And Now There Are Four - Dallas in Playoffs

Saturday the Dallas Diamonds defeated the Kansas City Tribe 55-35 in their quarter-final contest.  They are now one victory away from the WFA (Women's Football Alliance) championship game. 

They just have to defeat San Diego Surge next Saturday in San Diego.

The winner of that game will play in the WFA championship game in Pittsburgh August 4 at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The game will be televised on ESPN 3. It will be the first time a women's professional football game has been played in an NFL stadium.

In a previous post (July 6) I gave you some background on the playoffs and why I'm pulling for the Dallas Diamonds.  They're a classy team with a lot of talent.  What are their chances of defeating San Diego?  Pretty good. 

Dallas offense ended the season number one in the WFA in points scored, 74.1 per game, while their defense allowed only 4.2 points per game.  San Diego's offense scored an average of 55.8 points while their defense gave up only 1.5.  I read that as a slight edge to Dallas.  I subtracted points allowed from points scored and that gave Dallas a net of 69.9 and San Diego a net of 54.2.



Quarterback Brittany Bushman with the ball.  Looks
like a pass play.  She's good at those.

The Dallas Quarterback, Brittany Bushman, led the league in passing yardage with 2061 yards on the season.  She completed 58% of her passes, 118 of 201 attempts, and gained an average of 17.5 yards per completion.  Her quarterback ranking was 128.7.

The San Diego Quarterback, Melissa Gallegos, ranked number 8 in passing yardage completing 58.7% of her passes, 81 of 137 attempts and 13.4 yards per completion average.  Her quarterback ranking was102.2.  So again, slight edge to Dallas.

Tiffany Hill, #21, Fourth ranked ball carrier in the league.

Dallas had two running back ranked in the league top twenty.  Tiffany Hill ranked #4 with 958 yards, averaging 12 yards per carry and scoring 18 touchdowns.

Brittany Satterwhite ranked #19 with 637 yards and an average of 15.2 yards per carry and scoring 9 touchdowns.

Brittany Satterwhite - sorry I don't have
a better photo.  She was a league top
twenty runner and receiver.

San Diego had two runners in the top twenty, Monique Zaky, ranked #14 and Cassey Brick ranked #20.  Zaky averaged 10 yards per carry and scored 9 TDs.  Brick 9.8 yards per carry and a dozen TDs. 

Not too shabby.  But again a slight edge to Dallas. 

In pass receptions, Dallas had three players in the league top twenty, Brittany Satterwhite ranked #1 in receiving yardage and #2 in receptions. Umeki Webb ranked #15 in yardage and #9 in number of receptions.  And Alberta Brydson ranked #9 in yardage and #16 receptions. 

San Diego had just one receiver in the top twenty, Holly Peterson who ranked #12 in yardage and #15 in number of  receptions. Advantage Dallas.

#81 Umeki Webb jumping to catch a pass.

#24 Alberta Brydson settling in under a pass.  She makes the catch.

Tired of numbers?  So am I.  You can visit the Women's Football Alliance website and study a lot of numbers, enough to make a CPA happy.

Predicting outcomes in interdivisional games is difficult because divisions have wide variations in talent and competition.   The numbers were posted against different opponents so shouldn't be relied upon as absolute. 

Another consideration - in the quarter-final round of playoffs, the home teams won every game.  Two reasons - one is the team with the best record for the season gets home field advantage so theoretically the home team is the better team.  Two, supportive crowds in the stands energize players on the field.  Is isn't automatic that home field wins but there is a home field advantage.  Advantage San Diego.

So, in my little analysis above Dallas has an advantage.  But San Diego has home field meaning someone smarter than I has compared the records and seeded them the better team. 

Other factors - Dallas has won championships in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008 - so they do know how to win.  And they are from Texas - we all know Texas is better than California. 

Support the Diamonds
This post is getting long.   Let's close with a suggestion that fans of the Outlaws, fans of women's professional football, donate a little money to the Diamonds.  Travel to San Diego and then Pittsburgh is expensive.  Here's a link to the Diamonds Facebook page.

And if you'd like an excuse to take a little vacation trip to California, maybe head to San Diego next weekend and cheer on our divisional champ.

The Post Season

Want to see some football?  There's a big game in Dallas tomorrow, Saturday July 7, as the Dallas Diamonds take on the Kansas City Tribe in a quarterfinal contest in the WFL (Women's Football League) playoffs. 

