clips and photos

• Inaugural Pro Watercross World Championship caps a winning season

• Derrick Henry’s Heisman: An ode to persistence, personality and pure skill

• Daddy’s Girl, With A Twist

• A Day With The Falcons (Column)

• Sports & Outdoor photos

Pro Watercross World Championship caps a winning season

A.J. Handler and the Pro Watercross Tour may have headed into 2015 with lanyard in hand and a dead engine start, but despite any perceived penalty from their 2014 split with the International Jet Sports Boating Association, Handler seemingly grabbed the holeshot with a well-attended round one at Panama City Beach and finished the season on top with the first ever Pro Watercross World Championship.

Held at Sugden Regional Park in Naples, Fl., the inaugural championship event kicked off on Sept. 22 and for the next six days, some of the top racers in the sport churned up the waters of Lake Avalon, vying for amateur and pro titles and trophies as well as a combined purse of more than $19,000.

“The events have been going very well. This is our first year for this World Championship and we’ve accomplished quite a bit,” Handler said on the final day of the event. “Our goal was very simple, to put on a great race and do a good job with it, and to take care of our customers - our athletes.”

Lake Avalon’s waters may have looked smooth as glass, but the calm was deceptive, according to Bill Dearman, who walked away from the event with both the Sport GP and the Pro-Am Runabout Box Stock championships.

“I thought it was a great, well-run event. It is definitely different in ways from Havasu, but each has its own positivity. Naples was a tight track where Havasu is typically huge – both venues have very choppy water after the first couple laps,” Dearman said.

Like the calm morning waters at Sugden Park, Naples’ blue skies could also be deceiving, with afternoon thunder and lightning storms delaying several races throughout the week.

Several of Sunday’s final races were filmed and televised on CBS Sports on Oct. 11 and 18, and Handler said the event cemented a solid relationship with both the City of Naples and with CBS Sports as well as with the event’s core sponsor, racer Sam Nehme’s Broward Motorsports.“I am beyond excited to be part of such an epic event in Naples. I had the opportunity to be the major sponsor and also a competitor,” said Nehme. “I look forward to what Pro-Watercross brings to the future of PWC racing.”

Arrangements between the city and Handler included a three-year contract, offering the fledgling championship an important shot of stability. With the buoy layout and dock placement giving fans an up-close and personal experience and the entire course easily visible from any vantage point around the lake, Naples is a prime venue to support Handler’s plan to reinvigorate public interest in the sport.

“AJ, his family and the Pro Watercross team did an amazing job for their first ever World Finals. They could not have picked a better location to hold this event at,” said Nehme. “The feedback from all of the racers was very positive and even the City of Naples is excited to have us back next year!”

With Pro Watercross National Tour’s first year outside the IJSBA umbrella under its belt, Handler said he will continue his effort to grow the sport and its fan base, and will continue to expand the boundaries of personal watercraft racing. Handler recently announced that Flyboarding – currently a popular exhibition event at many competitions – will be included in next year’s Pro Watercross World Championship as a competition event. Flyboarding is fast becoming a competitive field, with the 2014 X Dubai Flyboard World Cup drawing worldwide attention.

“We’re going to get in on that competition, and next year will be the beginning. Flyboarding is a part of the personal watercraft sport, and we’re not only going to have beginners, but the pros will be there for that, too,” Handler said.

While organizational wrinkles remain to be ironed out for next year’s Championship, and the Pro Watercross Tour still faces the growing pains that are bound to accompany its new solo standing, the IJSBA might be facing its own adjustments. The Havasu News-Herald, on Oct. 3, reported that IJSBA World Finals organizer Scott Frazier had indicated the long term relationship between IJSBA and Havasu may face challenges.

“I really like Naples, but it does feel a little off not being in Havasu, the home of PWC racing,” Dearman said about the two venues. “In general, we are moving in a positive direction with new sponsors and huge coverage on the horizon! I can't wait to get back to either event and do it all over again!”

Known for hosting the IJSBA World Finals, the Arizona destination provides optimal climate and crowd capacity and recognizes a significant economic impact from the event. However, Frazier reportedly told the News-Herald that the travel costs for competitors, combined with

concerns over lease longevity and scheduling issues, could affect the choice of venues for the World Finals in the future.

