Blue Ridge blog

He's dazzling us in the Valle....

I attended the Appalachian National Championship banquet last night and watched as the football players received their championship rings. It was with great delight that I caught a glimpse of Valle Crucis native, Seth Breitenstein, as he put on all 3 of his "Back-to-back-to-Back" rings. I remember photographing Seth and his buddies as 6th graders at Valle Crucis Elementary when they did a mythology unit in English/Social Studies. Then, later in high school, I watched as he excelled in both varsity sports and academics. Seth brought depth to the ASU football team in his role on special teams.
Congrats, Seth! I know your parents are proud of your accomplishments, but folks here in the Valle are as well. We can't wait to see what 'special team' you become a part of next.
But man, you can put your hand down now. That collection of ring bling is blinding ;)

On trees and legends...

I have lots to mention, just not a whole lot of time to say it.

First, this tree shot was taken from the stairs of my deck. I had to dodge a couple of electrical lines and I wish I could have isolated it more from the glob of trees on the right, but I got what I got and that's all I got.

If'n you aren't from these parts then you might not know about Nike's commercial which features legendary games and sports figures. Apparently there is no such thing as a cupcake or a cinderella team anymore:

Give it a look-see here.

...the hallway to the Appalachian Mountaineer weight room appears much more glamorous in the movies...

I have more photos to post, but let's just see how it goes. Ok?

Presenting Uno, Dos and Tres....

Last night I waited in the field house at Kidd Brewer Stadium for the last fans to leave so I could introduce 'Trey' to his siblings, Kenny and Junior. It was a sweet Appalachian Family moment...the kind that go into the baby's photo album.
Note: See how the 2005 trophy has Div 1-AA while the others are FCS.

See who is talking about our Apps around the blogosphere...
Begin here: The App Fan blog is prolific as usual about all things Appalachian.
Southern Suburbia's Chirstmas wish came true.
Gnumoon has a sweet game day memory to put in her own photo album.
Wx-or-not was at the game too. He's got a nice round -up collection of video and photos of Chattanooga.
Musing from the hinterland, R. Sherman says App State is his favorite FCS team.
While in the middle of a Maine blizzard Melissa says, "Three-Peat or Michigan Who? Indeed.

Other items of interest...
Fan I.Q. talks about Delaware's Mark Duncan chucking the ball at a sideline security guard and links to the video.
My opinion: It is a small thing. Let it go. At least Delaware fans didn't riot.
John Armstrong comments on Appalachian's season. "It was no fluke," he says.
The Bleacher Report suggests App State should play in the ACC and ramp up the competition.
I say, "No thanks."
I enjoy playing in a strong football conference.

Appalachian State 49- Delaware 21

It is 7 a.m. and I was awaken by some Appalachian State students jumping into the pool outside the Choo Choo Hotel. They haven't gone to bed since beating Delaware in the FCS title game here in Chattanooga. My favorite quote of the game came from ASU Chancellor Peacock last night during the pep rally in the pavillion outside Finley Stadium.
"I think we are going to have to start calling this the Appalachian Invitational," Peacock said as he held up a rubber chicken painted blue.

I was nervous before the game, but the Appalachian offense and defense came out and made some substantial plays early on. This was the first ASU game of the season when I didn't feel like I was gonna have a cardiac arrest. Thank you, ASU.

Now we have three championship trophies. The newest one is called, "Trey," of course.

It is official. Appalachian State is hot, hot, hot.

You can read all abou the game in the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and of course, The Blue Ridge Blog. I'm laughing with you...

Much, much more later. Need to travel back to Boone and beat the snow/ice event.

On Appalachian State and Alpacas...

This post is for all of you who visit my blog and don't give a flip about Appalachian State football. You have to keep the faith and know that after tomorrow night, ASU football will be history, and hopefully will make history, and then chill out till next season. For those of you who really do care about ASU participating in the FCS football championship in Chattanooga, I promise to post images as soon as I get to the Choo Choo at midnight. Hopefully, Typepad doesn't go into full-fletch maintenance mode as it has for the past two years...in which case, you'll just have to wait till Saturday, sometime...

So the top photo is what it looks like through the lens of the camera right before an alpaca tries to french kiss the sky filter. Alapaca spit smears, just so you know. I was at a choose and cut farm on Junaluska Rd...near the spot of my favorite not-so-in-tact Rock House.

Now 'scuse me while several thousand Appalachian State fans and I move "The Rock" from Boone to Chattanooga. Watch the the game tomorrow night on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. EST.
How to see me? I'll be one of several girl photogs carrying a big lens and wearing black. Ifn' anything, I'll be a big ol blur while Armanti Edwards and team streak past me...so don't strain your eyes looking for me, just do some 'Go Apps!' cheers at the television and make me hAPPy.