You may recall Dallas kind of dominated our division this season, defeating the Outlaws twice by a combined score of... well, we don't have to go there.  It wasn't pretty.  I observed some Diamonds' good sportsmanship following the game in Austin and that inspired a "nice people" theme I've used and will continue to use in this blog. 

Nice people - After the Diamonds won over the Outlaws, they
extended the traditional hand-shake line to go to the sidelines
and greet injured Outlaw Stephanie Marshall, and her young
friend. I decided then and there I like the Diamonds.

I'm pulling for the Diamonds to go all the way. 

The playoffs began June 23 with eight games played across the country on both coasts and north and south.  The Diamonds had a bye that day but another team we know and love, the Lone Star Mustangs, played and destroyed the Arkansas Wildcats 70-0. 

Action shot from Austin-Mustangs game.  Mustangs won both
games with Outlaws this season and are a good solid team.

On June 30 the four "bye" teams were in action as eight more games were played.  If you're not familiar with sports playoff protocol, it is common for the teams who finish the season with the best records to get a "bye" in the first round of playoff games - they don't have to play and automatically advance to the second round. 

In the June 30 second round the Mustangs faced the Diamonds with high hopes after their stunning 70-0 victory over Arkansas.  It was no contest.  The Diamonds won easily, 76-0. 

 Meanwhile the Kansas City Tribe, who also had a bye the first round, won their game with St. Louis 42-17.  Setting up Saturday's game, the Tribe vs Diamonds. 

The tribe finished their season undefeated and averaged 52 points per game.  The Diamonds averaged 74 points per game.  Dallas allowed opponents only 4 points per game while Kansas allowed 11. 

It is difficult to pick winners in these inter-divisional games because there is such a wide range of ability in teams.  Witness the Mustangs winning their first game 70-0 and losing the next 0-76.  The competition level isn't consistent and that makes early playoff games unpredictable.  However, based just on the little information reported here, I favor the Diamonds to win big over Kansas.

There are four quarter-final  games scheduled this weekend.  The four winners will go on to two semi-finals games next weekend.  Based on season records four of the best teams in the league remain standing - isn't that how it is supposed to happen? - and the games should be competitive and interesting.

The two winners of the semi-final games will play in the championship on August 4 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The game will be televised on ESPN 3.  If you get to see the game, live or on TV, you can smile and say your Austin Outlaws were part of that.  And you can imagine what future seasons will be as our team of rookies gains experience and victories.  One day that could be Austin in the championship game.

You can read all about the post season at the WFA Website.

And you can visit the Dallas Diamonds at their website.  Or better still, try their Facebook page. 

Liberty

Neighborhood boys knock on the door.  They're setting up a little football game and ask if Emily come out and play.  Emily has brothers but she's the best athlete in the house.  Yet when Emily wanted to try out for the high school team, she was turned away because girls shouldn't play a violent game like football.

Why to Crash (#41) and Cookie (#2) want to play football?

I don't know but I'm glad they do.  And glad they can.

I've often heard that story when interviewing Outlaws and asking about the experience of playing women's professional football.  "I wanted to play, I was good, but girls weren't allowed..."

This is the fourth of July.  We celebrate the declaration of independence in which our founders declared unalienable rights to include Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Freedom.

Today American women have the liberty to pursue happiness even if the pursuit involves playing full contact NFL rules football. 

Mary Nguyen

A recurring theme in this blog is appreciation of the differences in people.  A few years ago I started interviewing Austin Outlaws to see if I could figure out why any woman would want to play football.  I found my interviewees to be fascinating people.  But impossible to stereotype.  Big, small, short, tall, high school grads, college grads, grad school grads.  Quiet, not so quiet, religious, not religious.  Different nationalities - Japanese (Minori Jovel), Viet Namese (Mary Nguyen), African American, Hispanic, Caucasian, even Hawaiian.  All with different life stories, all with different reasons for wanting play.  All delightfully different from each other, from me.

Minori Jovel

In this country, you are (still) free to be different. 

I love difference in people, in scenery, in food, in food, in food...  oops.  Difference is interesting.  I've resumed interviewing players and I'll profile them in this blog in the weeks ahead.  Fascinating people. 

Problem.  We live in a society that wants to eliminate differences.  Social stigma attach to people who don't conform.  This is at it's worse when we stigmatize people for traits they couldn't change if they wanted to.  Like physical characteristics.  Size.  Features. 

Why do people want to tell other people how to live, how to look, how to eat, how to play? 

Societal pressure to conform can be resisted by informing public opinion.  This blog aims at reducing societal biases by introducing you to wonderful people who have chosen to do something different, football.  I'm a big person and size bias is a personal thing with me.  You'll see blog posts on being big, being small.  Sneaky attempts by me to influence your opinion about differences in people.


