Wow… Title line from the 80s song, Wasn’t That A Party!! A lot of work by a lot of good people turned out swell on Saturday. The Greater Kansas City Basketball Coaches Association, Pepsi and Hyvee all got together and put on a show. We got to take pictures and tell you about it.
The galleries are up at the gallery site, just click the gallery logo at the upper right, under Important Links. I hope these teasers get you to go take a look at the pictures in the gallery. There is a slide show feature you can use to show them all, or look at them one at a time. The full panoply of the team pictures is there, too, along with pictures from the banquet.
In the meantime, there are some things to say about the whole experience: Well Done, Everyone!
Jeff came up with the best idea ever for the team pictures. We practiced it Thursday – nothing ever gets done right without practice – and barely 30 hours after they were shot, Jeff got them done and online at the KCSC gallery:
Jeff produced four of the best Team Pictures ever
Then we got to the games. Once again, the Independence Events Center turned out to be one of the best places to shoot, ever. We got killer pictures of both games. The best of the best are at the KCSCSports.net galleries, which you can reach from the link at the top right of this page.
Kylie Burns of Bishop Ward
It was a great time. We had seen several of the Missouri All Stars during the year, but the only Kansas girl we knew was from last year: Kelsey Balcom.
Kelsey Balcom of Olathe South mugs a Missouri All-Star
Jeff’s niece Kelcy came with us, for a third angle, and played it very nicely. She occupied the space under the goal, shooting upward and got some Very Nice Pictures!
Janna Graf, Shawnee Mission East
She considered it a successful day when she only got run over once!
This one is a particularly difficult shot –
Location, location location, and using it!
Being the size I am, I have always admired the players we see that have the big challenge of playing the big game from below. We have seen some amazing players barely 5.5ft tall. These three played at all-star level with less than average stature, especially for a ball player!
Tanchelle Hollingsworth, Raytown South
Teresa Turner of Notre Dame d'Sion
Brittany Williams of North Kansas City High
It seems likely to us that colleges will recognize the size of the heart matters more than the size of the player. All these ladies were outstanding.
There were, of course, others you might expect to be hoopsters, by size alone. Brittany McQuain of Wm Chrisman High, and Ashli Hill from Lawrence Free State were both aggressive and fast:
The kind of image Jeff and I call 'Arm Farm'
Then the boys came to play. Fast, furious action, accurate, great passing. No doubt about why any of these players were at an All Star game.
BJ Dunbar of Lees Summit North
Reese Holliday of Sumner Academy
Another of the All Stars we had gotten to see during the year, Frank Williams, the Williams boy with the real talent!
Frank Williams, Raytown
And look at the one Kelcy got from under the basket!!! She stood her ground and got the good shots.
Please take time to look thru the entire gallery, and the three point competition and the dunk contest will also be up soon.
Congratulation to everyone. Larry House did a great job co-ordinating the entire event, the IEC staff were great to work with – the timelapse stuff would not have been possible without their help – and the players and coaches were all at the top of their game. It was a great time and we were glad to be included!
O.. and the ‘full house’ from the title? CCIII … games number 202 and 203. Can’t wait til next year!
I have no doubt that Larry House spent most of a year getting ready for the GKCBCA annual banquet and the All-Stars Challenge games. It’s kind of a shame to show the games in just over a minute. Still we think it’s kind of neat!
Hope you enjoy it. We’re still importing images onto the hard drive. We’ll cull an post images Sunday Evening
