My first time inside The Hatchet House

The photo in question, of Bethesda Christian senior Luke Douglas celebrating during a 17-2 run in the third quarter.

This past weekend was my first opportunity to visit Washington High School, and more specifically, The Hatchet House.

With Clay City taking on Bethesda Christian, Brazil Times sports editor Adler Ingalsbe asked me to help with game photography, an offer I gladly accepted for two reasons.

First, I had heard so much about The Hatchet House and I wanted to see the historic gym on one of the biggest weekends in boys high school basketball.

Second, I was curious, or anxious might be a better word, to try just doing game photography.

If you’ve seen me on the sidelines or anywhere covering an event, I always have my camera. While I had never taken a picture with anything more than a disposable camera before I graduated college, my first editor/publisher Enoch Autry helped show me the ins and outs of sports photography down in Rabun County, Ga.

His love and expertise introduced me to a side of this career that I had never known and I instantly fell in love with chasing the perfect picture.

You know the photos I mean; the ones that tell the story of the game without using any words, the photos that you cut out of the paper and hang up or file away in a binder.

The “problem” is that, as a sports editor, you’re pulled in multiple directions.

Rarely can I enjoy the moment after a good play. While the crowd is still reacting, I’m quickly writing down the key things so I won’t forget or working on posting an update on Twitter/X, or even reading a text update from a different game on that night that I’m covering from afar.

While it’s a part of the job, it can cause me, and all sports journalists, to miss the key moments after the big play: the player celebrating, or the rest of the teammates picking them up while the bench goes wild.

Knowing Adler was able to do the rest of the sports editor work for Clay City, I was able to fully dive into simply taking photos, turning my full attention to the court in front of me, in the center of The Hatchet House no less.

All the gears clicked for me. This was an itch that had been dying to be scratched and I could finally give it the attention it craved.

During warm-ups, I was able to watch the players move around, take the photo as they rise into the air for a shot, capture the exact moment the ball snaps through the net, see the different mannerisms and pre-game rituals the players have.

Instead of hurriedly writing down the names of the starting lineups, I was able to watch them on the bench: see the anxiety of a senior realizing this could be their final game, the determined eyes saying ‘don’t send me home yet.’

Instead of writing down a two or a three next to a player after they scored, I could watch them rush back on defense as their bench reacted, celebrating the shot.

It all led up to the third quarter.

While Clay City led 31-23 at halftime, Bethesda Christian responded with a 17-2 run to start the third that turned the tide of the game.

Clay City called a timeout, a moment where usually I would have to grab my pen and write down the time and then post something on Twitter/X.

Instead, with Adler taking care of those things, my focus stayed on the floor, capturing one of my favorite photos of the year.

Bethesda Christian senior Luke Douglas, standing around half court, yelled and flexed to celebrate the run his Patriots were on.

When I looked back through the photos, I instantly got chills as I realized I had captured this moment, a moment that I might have missed normally.

The fact that this opportunity was in one of the most historic gyms in the state made the moment even sweeter.

As a sports reporter I count myself lucky that I’m able to get so close to all sports. Standing along the sidelines for football and sitting on the baseline for basketball are incredible experiences that never get old.

The times that it really hits home how lucky I am are moments like Saturday, when I’m about three feet away from one of the most historic floors in the state, listening to the roar of a packed gym at the start of March in Indiana.

I remember my journalism professor in college talking about how journalists are required to become experts in a lot of different facets for the stories we write.

Any story you write, you’re doing background research to figure out the right questions to ask, the proper terms to use, making sure to get details correct.

For sports writers, that means being able to take photos, cover a plethora of events and interview coaches and athletes using (mostly) the proper terms for their sport.

Another way to describe it is, we’re required to be a jack-of-all-trades.

For this weekend, it was fun to be a master of one.