missouri football

it started out as such a good year...

missouri dominated in their opening games against illinois, buffalo, SEMO, nevada, and nebraska.













their ranking shot up to #3 in the nation, and then came the OSU Cowboys.













...and the Texas Longhorns. As a native Austinite and a UT alum, shooting this game was a blessing and a curse. I got a short trip "home" to see the incredible development going on all over town, and an imperative to cover what was billed as our biggest game of the year.







Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the Tigers, the story of the game was revealed quickly in the first half. The team watched their contention for a national championship evaporate and quarterback Chase Daniel #10 is most likely out of the running for the Heisman.























we'll see how the season shakes out from here.

Spirit Riders

The big project I've worked on all summer finally published earlier this week. I followed four young women from the Columbia public housing projects as they tamed wild mustangs for 100 days. I learned a lot this summer through working with these girls.

I wrote the articles to go with the photos that ran in a three day series. You can start the journey on day one as the girls travel to texas to pick up their mustangs. Day Two follows their summer of training. Day three travels back to Texas where the girls compete for a scholarship and prepare to say goodbye to their horses.

There's a multimedia piece for each chapter of the story you can see here:


These are some of my favorites of the photos that were published.



























This is how the story ran in the Tribune. My boss Gerik was a great editor and fought to get the space in the paper for the story to have some breathing room. I owe a lot to editors Terry Ganey and Jim Robertson for their help with each day's written story. Working on the word, photo and multimedia parts on deadline was a big learning experience.