Richford girls basketball, BFA-St. Albans girls hockey playoff numbers and notes

The Richford girls basketball team and BFA-St. Albans girls hockey teams continue their playoff pushes Saturday.

The ninth-seeded Rockets (10-11), who won their first playoff game since 2006 this week, travel to Hardwick to take on top-seeded Hazen (18-3) at 2 p.m.

Richford lost the lone regular season meeting, in Hardwick, 34-28.

Gabby Coons led the Rockets with 10 points in their 27-25 win over No. 8 Leland & Gray.

This is the third all-time playoff meeting between the schools.

In 1994, Hazen won 49-47 in the quarterfinals and in 1996, Richford won 58-33 in a playdown.

Richford is looking for its first trip to the Final Four since 1995 and its' 12th in school history. Richford last won a state title in 1992. The Rockets have three Division III titles and are 0-2 in Division IV title games.

Hazen is looking for its' first trip to the semifinals since 2002 and its first title since 1976. The Wildcats are 0-3 in Division III state tournament finals and 2-2 in Division II finals, all back in the 70s.

Hazen has an all-time playoff record of 32-30 and Richford is 37-37.

The top-seeded 16-3-2 BFA-St. Albans girls hockey team will host South Burlington-MMU at 7 p.m. at the CPSC rink.

BFA 9-2 in semifinals and 8-1 in title games.

The teams tied 1-1 in their first meeting and BFA won the rematch at home, 5-0.

Hard'Ack Alpine ski race photo sales info

Thanks for checking out this link that aims to explain the ordering process for these photos.

First, if are visiting this link before 11 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011 then you can still get instant 99-cent downloads or $1.99 4x6s of any image from this event.

After that time, you will only be able to purchase prints and the price of the 4x6 prints increases to $2.99 each.

Why the difference? I typically offer 99-cent downloads and $1.99 4x6s of images to school's that use me for their team and individual photos. Unfortunately, BFA-St. Albans is not one of these schools. That said, as a personal favor to a couple of the organizers of this event I agreed to bend the rules and allow a short window where those truly motivated to get their hands on these images can do so at a reduced rate.

If BFA-St. Albans ever choose to use me for their sports team and individual photos then any photo I take of any of their teams (and their opponents) will be available for 99-cent downloads.

I took over 2,000 images of this event. I don't expect you to weed through them all to find your favorite skier. And you shouldn't expect I would edit these photos individually before they are posted to the website.

That said, these images are high-quality and you can really zoom in the subject and see them clearly (unless I wasn't properly focused, which does happen). However, you can check the quality of any image by enlarging it on the screen. If it looks in focus, it will print in focus.

Here's a example.

This image - chosen at random - includes the original view as it appears on the gallery and a cropped version, equal to a 5x7. As you can tell, there's a lot of room to crop these images to make them look better.

Here's another randomly-chosen example - not all photos are taken from long range. I began shooting each skiier about 100 feet from me and continued until they were within about 25 feet. I'm guessing on average there are between 6-10 photos of each skiier on each run.

 

If you download an image, it's going to be uncropped. You will have to crop it to make it look better in most cases. If you order a print, I will crop it and it will be mailed to you. To purchase any photo from www.coldhollowphoto.com just choose and image, click buy and you have countless options for sizes, shapes, merchandise, etc ... and if I do say so myself, it's very reasonably priced.

If you have any trouble using my website, just email me: shawn@coldhollowphoto.com or click the 'email me' link at the top of page. I'll respond promptly.

Finally - to simplify the viewing of these photos - I've divided up the images into different galleries. Click here to see what they are named and how many photos are in each.

High school skiers decend upon Hard'ack

For the second year, the ski, snowboarding and sledding hill at Hard'Ack in St. Albans hosted a slalom ski race. Sure, the course is a little short - the best skiers could make the trek in about 20 seconds - but it was techincally difficult and very fan friendly.

I was stunned at how many parents were able to attend and the skiers didn't disappoint. Neither did the weather ... nor did the cheeseburgers and hot dogs. But I digress.

All in all it was a great day to spend outside photographing a sport that has never been included on my Cold Hollow Photo website. Boy did that ever change today. I have 2,150 images from today's event.

I arrived at the end of the boys first run and took 85 photos. (I missed the girls first run, but I made up for it, believe me.)

The girls second run gallery has a shade under 600 photos in it. I took photos of every skier as they came through the flush (look at me talking like a ski bum - actually I just learned that term yesterday from starter Matt Crawford.)

I maintained the same vantage point for the boys second run, the gallery from which has 587 photos - I got a little more judicious with my shots for the boys because I began to run out of memory card space (silly photo boy left his camera bag in the car, but then again I thought maybe I'd take 1,000 photos).

For the girls third run gallery (there are just over 400 photos) take from a bit higher on the course.

I moved to a lower vantage point for the boys third-run gallery (483 photos). I left before the end of the run to start the editing and uploading process - that will likely take about five hours when all is said and done. That said, I'm confident I the guys I missed in the third run are the guys I shot in the first run. Confused, don't be. Just look through each gallery (the photos are posted in the order the skiers came down the hill) and eventually you'll find the skier you are looking for.

If you are interested in ordering photos - here's a link explaining the process, some notes on cropping and a special offer that ends at 11 p.m on Saturday night.

Make mine a triple

Originally, I planned on getting to four games today, but the best laid plans ...

I did, however, get to three games today.

First, I saw the first half of the BHS-BFA-St. Albans boys lacrosse game.

A couple of observations: 1. Every school needs artificial turf. Sure, not all can afford it, but sports on turf are better than sports on grass. It's not an opinion, it's a fact. Especially in the spring where grass is sketchy at best. Burlington's facility is a great place to play, to watch and to photograph.

2. I don't know enough about lacrosse to say who's good and who isn't, but I've seen BFA play twice this year and they can possess the heck out of the ball. Not sure if that translates into wins, but they had the ball for huge huge chunks of time in both games. Of course, this might mean they are terrible. My knowledge of lacrosse is only slightly worse than my knowledge of field hockey. Although lacrosse is rapidly becoming my favorite spring sport to photograph.

A quick check of the Free Press website reveals the Bobwhites won 6-5, second one-goal win in three games this season. They lost their first game by two goals, but it was tied into the fourth quarter. They won their second game of the season in double overtime. Guess they are determined to put some grey hairs on coach Scott Cooledge this season.

After my trip to B-Town, I made a not-so-quick rush-hour trip to Milton to catch the Yellowjackets against South Burlington in softball and baseball.

How about those Rebel softballers! They beat Milton 2-1 to match their win total from the previous decade. (OK, that's a slight exaggeration - I think.) Milton coach Steph Hurley was gracious - as usual - in defeat, remarking that SBHS has some kids who can put the ball in play with authority. They also have a decent pitcher. Sure, they aren't going to knock off a BFA or an Essex anything soon (right?), they seemed headed in the right direction.

Same, too, for the Rebel baseball team. They opened with a 6-0 win over the 'Jackets. Ben Jenkins was dominant on the mound for SBHS, besting Milton ace Matt Goulet. The 'Jackets made a lot of mistakes, but they are young and coach John Geary will use this game as a teaching tool, I'm sure.

With rain in the forecast tomorrow, I'm planning on a day away from games Friday before resuming my schedule with a game at Enosburg on Saturday, weather permitting.