COLUMN: Bowling team is a new opportunity to learn

HOME STRETCH COLUMN
By: 
Pete Temple
Express Sports Editor

     On Dec. 1, I will have completed 19 years of employment by the Monticello Express.

     I’m not sure what surprises me more; that this company and this community have put up with me for nearly two decades, or that after all that time, there are still new things to cover and new ways to cover them.

     On that latter question, this winter, I am covering high school bowling for the first time in my career. Even at my former job, with a weekly newspaper that covered enormous schools in the Twin Cities suburbs, prep bowling was not on the menu. And that was a list that included such varied sports as gymnastics, cross-country skiing, figure skating and badminton.

     Bowling? This is a first for me. But I’m looking forward to it, and not just because a close relative happens to be a member of the Panther boys’ team.

     The biggest concern I have will be taking photos. It sort of reminds me of when I cover high school and middle school band concerts.

     At those, I usually wind up doing the same thing. I sit in the auditorium, and the only people I usually have a clear shot at are the ones sitting at or near the ends of the rows.

     I’ve always felt that the best possible vantage point to take band concert photos would be on a swing suspended by ropes from the ceiling, a few feet above the director. That way I could see everyone and get clear photos of all. Of course, it might be a little distracting for the musicians and the audience.

     Similarly, when contemplating where to try to take bowling action photos, hanging from the ceiling above lanes 5 and 6 would seem the optimal spot; I could get shots of bowlers on all the lanes, with each of them facing me. Again, huge distraction. And if one of my ropes broke – well, let’s not go there.

     While researching how other publications do this, I’m learning that they are generally in one of two places: either off to the side, in direct line with the foul line (where bowlers release the ball); or behind the bowlers, getting celebration shots as bowlers return to high-five their teammates after a strike or spare.

     It seems none of them go down the side of the lanes to shoot back at the bowlers – again, apparently to avoid distracting them – so I won’t either.

     It will be fun to try to figure out the best kinds of shots. And I will have learned something new – again.

     

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