“There are a variety of factors that are putting the squeeze on us in Havasu, not just one of them,” Frazier reportedly said to News-Herald reporters Christina Calloway and Zachary Matson. “But every little thing adds to the load and pretty soon, it’s overloaded.”

Regardless of the location, the IJSBA franchise and World Finals event will continue to serve as a centerpoint of the PWC racing world, and ProWatercross’ national tour, now capped by both national and world finals, rounds out the sport’s U.S. presence. With both events offering expanded rider opportunities and an even greater draw for fans, and sibling efforts like P1 Aqua X’s tour and championship, Riva Racing’s HydroDrag World Championship and IFWA/Blowsion’s growing popularity, the sport is primed for success.

As Nehme said, “Stay tuned, because this is only the beginning!”

Derrick Henry’s Heisman:

An ode to persistence, personality and pure skill

On the surface, the Heisman Trophy is all about numbers. After all, it was a combination of Derrick Henry’s 1,986 rushing yards in 2015, his 23 touchdowns, his countless local, state and national records – not to mention his 6’3”, 242-pound frame – that put the Alabama Crimson Tide running back at the top of the Heisman voting this past Saturday, pulling in 1,832 points to beat out Sanford’s Christian McCaffrey (1,539) and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson (1,165) to take home the famous stiff-arm trophy.

But beyond the stats and record-setting rushing totals, the man behind the #2 jersey has gained a reputation for being humble and hardworking. Those traits exhibited themselves early, and those who knew Henry during his growing-up years in Yulee often remember his personality as well as his imposing size and his talent on the football field.

"He's just a kind, gentle, young man. Before I ever knew him as a football star I knew him as a human being and he's all good and he's never changed,” Yulee High School secretary Carol Rose told journalist Mitch Stephens in November 2012. “Every day he pokes his head into my office and asks me how my family and I are doing. Kids don't normally do that. He's just a sweetheart."

Building up to ‘Bama

That’s not to say his on-field talent was anything to scoff at – by the end of his senior year at Yulee High School, Henry had amassed 1,387 carries, 12,212 yards, 153 rushing touchdowns and an average 8.8 yards per carry.

"This county could play football for 500 years, and you'd never see another one as good as Derrick. Not unless there was a massive population boom. You look at his physical size and speed; to be a 10th-grader and do the things he's done is really remarkable,” Yulee coach Bobby Ramsay told the Florida Times Union in October of 2010.

"I know I'm going to talk about him one day, hopefully, with my grand kids. I'll tell them that I used to play against him in practice and we were great friends,” teammate Zack Camp said in a Florida Times Union article in August 2011.

Henry’s selection as a member of the 2012 U.S. Army All-American Bowl team was due to both his personality and his playing skills.

"Derrick is a talented athlete whose leadership and teamwork qualities have made him a standout at Yulee High School,” stated the U.S. Army All-American Bowl press release. “Only the strongest wear the Army colors, and Derrick possesses mental, emotional and physical strengths, similar to the Army Strong Soldier, that have afforded him that honor."

Likewise, the selection of Henry as the 2012-13 Gatorade Florida Football Player of the Year was due to more than yards gained.

“The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Henry as Florida’s best high school football player,” stated a Gatorade press release in November 2012. “Henry has maintained a B average in the classroom. In addition to donating his time as a youth football instructor, he has volunteered on behalf of the Special Olympics and as the lead fundraiser for the Yulee High football program.”

In November 2012, Henry broke the national career-rushing yards record. Breaking Ken Hall's previous record of 11,232 yards earned Henry praise for his football skills, but his work ethic and attitude also played a part in that achievement, said Ramsay.

"He's got a lot of God-given gifts, but he never sat back and said he was going to rest on his laurels. He always works. He's much more patient and has more vision. I'm a defensive guy and I'm not going to write the book on running backs. I'm sort of like the guy who touches up the Mona Lisa. I don't want to create a new painting. I just want to make it look nicer,” Ramsay said in late 2012.