A more pernicious attack on individual liberty is legislative.  A lot of people are so determined to erase differences that they want to pass laws controlling the rest of us.  In New York City, they're passing a law against thirty-two ounce soft drinks.  Just about everywhere are laws against smoking.  I'm not going to create a list because I'm confident you're aware of government agencies setting rules to limit your liberty. 

Our liberty.  We're a land of the free but our freedom is limited by millions of laws passed at city, county, state, and national levels. 

I have become a libertarian.  I believe  you should be free to be what you want to be, do what you want to do when you want how you want.  As long as it doesn't affect me, it is none of my business. 


July 4 is an important date. November 6, 2012 is more important. It is election day. When you vote, consider which candidates will recognize and respect your individual liberty.

So you can even play football if you want to.

Why does Tara Andrickson (#33) want to play football?  I don't know.  But I'm glad she does.  And
glad she can.
There's a guy in a striped shirt watching.  He's part of the game.  But if we ever get big brother
government watching...

Where have I been?; Kids

Why are they standing
back to back?

On June 24 I posted a not very serious discussion of what I consider a serious subject - my point was that differences in people make life interesting.  Viva la difference.  The post featured a couple of my favorite Outlaws clowning it up a little in a series of size comparison photos. 

Then on June 28, I posted some fun photos called the faces of football.  One of the faces-photos was salvaged from the size-comparison shots and recalled the days of my youth when proud parents had cousins stand back to back to see which is taller. 

Are you still with me? 

I'm trying to get two ideas covered in one post and one long introduction.  First,  frequency of posting to this blog.  June 24, June 28, and now July 2.  Four days between posts.  That's fewer than two posts per week.  Is this what you should expect in the future?  Answer: I don't know.  I'm aiming at three posts per week.  But lately...

...lately I've been working on some really cool subjects.  Like Rubi Reyna and Ereka Howard and Maile and Malia Capers-Cristobal and QT Preston.  I want to resume player profiles, like the May 10 profile of Cookie,  because you like them and they're fun to do.  But they take more time than other posts.  Profiles require meetings and interviews.  I'm not a good interviewer; I get to talking and forget to focus and then have to follow up with questions like why is Maile nicknamed "Tab"?

To fill in between-profiles, I like to insert some fun posts.  I'm working on one about  zebras - the officials.  I had fun with my size post.  And "Neat or Messy."  And "Tricks of the Game." 

Or fill in with just fun photos (are you impressed that I've resisted the temptation to spell the "F" sound the same way?  Fun Fotos.  Or Phun Photos.  It is tempting.)  The problem with this is I have too many photos.  Sifting through them to pick ones worthy of you, who take your time to visit my blog, is a big job.  So posting frequency is unpredictable.  The goal is about every other day. 

Would you like to post here?  If you'd like to post to my blog, let me know.  I'd love to have guest posts.

Today I'm posting phun photos. 

Of kids.  If you know these kids or their families, please tell them they're featured here.  If anyone would prefer not to be on the internet, just let me know and I'll delete the picture.

I think the one in the red
shirt is taller.

When I pointed my camera toward three boys who were playing around on the sidelines before the game, they noticed and posed.    Posed back- to-back the way we cousins used to be posed for height comparison. Two are in the lead photo above, two here.
That reminded me of my recent size comparison post titled "The Long and the Short."  Which gave me a hook for starting todays post.  Not much of a hook but I don't need much. 

Now that you see two different sets of boy back to back, can you tell which is taller?

When kids or other people see my camera aiming their way, they pose.  Usually I dislike posed photos (you should see how much trouble I have shooting the posed head-shots for profiles) but sometimes they work.  As in the case of this young Outlaws fan.

Honestly, I can't hear the noise these noise-makers make.

She is holding a couple noise-makers.  Each is inscribed with "go team" and during the game she bangs them together to make encouraging noises and inspire the Outlaws.  When I pointed the camera at her she demonstrated.  If the photos aren't as sharp as you've come to expect of my photos, it is because she was quite a distance away and the lighting was imperfect and don't blame the photographer but blame the camera...

Catching kids unaware is more my photographic style.  I've noticed that younger ones aren't always engaged in the happenings on the field.  And not always totally delighted about being here. 

He has brought a toy train engine to
the game for when the action doesn't
interest him. 

Don't know what he's sad about.  He has a snack
sack.  I do have other photos of this young fan with
less forlorn facial epressions but I like this one
best (sorry mom).