Oh and, Coach Jerry Moore had some funny comments about the paper I work for. Just to clarify his statement about the 'one camera.' It is mostly true, except I own my own cameras and glass. All the others have to fight over the pool gear. But yes, we do only come out three times a week. Moore faithfully comes in each year to purchase a subscription for his mother so she can keep up with her son's work. Smile.

Edwards for Heisman? Let's just get through tomorrow night, then we'll ponder...

Appalachian 55-Richmond 35

It is 2 a.m.
Holy Moly. App won the semi-finals.
The Choo Choo awaits us for the third time.
I escaped the mob, barely. Experience is my friend.
Night games are hard to shoot. My bad.
But, App goes for three.
Final score: 55-35.
Works fo me.
Go Apps!

Truth is:
Both field goals were tumbled by exuberant students. No injuries this time. Richmond fans are are zealous and polite. They had a great but small cheering section. The Richmond team should demand their fans travel better. It is a quality team that deserves more fan participation. What? 6 hours is too hard to drive? Seriously. In comparison, App fans went to Michigan in much better numbers than the Spiders did for this playoff game. Attendance numbers for this home game were over 24k. It was Appalachian Black and Golden. As I left The Rock tonight, there were thousands in line at the ticket booths. The Rock will be driving to Chattanooga.
I'm posting a few photos, but it is late... much more later.

In the meantime, Armanti Edwards rocked THE ROCk. He broke records.

In retrospect...

In honor of the last home football game Corey Lynch, Kevin Richardson, Nick Cardwell and other Appalachian State University seniors will ever play and/or see as students at 'The Rock' Friday evening, I thought I'd share a couple of photos I found while digging through files at work.
The above photo is former ASU coach, Kidd Brewer. I don't know who took this photo, maybe Jamie Fletcher in the late '80's early '90's, but the man's name tag clearly reads 'Kidd Brewer.' And he is in the stadium named for him.
Trivia: His son, Captain Kidd Brewer, Jr. was featured in the movie, "The Abyss and died in a diving accident very close to the date when this photo was taken.
More on Kidd Brewer stadium via Wikipedia may be read here.

Next, we have a photo of Current ASU football coach Jerry Moore.

Again, I don't know the date of this photo but I am grooving on the 'Black Saturday' t-shirts the football buddies are wearing. I'd love to have one of these retro shirts in a large size;)
And check out Jerry's not-so-gray hair. If I had to guess, this photo is circa 1990, which means one of my daughters was almost 2 and the other was less than 6 months old. The children in this photo may have the next generation of students in the next 10 years or so... Math was never my forte...
Last but not least: Check out these ASU graphics of the ASU Yosef and ASU football helmet. The newspaper had sheets of these hieroglyphics which would be pasted via wax to the sports pages before being shot by the large camera--back in the day, ya know...
Again, not sure of the date...

Yosef got buff...

Hmmm? Yosef, the mascot for App State, must have been working out extra hard between Saturday's football game and Monday night's basketball game. I mean, check him out. Yosef lost the pudge and gained some muscles. I'll take the Yosef on the right, please.

And, I added a new photo album (on my sidebar) of the Saturday playoff football game against James Madison that we somehow managed to win. The album includes images of a gutless wannabe streaker in case you are interested.

For Sale: A Big house ideal as a handyman's fixer-upper....

My friend Melissa risked life and limb to get this photo for me as she travelled to Ann Arbor? for the Greatest Rivalry aka Ohio v Michigan.

In her email she said:

"Unfortunately I saw no app state gear anywhere. I did read an article in the Columbus Dispatch that mentioned a Buckeye fan with a Michigan Who shirt, so I know that they existed. I did take this picture for you. I'm so sorry that the bottom part of the page isn't showing--we were going to do two,one like this and one with the whole page, but were disrupted by a couple of Michigan students who didn't take well to our artistic endeavors. Good luck in the 1-AA tourney. We always pull for y'all."

Thanks Melissa. And wouldn't it be awesome if your New Hampshire Wildcats did serious damage to UNI? After all, this is the year of the upsets....and it is payback time.

Happy Appy

I'm footballed-out for the weekend. Shooting two important games in sub-freezing weather is, well, cold long work. But, all is well when the home teams win, so I'm not about to complain. I'm a happy Appy as are these dance marathon gals who jumped around for 24 hours for a good time and a good cause. I did have fun shooting yesterday's game. There are so many little, yet big happy moments that I witness during ASU games. So I let my thoughts dictate my camera's direction and made a photo album (on my sidebar) of my collection to share with you.

On a family note:
Both my daughters have applied to Appalachian State. My eldest applied as a transfer student (hopefullly for Spring 2008) because she has seen the black & golden light and my youngest, for the Fall 2008 because she has always known ASU would be her first choice. That said. It is no secret
that ASU has had a 25% increase in applications. Both girls have done the math and are on tenterhooks waiting to see if they might join the Happy Appy family...