It’s been an honor to cover this legendary coach for the last decade of his career. He’s displayed more love, care and passion for this sport than any coach I’ve ever met. It has been an honor to provide you with action from the sidelines in the field of this giant of a man.

As of Monday morning, Joe announced his retirement to Wise County and the world. When I got the call, I immediately started trying to figure out how to project this visually to the public. As anyone knows who has photographed Joe, he’s not always the easiest to capture on film when he is aware of a camera. However, after 10 years of good standing and a relationship with this man, he complied in every way possible.  From him I felt a sadness on one hand of leaving his comfort zone for years, yet on the other hand, a great joy to pass this on to the younger generation. I found the best photo to be something that conveyed both emotions. This is what I came up with.

The key to this was the simplicity of the shot, afterall, Joe gets bored with my camera pretty quickly.  This shot is nothing more than a flash on a rope strung out of view on the camera right down a narrow hallway to simulate the natural light.  It’s almost as if the light represents the next step in his life and he’s simply waiting in the wings until June.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.