He does appear to be engaged in whatever is
happening on the field.

Coming up soon, on Wednesday if I keep to my schedule, fun posts and profile posts (which are fun, too). 

Faces of Football

QT Preston

The first time I saw QT I liked her because of that smile.  She was smiling then, she's smiling now.  One of these days, if okay with her, I'll profile her in this blog. 

This was her rookie year in football and she did good.  It will be fun to get to know her and tell her story to you.

Today's post is just a collection of photos of Outlaws, up close.  Photos I like.  I hope you like them, too.

This is Tiffany, another happy player.  She's been with the Outlaws a long time, which is why I know her name.  I'm not going to name all the players below.  I'm terrible with names and player numbers don't show up in many of these photos.  Tiffany and QT are happy Outlaws.  I think the rest of the Outlaws in this post are also happy but you'll see that some are a little more serious.  At least they were when I snapped the photo.

I hope you can see the photo above the way I see it on my computer.  I love the serious expression.  This young Outlaw is fully engaged just about an hour before kickoff.  And I like is the quality of the focus, the clarity of the image.  I shoot action and candid shots.  Often the exposure is imperfect, the focus slightly off.  This photo is sharp and clear, about as good as I get.  So I like her expression and I like my perfect picture.

Football is serious.  Fun, sometimes funny, but it involves hitting and hitting is serious.  Many of my candid shots involve various forms of serious.  Such as the three below.

Smiling Outlaws.  Serious Outlaws. Silly Outlaws?  Well, normally I'm the silly one but sometimes...

In my previous post I acknowledged something you've already noticed - I'm kind of silly.  Silly thoughts, silly photos.  Football is serious but I'm not playing or coaching, I'm a (wannabe) photographer looking for pictures to post on my blog. 

Ereka Howard has become one of my favorite photo subjects.  She represents the range from serious to silly to interesting.  Here are two photos of Ereka.  The first is silly.  She saw my camera pointed her way during a game and knew I needed help getting a fun photo.  Silly?  Thanks Ereka.

Ereka Howard, clowning for the photographer.  I don't like the black mouthpieces.  When I played
I don't think we used mouthpieces.  Now players use a variety of colors.  Who would think the moutpiece
would become a fashion statement.  "I matches your uniform,,,"

Ereka also gave me one of my all time favorite photos.  This was accidental  led to an interesting shot that fits the faces of football theme.  Ereka's facial expressions are always interesting.  Always expressive

She was running a pass pattern with her usual exuberance.  The ball was sailing toward her and her facial expression says it was going to be a difficult catch.  Unnoticed by her and by me one of the coaches stepped in front of my camera appearing as a ghostly apparition in the right side of the frame.  Everything came together for a perfect picture. Ereka's eyes appear to be on the ghost.  Her expression shocked, frightened, appropriate to the situation.  I don't know if this really fits the theme of "faces of football" although it truly is just that.

Finally another accidental faces-of-football photo.  My last post was a playful look at the biggest Outlaw, Maile, and the smallest Outlaw, Rubi.  I had asked them if "they'd join me in a little fun project."  They agreed and we spent a little time at the park shooting dozens of photos intended to playfully illustrate the size differential.  Most of the photos didn't get used.  There's only so much space in the blog and, sadly, many of the shots didn't do what I was trying to do. 

As I looked for photos for this post, I revisited the Rubi/Maile photo shoot and I found the picture below.  In fact, it is part of a larger photo we didn't us.  Remembering when I was a kid (a loooong time ago) I recalled parents having sons, daughters, cousins, stand back-to-back to see who was growing fastest (a contest I often won).  I figured if it worked for kids it would work for Outlaws and I had had the players stand back-to-back.  I was wrong.  I didn't work with Rubi and Maile.   

But the theme of this post is faces and when I revisited the back-to-back I zoomed in to faces.  And I like the result.  Not silly, not serious, not eerie.  Just two Outlaws, a quarterback and linewoman, enjoying teaming up, this time not to win a game but to help me with my blog.

Rubi and Maile

 

The Long and the short...

A woman  writer lamented that there are support groups for just about everybody.  Whatever it is that makes you different from some socital norm, there's a support group to help you cope.  Too tall?  Check Google for support groups for tall people.  You'll get millions of hits.  Too short?  Too thin?  Same.  Too fat?  ...now I'm hitting close to home; there are some who suggest I fit this category and would enroll me in one of the weight-loss groups identified in 148,000,000 Yahoo hits for fat people support.