Henry, who was scouted by college teams early and had received his first offer from a college recruiter by the end of his ninth-grade year, showed enough potential by the end of his high school career that Ramsey is quoted as saying, “I cashed in my Greatest Player Ever Card early in my career."

However, even in the midst of the publicity garnered by record-setting on-field performances, Henry never failed to give credit to his teammates.

"Breaking this record means a lot to me," Henry said after breaking Hall’s record. "I'm glad I could share it with my coaches, my teammates and all of Yulee. They all helped me get to this point.”

Henry’s loyalty extends beyond his teammates or even his classmates, as he noted to Stephens in 2012.

"When I was in the eighth grade, I took a look at the private schools. I imagined myself there, but I couldn't. This is where I was born and raised. I'd been here since I was a little boy. All the sports I played growing up was right here in Yulee. I figured I might as well stay put right here and help to put my town on the map and make something out of it,” Henry said to the MaxPreps reporter. “Every time I go out on Friday night I feel like I'm protecting (Yulee). I try to represent it the right way. This has always felt like home. I just feel like Yulee is a part of me."

Yulee may have been home to Henry, but by as early as 2011, his reputation was spreading far beyond the northeast corner of Florida.

‘“Derrick Henry is one of the most impressive stars of the 2013 class,” ESPN sports reporter Tom Hauck stated as college teams continued to court Henry toward the end of his high school career.

Even with a national stage, Henry didn’t forget where he came from.

“Coach Dunlap has been with me since I was young. He’s been with me from day one; working with me and supporting me. Coach Medley taught me to have a strong work ethic and a mentality to always be positive and believe in my goals and myself. It’s a blessing to have coaches and mentors like this in my life,” he told ESPN sports reporter Jim McCormick.

Roll Tide

After an early, tentative pledge to attend the University of Georgia and wear the Bulldog jersey, Henry made a firm commitment to Alabama.

"I love the program, I love the coaches. I love coach (Nick) Saban and the rest of the coaches and the other players. I just feel like I have a chance to be very successful at that program on the field and off the field,” Henry said in September 2012 at the announcement of his verbal commitment to the Crimson Tide. “They have been superior at my position and superior in

the SEC over the last three or four years. It's looking good at Alabama, and I'm just ready to get down there and get to work. As I watched Mark (Ingram) and Trent (Richardson) in that program, they grew tremendously from their freshman to their junior years. Mark won the Heisman and Trent won the Doak Walker. So I know if I go to Alabama, the sky is the limit — I can do anything I want to."

Across the board, from watercooler talk to professional college football analysts, Henry was predicted to take the college football field by storm.

“Derrick Henry could be what Alabama fans always wanted Jalston Fowler to be — a legitimate threat in every game. With his size and speed, you won't see him busting out many runs for 20-plus yards, but he could bulldoze his way past the line of scrimmage for a solid five or more yards on most plays. He can get the first downs and keep the chains moving,” Bleacher Reports analyst Jimmy McMurrey wrote in July 2012. “He may not be a future Heisman contender, but his ridiculous size and strength mixed with good speed and agility would make him a potent role player at Alabama.”

Henry suffered a broken fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle during a scrimmage in April, 2013, but even that setback did not appear to phase Henry’s attitude and he took the struggles of his first year in stride.

"It is different. I am at ground zero again, trying to work my way up. Anytime I can learn by watching or being in the weight room, talking to some of my new teammates, anything I can do to get better, which helps me out as a player, I'm willing to do it to be successful,” he told Joseph Santoliquito with MaxPreps in March 2013. “I get teased sometimes [by the upperclassmen], but they see in my eyes that I really want to improve through my work ethic."

Combined with the challenging shift from high school football to college ball, the injury and the resulting metal plate in his leg may have put a temporary damper on Henry’s steamroll towards football stardom, but by the fall of that year, he was healed and back on path, capping his first college season with a 80-yard touchdown run against Arkansas that marked the end of a 52-0 blowout game.

“Henry will run past you, by you and through you. Watching Henry perform during Saturday’s scrimmage, you never would have known he was a few months removed from leg surgery. Henry ran 11 times for 38 yards and a touchdown, and afterward was singled out by Nick Saban for his play. He has the size, power, determination and 4.5 speed to be a legendary player for Saban’s team,” said Patrick Schmidt of RANT Sports in August 2013.

