Alton's Blog

Today I attended a panel discussion / workshop “Our Youth=Success-“It can Happen” Hosted by Sports Oriented Nurturing (S.O.N.) Youth Partnership and Brooklyn Rams AAU Basketball. This Discussion featured panelist who have all participated in S.O.N and the Brooklyn Rams basketball team. The panelists were extremely honest in discussing the odds of making the pros and the importance of education. Reginald Murray. Executive Director at Sports Oriented Nurturing Youth Partnership made it a point to ask the panelist which degrees they had in order to show the youth that despite your circumstances “It can Happen”

As the official photographer of Team Footprintz basketball, I recently covered the #playpinoy event that featured the Philippine’s National team stand out Marcus Douthit.  Below is one of the images featured on Team Footpritz Instagram page.  For a look at more images follow Teamfootprintz on Instagram and twitter as well as TeamFootprintzbasketball on Facebook.

On Sunday Dec 15th I rode the subway to 34th street to photograph the Syracuse Orangemen vs. the St. John’s Red Storm.

The train ride could have been mistaken for the SU bookstore.  Many passengers adorned Syracuse ski hats, baseball caps, scarves, jackets and many many sweatshirts.

I arrived at MSG 30 minutes before tip off.  I was surprised by the lack of Su fans in comparison to the train ride.  By tip off that quickly changed.  As many of the 16,357 fans chanted “Lets go Johnnies”,  SU fans accepted the challenge and responded with a thunderous “Lets Go Orange.”  What was scheduled as a home game for St. Johns quickly became a “Home away from Dome” for the Syracuse Orangemen.

” I like playing in New York,” Jim Boeheim announced. “We have a lot of Syracuse fans in this area. We like coming here. We’ve played a lot of games in Madison Square Garden. It’s a great place for college basketball.”

To say this was an exciting and entertaining game is an understatement.  “This is as good as it gets,” proclaimed Steve Lavin, the Johnnies’ coach. “To be in in Madison Square Garden and playing a rival such as Syracuse. On national TV. A Sunday. A packed house. The energy was palpable. The fans brought an ‘A’ level of enthusiasm. And that’s what always makes it interesting because Syracuse has so many fans in the building, too.”

Syracuse won 68-63.  They were led in scoring by CJ Fair and Tyler Ennis with 21 pts each, St John’s was led in scoring by D’Angelo Harrison also with 21 pts.

2013 Syracuse Orangemen