Not many would enroll me Mensa, a group for people with high IQs. 

I searched for support for silly people which describes me.  There were lots of hits but most offered support for you, people who have to put up with us silly people.

There are lots of groups with "anonymous" in their names, inspired by alcoholics anonymous.  Debtors anonymous, gamblers anonymous, messies anonymous (for messy people - they should be playing defense in football, which you know if you've read a recent blog post), social phobics anonymous, narcotics anonymous, overeaters anonymous... you get the idea.

The woman writer who inspired this web search complained that there are no support groups for "normal" people.  Of which she claims to be one.  A normal person.  She is neither tall nor short, fat nor thin. not super smart nor dumb.  She isn't given to any of the habits that inspire groups anonymous.  She is neat but not obscessive. 

Why, she lamented, aren't there support groups for normal people?

And I got to thinking.  Are there enough normal people to form a group? 

Nope.  And that's good.  This world is an interesting place because of the differences in people.  Don't you think?  I'm glad we aren't all "normal," whatever that means.  I tire of people trying to make us all the same by forming groups to help change us, conform us.  Viva la difference.

Rubi extending arm so Maile
can walk under.

This long introduction is a lead in to what I hope is a fun blog post.  One reason I love football is that it accepts people who are different.  If you're bigger than average, the team needs you.  If you're smaller, there's a place for you.  Tall or short, come on.  If you can play, we'll find a place for you.  I've posted on this general subject before - I think I used the label "Bein' big."  If I were a good blogger I'd put the link here.  This post is inspired by two of my favorite Outlaws, both of whom will be profiled one day soon.  I noticed something about them and asked them if they'd join me in a little fun project.

One is Maile Capers-Cristobal.  The other is Rubi Reyna.  I noticed that one of them is the tallest Outlaw, the other the least tall.  And I suggested we do a blog post visually depicting the difference.

One visual way to represent tallerness is to hold your arm out to the side and have the shorter person walk under you.  As in the photo above, Rubi is extending her arm and Maile fits nicely under.  It helps if you cheat just a little and raise arm above a strict horizontal position. 

See how we pulled off the
first photo - we cheated.
Call it photetic license.

It helps even more if you stand on a park bench.  In fact, Rubi is 5'2" and Maile 6'1".  Almost a foot taller.  There's a weight differential, too.  Maile's weight has her well suited for line play, Rubi's for scooting through small gaps in the line for large yardage gains.  The point is that football has players both large and small and the difference is sometimes substantial.  We met at a park and spent a little time trying to create visual images to illustrate.

Really Maile is the one whose
outstretched arm about clears
Rubi's head.

Getting a little more serious we reversed roles in the walk-under-my-arm visual and put Maile in the true perspective.  If you are an astitute observer you'll notice we had to put Maile on a slightly higher elevation.  She says it was because Rubi has her hair combed in a style that exaggerated her true height.  You be the judge.  I'm not going to quibble over an inch or two.

Perspective gained by having Rubi
stand in front of Maile.

I like this shot (above) because it gives a perspective.  Maile's eleven inch height advantage isn't quite enough to have Rubi stand directly in front of her, which was my original vision for the shot.  Still, imagine Rubi carrying the football and looking up over her left shoulder and seeing Maile.  And being so happy they are on the same team.

You generally don't see quarterbacks or running backs in a three point stance facing off agains a linewoman.  And you can see why in the photo below.  Notice my models are having fun.  I asked Rubi to turn to the camera and look afraid.  She tried but she and Maile are friends and she just couldn't generate fear.

Rubi is happy she's not a linewoman.  Though I've seen her in games throw blocks at
defenders who were much larger than she. 



It can be fun having strong
friends.  Rubi riding on
Maile's shoulders.

There's a smart aleck question often directed by average size people to tall people:  "How's the weather up there?"  To which one of my tall cousins returned a smart comment about it being fine, how is it down there around my...  Rubi didn't ask such a question of Maile but did get an opportunity to check both the weather and the view from 6'1" above the ground.  Maile is strong.  Very strong.  Carrying Rubi was no test for her.  Not at all.

This post is getting a little long.  I'll be making future posts on the subject of people being different from socital "norms" and the world being a better place because of it.  I've focused in the past on being big because I've experienced that.  Maybe I'll expand the discussion to include being small. Or average? 

Nice People

When the action on the field slows down, I aim my camera at the fans.  And get some really cool photos.  Proving good photography isn't the photographer, isn't the camera, it is the subject(s).  Today I'm just posting some of my favorite shots of fans from the Houston game, Saturday, June 16.

