Donkey Basketball in Fort Madison

I knew I was in for a treat when the first thing I heard was, “Now, what if your donkey has the squirts? Don’t go pullin’ to one side. The squirts make a 15 foot radius, now you got an oscillating sprinkler situation.” Dairyland Donkey Ball’s C.J. Cordell was addressing a room of Fort Madison students, faculty and community members as he went through the various scenarios that arise in any donkey basketball game. He covered the rules, safety, and riding tips before letting the riders onto the Fort Madison High School gym floor. 


The Fort Madison Future Farmers of America put on the event for the public. From ticket sales alone they raised $3,177.50 which will go back into the program and allow students to travel to state and national conventions.

The rules are that each team has four riders on the court at one time. Players have to keep one hand on the reins of their donkey the entire time and can only pass or score while mounted. 

This is actually the second time I’ve shot donkey basketball and it’s always hilarious. People slide off the donkeys or are bucked off, but mostly they don’t go anywhere at all. The funniest moment to me was when a donkey named Widowmaker just stopped bucking and started to fall asleep under the basket while his rider tried in vain to make him move.

The games last little over an hour and a half with four teams competed in two 16-minute games and an 8-minute championship between winners of the matches. Team Ba-Donk-A-Dunk took home the championship with their 10-4 win against team Re-Donkulus.

Sideline and #boredcheerleaders Hipstaprints

I love, love, love shooting with my iPhone. Not only is it discreet, but I shoot differently with it then I do with my work DSLR. I find the photos I take with my iPhone are more personal and I tend to experiment more with iPhone. I used Hipstamatic to shoot  the photos then uploaded to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

In between class matches I had a little time to walk around and photograph some sideline features. It turns out when you put hundreds of high school athletes in one place, you also get a whole mess of cheerleaders. They all sat in a particular section and I captured how incredibly bored some of them were.

Some Favorites from High School State Wrestling

Last week I covered IHSSA State Wrestling Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. For four days I chased around wrestlers and coaches, reviewed brackets, made slideshows, and edited video for The Hawk Eye. Most of the time eight different matches would be going on at once. This made for some serious, panicky jogs up and down the arena floors as I tried to photograph an area wrestler (or sometimes three at once).

Shooting the same sport during a four-day period can get exhausting, but my photos got better as the days went on and the stakes got higher. Check out some of my favorites from last week: