Indomitable Spirits

Team sports fascinate me - not just as a fan, but on a deeper, more abstract level. To me, team sports evoke our basest levels of humanity and draw out shadows...
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Team sports fascinate me - not just as a fan, but on a deeper, more abstract level. To me, team sports evoke our basest levels of humanity and draw out shadows of long forgotten ancestors. As humans, we are drawn to competition. We have a need to feel worth, and tend to measure our strengths against those around us, whether it be in pure individual athleticism, academic honors, or even likes and shares on social media. But team sports are different. Team sports rely on talent and training to a degree, but also communication, coordination, and an inherent understanding of how your teammates will react to changing situations. Team sports, whether rugby, hockey, baseball, or even doubles tennis are a contemporary manifestation of our hardwired need for camaraderie in survival. As a small, bipedal mammal expanding outwards during the last mega-fauna, the early humans that learned to band together found the greatest chance of survival. Those that could coordinate an attack or hunt, and understand their role in it, stood the best chance of coming home with fresh kill and minimal casualties. As the human population grew into settlements, environments softened, and domestication replaced two million years of hunting instincts, the need for active and coordinated physicality gave rise to sport. Every culture, on every continent has developed it's own variations of team sport, and it can still be seen today, at every level from professionals in colossal stadiums all the way down to schoolyards and alleyways. So, of course, when a coworker asked if I wanted to photograph his amateur rugby team's playoff game, on a cold, wet Saturday afternoon, I said yes.
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