“As great as Yeldon is — and he’s one of the top-two backs in the conference — the player I’m most looking forward to seeing is Henry. We have never really seen a player quite like him before, and it may be a long time before we see a player enter college like him again. He’s a special player on a special team playing for a special coach. This combination could mean Henry is one of the game’s more transcendent players who will have you saying “wow” every time he touches the ball,” Schmidt added in October of the same year.

Sophomore year and sweet success

It was in 2014 that Henry’s charge toward the Heisman picked up steam with a performance in the Sugar Bowl that garnered national attention and once again put Henry in the spotlight.

“Have you heard the one about Derrick Henry? Superman wears Derrick Henry pajamas to bed. The Boogeyman checks under his bed for Derrick Henry before he goes to sleep at night,” Marc Torrence with Bleacher Report wrote in July of 2014. “In many Alabama circles, the rising sophomore running back from Yulee, Florida, has already risen to legend status after his Sugar Bowl performance that included this now-famous stat line: eight carries, 100 yards, one touchdown, one catch, 63 yards, one touchdown.”

Henry’s performance in the 2014 Iron Bowl gained the sophomore player yet more attention. Rushing five times for 72 yards and a touchdown in Alabama’s bowl win over Auburn, Henry was averaging 8.52 yards per attempt - or nearly a first down every carry - by the end of the 2014 season.

“He’s a hard worker; he’s a fine young man; tries to do everything the right way on and off the field, so we’re encouraged by his progress and we think that he’s capable of making a tremendous contribution to our team in a lot of different ways,” Alabama coach Nick Saban told sports journalist Murf Baldwin in August 2014.

“While Henry is built similar to a thoroughbred — with a finely sculpted physique — (University of Georgia running back Todd) Gurley is built like a brick house - not in the Commodores sense - with thighs that make it look as though he’s smuggling oak wood stumps - which actually does sound Commodore-ish. Gurley is undoubtedly a NFL franchise-caliber back who deserves to be drafted in the top 10 of next year’s draft. For Henry to compare favorably to him goes to show you just how special he is,” Baldwin added in his Aug. 7, 2014 report on BamaOnLine.

Named “The Scariest Player in College Football” by CFB 24/7 for his “ability and the fear it strikes into the hearts of opposing players and coaches,” Henry’s size and skill had already gained him the respect of opponents and the notice of football pundits by the end the 2014 season.

“No 6'3", 241-pound human being should run as fast or move his feet as well as Henry. Short of an actual rhinoceros, he is the last thing a tired defense wants to tackle,” said CFB’s Matt Brown. “When he's plugged in fresh during the fourth quarter of a physical game, he is acid on top of a flesh-wound. Can you imagine having to tackle Derrick Henry at full speed, let alone doing it while tired?”

Even more telling was Henry’s reputation with his coaches.

““He's kind of like the coach's dream, when you write it down on paper how you want a guy to practice every day, that's what Derrick does. He enjoys learning the game, he's still learning the game,” Alabama running back coach Burton Burns told TideSports in December 2014. “He comes there with an open mind every day asking 'How can I get better?' That's what you love about him. That's what has paid off for him down the stretch."

And in the midst of the growing fame, Henry’s humility held strong.

“Some people are going to think you’re crazy, but I’m just always willing to get better. Anything I can do to get extra work, I’m always willing to. I feel like I have a lot more to prove. I don’t really try to play to the hype. I just try to tune it out and just focus on me getting better as a player and for my team,” he said to Sports Illustrated reporter Thayer Evans on Nov. 12, 2014

The rush to the top

The 2015 Crimson Tide football season featured back-to-back-to-back Henry triumphs on the field, and the amassed 1,986 rushing yards shattered Herschel Walker’s SEC single-season record that has stood unchallenged since 1981. With the numbers adding up, backed up by a solid work ethic and a true understanding of the word “teamwork,” it was little surprise to fans or industry experts when Henry’s name started popping up as a candidate for some of college football’s most prestigious awards.Now, with the 2015 football season heading into the championships and the Heisman Trophy,

the Maxwell Award for player of the year, and the Doak Walker award as the nation’s top running back all in his possession, Henry is looking forward to getting back on the gridiron. And he is still humble as ever.

“Whatever I have to do to help my team win,” Henry said. “ I don’t care how many carries it is. As long as it’s successful and we’ve got the ball, I’m all for it,” Henry said. “It’s all about the team, the team, the team, the team.”

Daddy’s Girl, With A Twist

A worn baseball cap pulled down over blonde curls; perfectly manicured fingernails stuffed into insulated camouflage gloves; lipstick and a Ruger 270 with a Leupold scope – Karin Moon is nothing if not a contradiction.

From cheerleader to firefighter, glamorous southern belle to softball star, Moon slips between roles as effortlessly as nocking an arrow onto the bowstring of her Browning bow while perched 15 feet in the air on the tiny platform of her climber stand in the early-morning light.

That dichotomy that defines Moon began early in life. With a hairdresser mother who practiced her considerable talent on Moon and her siblings, and a father who was determined to share his love of the outdoors with his daughter, she grew up crossing easily between the two worlds, retaining her love of feminine pursuits while building what has turned into a lifelong passion for hunting.

Moon remembers a close childhood relationship with both her mother and her father, but recalls also the special bond between her and her father, and how much she wanted to be just like him.

“When you’re a little girl, you think your daddy is your hero, and you want to do everything he does,” she says, adding that she was one of the lucky ones whose father shared his interests, his knowledge and his time with his daughter.

“We had a daily routine. He would come home from work and we would get in the truck and go get us a Coke and a candy bar and we made the same rounds every day,” she says, describing visits to her grandmother and uncles mixed in with a lot of outdoor time.

“We would ride the back roads, looking for places for him to hunt, look for tracks on dirt roads, and going to some of the places he used to hunt,” she said. “We always would take our fishing rods, and we would go out to the lake and throw out a line a few times, and then come back home just in time for dinner.”

It wasn’t long until Moon was begging her father to take her hunting, and finally, when she was about 7 years old, he said ‘OK.’

“He put me in his camo – it was just hanging off me and we had the cuffs rolled up and taped, and off we would go,” she recalls. “I remember sitting up there thinking ‘this is the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life.’”

Moon remembers the first time she shot a deer, and the feeling in her gut when she realized the shot hadn’t been lethal.

“I was just little, and the shot wasn’t the best in the world, so dad had to go finish it, and I remember thinking that I didn’t ever want to do that again,” she says.

That was just one of the lessons she learned during those hunting outings with her father, and like the vast majority of them, it is a lesson that stuck with her and guides her choices and decisions even today.

“He taught me not just how to hunt, but how to make good choices; how to make those decisions,” she said. “It’s funny how he probably doesn’t even realize all those lessons he taught me, but they stuck with me.”

Sayings that guide Moon’s hunting practices were learned during those after-school drives and early morning hunts, things like, “Trying to kill a running deer is like trying to catch a jumping fish, it ain’t gonna happen.”

Her dedication – to hunting and to any endeavor attempted – and her refusal to take shortcuts or the easy way out were also lessons that Moon learned early, standing her in good stead not only in the deer stand and on the riverbank, but in the burning buildings and at scenes of chaos and uncertainty she faced as a firefighter.

Moon drifted away from hunting during high school, but after graduation, she says she stepped back into the “real world” ... and back into hunting, and she hasn’t stopped since.

Taking into account her love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors, and the path her career has followed, some would call Moon a tomboy, and she doesn’t mind the term, but insists that it’s not a matter of choosing between her love of the outdoors and being feminine.

“You absolutely don’t have to give up being female, you just have to find that balance and be who you are,” she says. “I took those lessons my dad taught me, but I also love being a girl. I think it’s really important to be who you are and still do the things you love regardless of what you think you have to look like or who you think you have to be to fit in.”

Moon, who says she has never been much of a follower, focused more on defining her own expectations of herself and defining her own identity.

“I take what I do very seriously, whether it’s hunting and fishing, or being glamorous and going out for a night on the town,” she says, adding that her attitude and her willingness to learn have earned her the respect of fellow hunters – both male and female. She says all the hunters she has met and hunted with have been happy to accept her.

