A Story of Defeat

I decided to take pictures at my little brothers little league football game.  My little brother is eleven and the only boy of the family with three older sisters.  My sisters and I are always amazed at how different everything is in the world of boy.  Every week my Dad and little brother watch game tape from the previous week, he goes to practice, and his football coaches are constantly yelling at him from the sidelines.  The most unique difference between girls and guys is the expectation for guys to be a man and suck it up.  Whenever a player gets hurt during a game or practice they are expected to "shake it off", "suck it up" and "be a man".  I am not saying that this is bad at all only that have noticed these things being drilled into my little brothers mind as long as I can remember, especially when he is playing football.    

The game I took pictures of was an especially important one, it was the little league region playoffs making the game an intense one.  Their team would score then our team would score, back and fourth it went.  Eventually the game went into triple over time and the final result was not a happy one for my little brothers team.  As they lost I watched the boys literally fall to the ground weeping over their loss. These little eleven year old boys cracked the stereotypical mold of a football player going against everything they had been taught and no one stopped them.  I found this every interesting.  Here are some of the pictures from them game.

 A father watching his son play, an example of the rule of thirds.

 Going in for the tackle.  I love the way the players outstretched hand leads the viewers eye across the page.

 The moment after the final whistle was blown this little boy dropped to his knees crying because the loss.

 During the post game huddle the boys sat with lowered heads.

 He was crying after the game.  I really like the mud on his shoulder pads, sweaty hair, and expression.

This little quarterback took the loss especially hard.  I think this picture has an interesting composition.