Ben Hunt on the March 2009 cover of Inside Lacrosse

Inside Lacrosse commissioned me to do the photography for their cover article on Coach Joe Breschi and the revamped North Carolina Tar Heels. The shoot was a ton of fun. I would recount for you what the shoot was like, but rather than reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to link to an article I wrote on Inside Lacrosse.

This is actually my first cover for Inside Lacrosse.  Pretty sad that it took this long.

UNC head coach Joe Breshi on the cover of Lacrosse Magazine.

US Lacrosse, which is the governing body of lacrosse in the United States, commissioned me to do a portrait and ‘action’ shots of new North Carolina head coach Joe Breschi.  I did the shoot in two days.  The first day entailed coming out to a practice, and getting photos of coach in action.  Essentially, I stalked coach around during the day.  Keeping up with him during practice is probably harder than it sounds.  He is going back and forth do the different groups (offense and defense split up during practice).  

Then a few days later, coach and I barely found 15 minutes on a Sunday to get together and do a portrait out by the Old Well.  I saw barely because as the deadline for US Lacrosse approached, coach was very busy with alumni weekend activities.

Mark Staines spots Andrew Spyke. Look at all those plates.

I’m not working with the team as much as I did last year, but I have to admit, I do miss my time with them. So yesterday I went out to one of their weightlifting session. I’m a little embarrassed that I’ve only learned about half of the freshmen’s names so far. Last year, by the 2nd week of September, I had everyone’s names down. But today I had fun and enjoyed being around the team again and I’m getting all the names down. Treat of the day was strength and conditioning coach Melissa Glyptis giving us a preview of her Halloween costume.

Last year I never posted galleries of these behind-the-scenes, as I was hoarding all the photos until I put them into a book. But this year, since I’m not doing a large project, I’m okay releasing them. So here is a link to a gallery of pics from today.

UNC head coach Joe Breschi

If you are lacrosse fanatic like me, then you know that this summer, Joe Breschi was hired to be the head coach of the North Carolina men’s lacrosse team.  Before UNC, coach Breschi was at Ohio State University, quietly but quickly building a solid program.  However, it is UNC that coach Breschi calls home, having graduated from UNC in 1990.

Before coming to UNC, I did not know much about coch Breschi, but I had the feeling that his players really liked him.  But now, having met him, I can see why he is “a great coach but an even better person”, as senior Bobby McAuley said it so well to Inside Lacrosse.

Lacrosse Magazine (the publication of US Lacrosse) commissioned me to do a portrait of coach Breshi, as well as to get some “action photos” of him.  The portraits haven’t been done, but I am not going to post them here anyway until after US Lacrosse uses them.  I don’t want to usurp their publication.  But here in this posting are some action photos.

Last year, I obviously attended a lot of practices.  I do mean, a lot; so I know what they were about.  Going out Friday showed me how much the UNC program is turning around under Breschi’s tenure.  The practices were intense, but I could tell the guys were having a lot of fun.  One new thing this year is that jersey numbers are not automatically given out.  Players have to earn the right to have a number.  Until then, your practice jersey is blank.  I spoke with Emmit Kellar and he echoed my thoughts:  This new system creates a great sense of competition among the players.  As I understand it, numbers are given out on a “first earned, first served” basis. If you want to reserve your number, you have to prove yourself during practice that you deserve it.

When I went out, Bobby McAuley earned his number on this day,  and you can obviously see the excitement.

Bobby McAuley earns his jersey number

Woo hoo.  We got some space on ESPN.com  You can find the link here.  They change the content frequently, so if you miss it, here it is:

Hey strangers.  I had the misfortune of having to take a long and relaxing cruise to Alaska, thus the radio silence.  (but don’t worry, a 5 hr slide show is on the way.)

I wanted to draw your attention to the latest issue of Inside Lacrosse (August 2008).  As you know, last year, I did a year-long photo essay of the varsity men’s lacrosse team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  It was a ton of work, but very gratifying to do.  One of the most gratifying results is a 9 page spread that Inside Lacrosse magazine, where I am a frequent photo contributor, published in this latest issue.  I had been in talks with Inside Lacrosse’s art director James Schaffer since as early as September or October about the possibility of doing a spread in IL.  At the time, I didn’t know if the project would even be successful or would reach fruition. Also, the story could always be displaced by other stories if a major event broke in lacrosse.

So other than my discussions with Inside Lacrosse and UNC sports information director Dave Lohse, I told not a soul that the photos could eventually find their way into the printed version of IL.  I told not even the coaches or players.  I only told them about 2 weeks ago when I knew the magazine had literally gone to the printing presses with the article included.

I’m really excited about the end result.  The editors decided to publish 9 pages for the story, a good 2 to 3 more photos that I ever expected.  Also used was a photo on the table of contents page.

If you are a UNC Lacrosse fan and want to order a back copy, you can do so on this order form.

Of course, you are a subscriber anyway, right?

A public thanks to James Schaffer, Keely Knop, John Jiloty, Jon Brand and Matt Can at Inside Lacrosse for their help.

Yesterday I posted photos from the actual game of Hopkins vs. Duke.  Today I posted some of by favorite photos of the “behind the scenes” of the team.  I picked out about 40 photos from both the trip to play Ohio State in Ithaca and Hopkins at the Final Four.  The photos include the team traveling, in the locker room, in their hotel room, during team building exercises and other events.  So it’s a real 360 of the guys.  Feedback always appreciated.

You can view the photos as a flash gallery here.

Or if you like the old fashioned thumbnail gallery, you can get that too.

Yeah, I know.  The game was like a month ago and I just now have them up.  Am I lazy?  No, not so much.  I traveled up with Duke and after they lost, I was in a funk and didn’t want to even look at the pictures for the longest time.  Then, I have been traveling fairly heavly for my “real job”.  So my time was really limited.

But now, you can find for your viewing pleasure, photos from the NCAA semifinals.

Duke Lacrosse vs. Hopkins Lacrosse Photos

Wanted to give a shout out to the following ACC lacrosse players who were drafted last night in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) draft.  They are, in order of draft:

Pick #  Team – Name, position, college

2. New Jersey - Matt Danowski [pictures], A, Duke

9. New Jersey - Joe Cinosky [pictures], D, Maryland

11. Chicago - Will Barrow [pictures], M, Virginia

12. New Jersey - Tony McDevitt [pictures], D, Duke

14. Long Island- Ben Rubeor [pictures], A, Virginia

22. Rochester - Nick O’Hara [pictures], D, Duke

27. Denver - Michael Ward [pictures], M, Duke

41. Chicago- Bud Petit [pictures], G, Virginia 

So that is eight ACC players placed in the 50 available draft spots. The #1 draft pick for Chicago went to the man, the legend, Paul Rabil [pictures] of Hopkins.

Just wanted to link to my post on Inside Lacrosse.  We traveled from Raleigh to Boston today.  

OK, I gotta seriously get to bed.