NFA head coach Bill Bianco (right) greets Monroe-Woodbury head coach Pat D’Aliso (left) after their Class AA football game inCentral Valley, NY on Friday, October 14, 2011. NFA defeated Monroe-Woodbury 7 – 0 to end Monroe-Woodbury’s 63 – game winning streak against Section 9 teams. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Rain. Mud. Spit and Blood... Friday night high school football at the playoff tournament level; although it may be a little early yet to be thinking that way just beyond the midway point of the season. Sounds sort of a like a John Madden promo or something. I can almost hear Madden’s voice echoing in my ear: “Now you see this kid here, Mikal Myers of NFA (at right). He’s got the mud thing going all over his body, a two-way lineman who doesn’t wear any protective padding on his arms – now HE’S a football player…!” Ever since I’ve been at this newspaper, there’s been the mystique of Monroe-Woodbury football. (Similar to the plateau and rare air that NFA basketball has lived on for years…) I’ve been privileged to have photographed some of the best HS football competition in my career up here in the Hudson Valley, and a lot of it has had to do with covering M-W football the last 5 years. Last night was challenging and at times just down right tough. An intermittent rain kept things at a point just below miserable, not to mention my drop-dead deadline, when I needed to have images shipped to the paper. Nerve racking. Nail biting. But beyond the headaches and everyday stresses, it was still fun. And that’s what counts probably more than anything…
*Here’s the slideshow from the very muddy game… ~cg.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2011 at 12:24 PM. It is filed under Uncategorized and tagged with football, monroe-woodbury, newburgh, nfa, sports.
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Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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