Believe

In November 2023, Alma College Football was headed to the second round of the NCAA playoffs against The University of Mount Union. I had been following the Scots football team around with a camera all season for the heck of it and was incredibly invested in their journey at this point.

A couple of weeks before this game, I had a gut feeling that the team would make it to this round. I also knew that I could not miss the opportunity to see them compete at this level. Going into this game, win or lose, capturing these memories was necessary. A loss would mean incredible emotion and mark the last moments as team 130. A win, however, would be historic.

 I rearranged my flight back to Michigan from my home in Minnesota, where I was having Thanksgiving with my parents, and reserved a hotel room in Alliance, Ohio...before we had even proven victorious in the first round of playoffs. Shoutout to the team for a dope first round of playoffs:)

The day before the Mount Union game, I flew to Detroit, picked up my car, and drove to Ohio. The night before the game was typical. I charged my camera batteries, formatted SD cards, and checked my camera equipment one last time.

The next morning, I went down to get breakfast in the hotel lobby. There were a few Mount Union fans, but there were tons of excited Alma fans. I knew this was a good sign.

After breakfast, I went back to my room, grabbed my equipment, and I was on my way to the University of Mount Union.

When I got to the college campus, I found some Mount Union staff members who took me to the press box to get my sideline credentials. When I was in the press box, some student workers were there getting organized for the day. At the same moment, one of the Alma players showed up on the field for warm-ups in a kilt. The Mount Union students criticized the choice in attire and tried to include me in their dialogue. They had no idea that I was with Alma and I didn't say anything. When their boss came back with credentials, he said "You're with us, right?" and I responded, "No, I'm with Alma." After the room fell silent, I thanked them for the credentials and headed out the door. Good sportsmanship friends. Don't forget to pack it on game days.

After that fun adventure, I made my way down to the sidelines to start capturing the events of the day. It honestly felt like any other game day, which, I believe, was to our advantage. Players were locked in and level-headed. Coaches weren't changing the routine due to the opponent. It was an Alma College game day. We had all seen the critics predictions. The team had been the underdogs all season and were not favored to win this game. But it hadn't slowed their momentum before, and it wouldn't change because of outside noise.

The game started and quickly we were shown everything that we had heard about this team. They were good and they should be recognized for it. Our defense, however, should be equally recognized. They held their own while our offense battled an incredible Mount Union defense. It took everyone, and they stayed locked in.

The first three quarters were exhausting. There is no sugarcoating how tiring it was to have such strong faith in the process. But I did. And so did everyone in attendance.

Throughout the game, I captured the players interacting with each other, family members, coaches, and the overall feeling of playing playoff football. Win or lose, I wanted there to be a meaning behind the photos I was taking and to give players, coaches, and family members a reason to look back at this game not just as a win or loss but as a moment in history.

When the fourth quarter played out, my mindset shifted. I had an "Oh crap, we really might pull this off!" moment and started changing my approach to the images I was shooting. I switched from the emotional shots to the plays. Less sideline and more field action.

13 seconds left in the game, we had scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and trailed the Purple Raiders by 3. A jump pass from our quarterback to our tight end got us in the end zone with 10 seconds left. Everyone was losing their minds. When that touchdown happened, I forgot I was holding my camera and started jumping up and down before realizing this was quite literally THE moment I needed to be photographing. Everyone was sobbing, the sidelines were practically chomping at the bit to swarm the field and the stands erupted with screams and cheers.

I started snapping away as the clock ran down. Mount Union had possession for the last few seconds and battled to the end to try and score, but they were pushed out of bounds. That is when feral chaos took over the Scots.

Everyone ran out to the middle of the field. Coaches I had never seen crack a smile were beaming, tears were streaming down athletic admin’s faces, and players were in exhaustive awe at what they had just accomplished.

Coach Couch stood in the end zone taking in what his team had just accomplished. Emotion had started to take over as he gathered his team to soak in the win. They had just reached a point that was historic in school history and in the D3 football world. I was snapping picture after picture trying to grab every single moment.

After the team broke from their huddle, they all dispersed to their families and supporters. It was important for me to get as many of these interactions as possible.

I am incredibly grateful to my family for supporting my decision to cut Thanksgiving short for this and to the Alma College Football organization for letting me stick around to document their journey. The teamwork I saw that day along with the journey to get there taught me a lot about mental toughness. You really can do anything you put your mind to as long as you believe.

Go Scots❤️