I am embarassed to say that the ACC championship was my first soccer game in a year.  That is mostly due to most soccer games these days being at night.  Night games, with the poor lighting they bring, are typically not work going to.  But my old friend Greg Fiume, who is the Maryland Terrapins team photographer, hired me to photograph Maryland as they played for the ACC championship against Virginia.  So below and enjoy the goods.

Maryland soccer vs. Virginia 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.

Show some love for the ACC or your favorite school by voting for seniors for the 2008 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. Below are the contestants, and where they stand as of 1pm ET on 4/16.  You get 3 votes and can vote once per day.  I obviously voted for Fletcher Gregory at UNC for my first pick.  I was showing some love for Brad Ross but now that he is ahead, I have to be a UNC partisan and not vote for Duke.  My 2nd pick was for the man, the legend, Paul Rabil at Hopkins.  After that, I was neutral for my third vote.

—>> VOTE HERE for Fletcher <<—

I forgot to link to the photos from UNC vs. UVA lacrosse.  Here they are for inquisitive minds.

North Carolina Lacrosse v. Virginia photos

Wanted to link to a post by James Schaffer, art director at Inside Lacrosse Magazine. On it, he describes some of the post-production necessary to prep a photo for cover on their in the most recent issue. Pictured is Paul Rabil of Hopkins and Ben Rubeor of UVA.

I post the link for two reasons: One, I think it’s pretty interesting from both the photographer and fan perspective. But two, I freelance for Inside Lacrosse and it’s always great to suck up to the boss by linking to his work. Click here to view the post.

Booyah baby. The ACC put posted 3 of the top 5 preseason rankings for men’s lacrosse according to Inside Lacrosse Magazine.They are as follows:

• #1    Johns Hopkins
• #2    Duke
• #3    Virginia
• #4    Georgetown
• #5    North Carolina

Maryland wrapped up the list at #6.

Wanted to give my alma mater UNC some props for placing #1 in the inaugural ”Elite 50″ by STACK Magazine.  The magazine ranks athletic programs by looking at academia, performance and athletic opportunities.  Nearby Duke University also did well placing #5. Those in-the-know can probably guess the #2 team: Stanford. Hopefully this will not go the way of the Athletic Directors Cup where we win the first year and Stanford wins every year afterwards. The value in this #1 ranking is that the magazine is given out to high school students.   High school students who include in their ranks high caliber athletes that UNC and other schools want to recruit. In this business, good publicity goes a long way.Other ACC schools making the Elite 50 include UVA (11), Maryland (24), Clemson (30), Boston College (31) and Wake Forest (35).

If you have ever wondered what it is like to do a photo shoot with a varsity athlete (and hey, who hasn’t?), then check out this video from Inside Lacrosse. Staff photographer James Schaffer does a shoot with some of the UVA recruits coming in this year.

Link to Video