“From true hunters, I have never been laughed at or made fun of or left out of a conversion in a club,” she says, pointing out that many of the male hunters try to involve the women in their lives, whether it is a wife, a daughter, or a friend, in their hunting activities – sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully.

“If you’re serious, and if you want respect in what could be called a ‘man’s world,’ you have to know your stuff. You have to earn respect, you have to pull your weight,” she says. “Hunters ... sportsmen, they are good people just like me who love the sport, and if you respect them, respect their stand, and respect their land, they will respect you. It’s all in how you carry yourself and your knowledge base.”

That knowledge, in hunting, is a key aspect of success, Moon says. The best shot in the world will walk out of the woods with nothing to show for the hunt if they do not prepare. Learning about your quarry – whether it is deer or boar or squirrel or any other prey – is vital, she says. Efforts taken to learn about their habits, their preferences, and their thought process will go a long way toward a successful hunt, as will learning everything you can about your land, your weapon and your equipment.

Success in the hunt means, of course, bagging the big buck, but there is more to hunting than that, Moon says.

“Some of the things I’ve seen out there are absolutely amazing. It’s quiet, it’s a place for me to pray and meditate; it’s where I do my best thinking,” she insists, saying that she often will go out into the woods and not even take her bow or her rifle, taking instead a camera or just walking through the woods with no intent but to enjoy the beauty and solitude.

The hunt, though, is still the hunt, and there is a feeling that takes over when you are looking down the barrel of your rifle, or sighting along the shaft of your arrow, that can’t be explained to someone who hasn’t experienced it, she says.

“If you have ever had a deer walk in front of your stand, that adrenaline rush will get you every time. That ‘big buck’ doesn’t happen every time, but there is still something about the feeling you get just being out there, knowing that any moment in time, the wind could change and that buck is going to step out in front of you.”

Those memories linger, and Moon still can recall the feeling when she took down a special buck several years ago.

“It was opening day of gun season, and I was hunting down in Franklin County and I was the only person hunting that day. I got up early and put my waders on and I’m walking through a full swamp when seven racked bucks start to come across the creek,” she remembers, saying that it was a mixed group of various sized bucks. “The very last one, he was a seven-point buck, but he’s got to be one of the biggest bucks I’ve seen in this area and I’ll never forget the way my heart felt when I saw that buck. I was shaking and I could feel my heartbeat in my throat and in my toes. I got that boy ... sometimes the stars just line up in your favor.”

Kneeling over that buck, Moon said she gave thanks for the meat and then called her father to tell him of the shot.

Despite being an avid sportsman, and despite the adrenaline rush and feeling of triumph that comes with a successful hunt, Moon says many people have an incorrect impression of hunters, thinking that they enjoy death and gore.

“I’m human. Because of my job, I’ve seen the worst as far as life and death goes. I’ve seen things that people should not have to witness, but I’m not going to lie, deer are very beautiful animals and I cry when I kill a deer. I have that moment of silence and the first thing I do over any deer I kill is kneel and pray. I thank God for the feast I am going to have and I hope the animal did not suffer,” she says. “I’m not a killer, I’m a hunter — I never take more than I can eat.”

Hunting, for Moon, is more than putting food on the table; it is about herd preservation, about wildlife management and land management, and it is about ethics and pride and passing on a lifestyle and a tradition that has always been a part of the American way of life, and it becomes a part of who you are.

“I like to be outside and I’m proud I had a daddy who showed me what so many people are missing because they are sitting in front of a TV or because they don’t understand the beauty of things we have,” she says.

A Day With The Falcons (Column)

Sometimes – not often, but every once in a while – things fall into place.

The final weekend of the year was such a time for me. There were a number of factors involved in this fortuitous event. First, I grew up in Seattle. This fact, in and of itself, may not seem very auspicious; what is vital to this sequence of circumstances is the fact that I am and always will be, therefore, at least secondarily a Seahawks fan by default.

Secondly, just over five years ago, I was working my way through a mid-life career change, working on my journalism degree at the University of Oregon. As a photographer for the campus paper, I had the opportunity more than once to shoot the Oregon Ducks football team as they trampled team after team – often due in large part to the skills of rising star Joey Harrington. My connection to Harrington, along with my new proximity to the Atlanta team made it a given that they would be come my new “home team” when I moved here last year.