I usually don't do well if my subject knows I'm taking the photo.  Other times it works out okay.  In the photo above, the folks knew I was shooting them, and happily hammed it up for me when they saw the camera pointed their way.  This post is in the category "nice people."  They're all nice people.  

The couple in the following photo are also aware of the camera.  Well, she is.  She's trying to get him to notice me.  And I think she's failing.  His eyes seem focused just over my left shoulder.  Her's are right on target.  I haven't met them but I like them. 

Sometimes I know the subject of my photo.  The one above, in the red shirt, is Jo-Anne Capers.  She has two daughters playing on the Outlaws, Malia and Maile.  The daughter's share a hyphenated last name, Capers-Cristobal.  This is the first time I've noticed mom has a hypnenate first name, Jo-Anne.  One of these days I'm going to do a posting on the fascinating subject of hyphenated names.  And I'll start with the Capers-Cristobal family. 

They're from Hawaii.  I think I'd rather be to-Hawaii than from-Hawaii but Austin is a pretty good substitute for Waikiki.  I think Jo-Anne is attempting to do a hook-em horns sign but she hasn't mastered the art yet.  Close but no cigar. 

The photo below is of three of my long time favorite people.  And I'm happy to announce to you that, for the first time ever, I can give you the names of man behind the binoculars and the woman in pink.  I've posted photos of them many times but never knew their names.  I consider them friends.  They always wave at me.  They come to all Outlaws games and I have often chatted with them, but being me, I've never asked their names.  At Saturday's game, I learned their names.  And I'm proud to report the way I learned.  The other person in the photo is KJ Scheib, former Outlaw.  KJ has been reading my blog.  KJ noticed I didn't know the names of these important fans.  KJ called me over and introduced me. 

 The nice lady in pink is Beatrice and the gentleman is Ellis.

 

I don't know most of the people I photograph.  If you know any of them please give them a link to my blog so they'll see I'm making them famous.  The ones I don't know capture my attention because... well, I don't really know.  Certainly one reason is because I think they look good.  I'll never post an image if I don't find the subject attractive.  Sometimes handsome or beautiful.  More often "nice" looking.  They look like people I'd enjoy meeting.  Like the couple in the following photo.  They just look like nice folks, don't they.

Or the young lady below.  I didn't notice until I posted her picture that she is wearing a label, "Bad Girl."  I wonder if that's "bad" in the good sense of the term.  Like a "bad" car meaning  a really cool good car.  I had two photos of this bad girl.  The first was candid, the second is the one I've posted where she knew I was pointing my camera in her direction.  Once again, I posted this because she looks nice. 

Then there are the kids.  I love getting pictures of kids at the games.  I've said the good photograph isn't about the camera or photograrpher but the subject.  Somehow kids make wonderful subjects.  The young man in the photo to the left is interested in something out there.  There must be a break in the action on the field so whatever is interesting him, it isn't football.  I just like his expression, the Cheetos in his hand.  One of these posts soon, I'll feature lots of kid photos. 

The photo below, the last in today's post, I like a lot.  At half time the Outlaws gathered on the field and invited young fans to come and get photographed with the players.  I have several photos of this event - MaryLou did a better job covering it.  My photos are candids.  Taken from off center.  I'll post others from the event someday. 

The one I've posted here features one my most favorite people.

That is Lily Messina.  She is one of the founders of the Outlaws.  She is the key person behind the remarkable success of this organization.  I have many photos of Lily.  I've posted her profile elsewhere in this blog.  She has often shown up in action shots, as offensive guard or center. 

This photos captures for me just how special Lily is. 

You'll appreciate it a little more if you notice she's in uniform. A couple years ago Lily had a serious injury to her foot.  She played a season in spite of the injury and then retired.  And came out of retirement because they needed her on the field; it is always difficult to keep enough players healthy and active, especially enough to play in the offensive line. Lily came out of retirement becuaes the team needed her.  Lily retired again and this season devoted her time to coaching the line.  Until the center hurt her leg and was doubtful about playing in the final game.  Lily once again responded coming out of retirement for one game, for the good of the team. 

In this photo you can see Lily's love of the game, love of the people who come to the games.  She's letting a young fan try out her helmet.  And delighting in the moment. Delighting as she shares some of the experience of being an Austin Outlaw.  For twelve years Lily has been enabling dozens or hundreds of women to experience being an Austin Outlaw.   

This blog post is about nice people. 

 I know none nicer than Lily Messina.