The Ralston Valley Mustangs hosted Legacy High School at a snowy NAAC Thursday night. It is hard to believe, but in all the time I lived in Alaska and as many football games that I shot up there, this was the first time I ever shot a football game in the snow. I have shot baseball, soccer and track and field in the snow or with snow on the sidelines, having been freshly shoveled away, but never with snow falling.

The 4 months I have been in Denver (Arvada), I have been spoiled with the warm weather, so this night I was cold.  Really cold.  It affected my shooting some, and the snow was a pain to shoot in.  Shooting a night game for MaxPreps, I needed to use flash, and the flash would illuminate the snow that was between me and my subject, both in the air, and on the ground, and the frozen grass reflected light, causing exposure issues.  My camera would also jump focus every so often, grabbing snow flakes from time to time.  Plus the cold, my fingers got numb very quick.

There was also a layer of what I would call ice fog coming off the field at times.  It was a hard shoot.

Ralston Valley jumped out in front of Legacy and never looked back.  The running game was the big part of RV’s offense, as the cold and snow made for a slippery ball to catch at times.

Even with the snow and cold, RV fans came out in herds, but very few people from Legacy made the trip to the game.  The Mustangs took a 30-0 lead over Legacy into the locker room at halftime.

At halftime, I went under the visitors bleachers to get out of the snow, and the chain gang, who have done all 12 games I have shot at NAAC, invited me into their room to warm up.  It was the NAAC garage for the lawn mowers, and equipment, and there was a nice, warm heater going which made quite a difference to my frozen fingers for the second half.

I was disappointed in the above photo.  Wide receiver for the Mustangs was wide open, filling my frame, and then the throw was low, so at the last second dropped down in my frame.  So while that irritated me, what really hacked me is the sign in the background, that is not lit by my flash, and out of my focus zone, gives the altitude of the football field.  Would have been kind of cool to see that in the background.

Ralston Valley would end up beating Legacy 44 to 6 to close out their regular season.  Photos should be up on MaxPreps soon.