Thirdly, add in the fact that for the majority of the football season, I have asked repeatedly for sideline credentials to a Falcons game. Time and again, management within the Falcons organization has politely turned my request down, explaining that the “limited sideline space” for each game was insufficient to allow a reporter/photographer from little old Toccoa to squeeze in next to the overwhelming crush of national and local media attending the game. (In their defense, I had been asking to attend games against division opponents, during which press attendance is, indeed, higher due to the close proximity of the opposing team.)

However, after a little, shall we say, “squeaky wheel” action on my part, I received word from the Falcons that I would be granted sideline credentials for the Dec. 30 Falcons vs. Seahawks game at the Georgia Dome.

It may seem odd to many of you that a female reporter would find much thrill in the prospect of trudging up and down the sidelines watching hulking brutes pummel each other instead of, say, spending the day shopping in Atlanta. However, I am, without a doubt, a football fanatic. Add to that the fact that I abhor shopping, and all told, you end up with puzzle pieces falling into place perfectly.

I will admit freely that I was nervous as I headed off to Atlanta early Sunday morning. The game wasn’t to start until 1 p.m., but since I don’t know my way around Atlanta very well, have

never been to the Georgia Dome, and had no earthly clue what the process and procedure would be before the game for photographers, I left home at 8 a.m. just to be on the safe side.

The sudden appearance of rain in downpour format caused only the slightest dampening of my excitement, and I actually found the correct exit and took the appropriate turns to land myself right smack dab in front of the dome in short time. However, as my instructions from the Falcons organization had been limited to “show up,” I was left to fend for myself as far as parking, which I lucked out and found fairly close due to the earliness of the hour. (By the way, thanks to the three different families that stopped me on my way back to the Dome and invited me to participate in their tailgate festivities – y’all sure do things up right!)

Check in at the media will-call gate was my first introduction to the streamlined shuffle that the press box regs – those who shoot and/or cover every game – have down pat.

ID checks every few feet, metal detectors and pat downs and the issuance of an official NFL Photographer’s Vest and sideline badge – after which I was known as Photographer number 132 for the remainder of the game. Two things surprised me right off; I was not expecting any courtesy but to be shuttled onto the field and let

loose, and I truly expected, in this day and age, to be only one of a fairly high number of women covering the game. I was mistaken on both counts.

Immediately upon arriving, I was escorted to the pressroom, where a full buffet breakfast was provided, along with workspaces and computer connections for those who were working on deadline. It was a great experience to meet these photographers and journalist and listen to their stories and good-natured ribbing. However, there was an underlying feeling of being an outsider amongst a group of fraternity brothers – everyone else seemed to know each other, and I was the token “newbie;” a fact exacerbated by the fact that I was only one of two females among the crowd.

All of that, however, disappeared the minute I stepped out of that tunnel and emerged into the immense open field of the Dome. For the next several hours, I trudged up and down those sidelines, dodging warm-up punts, scurrying sideline coaches, bounding cheerleaders, a cross-dressing Freddy the Falcon and even the oncoming rush of more than 500 pounds of human flesh as Falcon Adam Jennings steamrolled towards my spot on the sideline with Seahawk Lofa Tatupa right on his heels.

I have to say – despite the ache of my back and my legs the following day from all the squatting and sprinting and hiking up and down that sideline to get the perfect shot – I cannot recall many times when I’ve had more fun. The excitement was palpable, both from the fans and from the players. As the game minutes ticked by and it seemed more and more possible that the Falcons could pull a win out of the hat for the final game of this tragic season, even the seasoned reporters lining the field seemed to catch the buzz of possibility.

And despite the fact that the win meant little in the grand scheme of the football world – it led to no brag- worthy ring, and it would not drag the Falcons up from the bottom of the ranks for the year – there was something infinitely thrilling about being close enough to feel the spray when Bobby Engram took a knee on that final play and DeAngelo Hall upended a full cooler of Gatorade over a beaming interim coach Emmitt Thomas.

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