A peek at the future

"Two-year-old Aleck Graves of Springville, Ut., peers over a table as BYU football players spring autographs during the Cougar Kickoff on Haws Field at BYU, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. During the event, fans were not only able to get autographs, and meet the players and coaches from the football team, but other BYU athletic teams, too."

I heard BYU football was huge, but not nearly as big and popular as I expected.

Early this week I had to shoot the Cougar Kickoff, which is basically a meet and greet for fans. Open to the public, folks can meet players, get autographs, participate in games, and even scoop up leftover shoes, bags and jerseys for discounted prices.

It was unlike anything at my alma mater. My college couldn't even fill a quarter of the stadium, but they sure did like to spend money trying to make it seem better.

BYU is more like University of Maryland College Park back home. They continue to produce NFL worthy players, and since Provo is such a small town, it seems like BYU football games are the place to be on a Saturday afternoon.

One fan I was talking to said the games sell out well in advance of the season. Luckily for me, I won't have to fight for a ticket since I'll probably be shooting a good amount of the games.

Anyways, for as exciting as BY football is, this event wasn't very visual. So I did my best to find children that were star-struck when they got to meet the players.

In this case, I liked this little guy. I thought it was fitting for the story to, almost like getting a peek at the team before the season.

This was also my first A1 for the Daily Herald.