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sgtwolvehttp://blog.burrillstrong.com/

Photo of the Lacrosse Now: 1 April 2011

The early spring sports season continued with lacrosse — one of my newer favorite sports — in Dexter.

The Dexter boys faced Belleville:

Notice the placement of the Belleville stick in the next two photos…

…and insert the Urkel “Did I do thaaaat?” catchphrase here.

The Dexter lacrosse program is pretty good, while the Belleville lacrosse program is…uh…decidedly not pretty good. The Belleville goalie was fiercely competitive, so the frequent and abundant Dexter goals served to make him more and more frustrated as the game wore on. Eventually, with the score badly lopsided and a Dexter player running in on a breakaway, the goalie found a way to take out his frustration…by leveling the Dexter player on the breakaway.

The Dexter player still scored — he managed to shoot the ball before the goalie reached him — but he certainly paid for the goal.

At the same time, the Dexter girls lacrosse team was playing Salem.

(As an aside: who decided the Rocks mascot should go to Salem? As a mascot, it makes sense only when attached to Plymouth. The Plymouth Rocks is a great name. The Salem Rocks? That makes no sense.)

Photo of the Tennis Previewin’ Now: 31 March 2011

My sports preview photo tour continued (and…um…ended) with tennis.

Hey, this is even more of an action shot than yesterday’s hurdle photo: she’s in the act of picking up the tennis balls!

Photo of the Track Previewin’ Now: 30 March 2011

I visited the CHS track during a practice to get a few photos for the Chelsea Standard’s track & field preview. As usual, that involved getting shots of seniors…

Hey, look, Coach K! It’s the seniors displaying a gesture made famous by those memorable Duke basketball teams from the early 1990s. OH WAIT. No they’re not.

…as well as a few action shots.

What? That’s an action shot. That’s what hurdles do.

Photo of the Slightly Warmer Soccer Now: 29 March 2011

Several days after the frigid opener against Dexter, Chelsea soccer faced Pinckney.

Photo of the Frigid Cold Soccer Now: 25 March 2011

While most spring sports wait until after spring break to get into competition, soccer always has a game or two before spring break. Chelsea started with a game against Dexter on a day better suited for hockey than for soccer.

Unfortunately, midway through the first half a Chelsea athlete went down with an obviously painful injury.

It was a very physical game.

Did I mention it was cold? It was cold.

Photo of the St. Patrick’s Day Now: 17 March 2011

SRSLY — previously seen chopping up a car — held a St. Patrick’s Day party at the Chelsea Library; it featured food, live music and computer gaming (which, sadly, I completely neglected to photograph).

Photo of the Basketball Now: 11 March 2011

Apologies for the mangled timeline. Apparently I was so excited to get to 12 March that I forgot all about 11 March.

Fresh off an overtime win over Chelsea, Gabriel Richard faced Milan in the district final at Onsted.

When the crew at the scorers’ table tried to start the national anthem, they ran into a problem: it wouldn’t play. After a minute or so of frantic but fruitless efforts by the game crew, the crowd solved the problem by singing the anthem itself. It was a great moment.

(I thought about taking video of the crowd-powered anthem, but I decided to stick to my job and just shoot photos.)

Look! It’s Joakim Noah!

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Photo of the Faculty Talent Show Now: 12 March 2011

The Chelsea Music Boosters held its annual Faculty & Friends talent show fundraiser. If you’ve never been, you’re missing out on a fun evening: this is one of my favorite community events to photograph.

The show opened with synchronized “swimming”…

…and then it moved on to the musical acts.

CHS student Molly Turner sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with accompaniment from her dad Rob Turner, a former Chelsea School Board member and current Washtenaw County Commissioner. His contributions were highly…dignified.

In fact, he was so dignified, he managed to make Molly laugh in the middle of the song.

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Photo of the Swimming Finals Now: 12 March 2011

Eastern Michigan University hosted the division 2 swimming finals.

My primary job at the finals was to keep an eye on the many Dexter swimmers who had qualified. Joining me in that task was a large and vocal crowd of Dexter fans.

As a team, Dexter finished third overall.

Photo of the Basketball Now: 9 March 2011

Chelsea faced Gabriel Richard in the second round of the playoffs.

It didn’t take long for GR to build a small lead, and they held that lead for much of the game. Chelsea chipped away at it several times, but GR always found a way to get it back.