Capturing the Moment: The Hicks Sport Photography Collection

by Phil Kantaros

It’s Mother's Day 1970.  Bobby Orr has just received the puck off a perfect give-and-go to Derek "the Turk" Sanderson.  Orr plows across the front of the goal and buries the puck in the St. Louis Blues’ net to seal an overtime win and bring the Stanley Cup to Boston for the first time in twenty-nine years.  He is tripped by a Blues defenseman after the shot and that’s when the photo is taken, when Orr is in mid-air, arms out, stick high, exultant, a great player playing at his absolute best.  In the background, rows of fans are forever captured leaping up from their chairs, having just witnessed the greatest single hockey moment in this hockey-crazed city.

Just about every hockey fan and every New Englander knows the photo.  It is the only sports picture that I own, the only one that my colleague Will Willis owns, the most prominent sports shot hanging on the walls of countless Boston bars and homes.  The photo is iconic for it captures not only the best of Bobby Orr but also the zeitgeist of a city embracing the joy of victory even as it continued to drag itself through tough times.

More recently, though, I’ve found other black-and-white sports shots that also define that which draws us to sport, whether it’s the intensity, the excitement, the joy or even the occasional solitude that we see in athletes performing at their peak.  Plenty of players and coaches and fans and family who have walked the time-trodden halls of Mercersburg’s Nolde Gymnasium have seen those photos and have stopped to look more carefully.  There’s just "something" that calls for a longer look.  See the collection.

The photographer, Renee Hicks, tells me that each photograph elicits several specific memories in her--what was happening that day, who won and who didn’t win, whether it was raw or windy or calm outside, what the players said and how much they appreciated Renee’s presence and support.    

Fresh out of George Washington University, Renee Pryzbyc came to Mercersburg in 1994 to teach chemistry, coach women’s varsity basketball and track, and help run Tippetts Hall with two other faculty members.  Her longtime boyfriend and soon-to-be husband, Eric Hicks, lived across the street in Fowle Hall and served as dorm dean there.  This was before Fowle Hall’s extensive renovations, and when Renee moved to Fowle with her husband, she decided that the dorm decidedly needed more atmosphere, more cheer.

Having recently bought a Nikon camera, Renee began “playing around” with photography.  That sprouting interest led her to Wirt Winebrenner '54, English teacher, Culbertson resident, and “campus photo guru.”  Winebrenner ran the academy’s darkroom in Boone Hall and he also worked with the school newspaper and yearbook.  Renee began helping Wirt, and when Wirt left, Renee added the school newspaper to her schedule.  The sports photography “grew from that,” Renee tells me.  “I had all of these pictures of Fowle students and we thought it a good idea to hang some pictures in the third floor hallway.”

First up was a soccer shot of Nate Richards '99 and John Newby ’97.  “It was a celebratory picture,” Renee remembers.  “Nate Richards was a ninth-grader at the time, and one of my advisees, and he had just scored a big goal on a rainy, gloomy day.”  In the photograph, which still hangs where Renee placed it more than ten years ago, Nate is in mid-leap, legs akimbo, grabbing on to Newby.  In addition to taking the pictures, Renee also developed them in the Boone Hall darkroom, and then she matted and framed them.  But all of that work was much appreciated, as Fowle students now began wondering when they too would make it onto “The Wall.”  

Athletic director Ron Simar got wind of Renee’s work, and suggested that some shots be hung in Nolde.  A photograph of Antoine McGee '02 driving to the hoop became the first photo to adorn the gym’s walls.  “He was a great kid and a tremendous basketball player who went on to play at the University of Colorado,” Renee remembers.

Then came other shots.  There’s Matt Walsh '05 cradling a lacrosse ball past a Peddie defender with the clock visible in the background.  “That was when we beat Peddie.  The clock is winding down, and the Peddie player is trying to get the ball back.  There’s less than a minute to go, and it was a huge win for Mercersburg.”  After talking about the significance of that game, Renee notes that “the photos that are favorites to me are the ones that capture more than just someone in the act of playing a sport, photos in which there’s something more significant going on.”

Like the photograph of swimmer Basil Kaaki '06 pumping his fist just after winning a race.  “People still think that photo was staged,” Renee says with a smile, “but that was real.  Basil had just broken his personal record in the 50-meter.”  I told Renee that my two favorites were both cross-country shots, a sport I never even came close to joining.  The first shot shows Madi McConnell ’07, Annie Spencer ’08, Maddie Deupree '06, Kiva Rudd '08, Sydney Upchurch '08, and Tracey Bruce '07, lined up at the beginning of the race.  Every time I look at it, I get just a bit anxious, like I did when watching my little sister compete in important gymnastics meets.  You can feel some of the adrenaline-enhanced tension just by looking at that photograph.

My other favorite was taken by Renee at the end of a different race.  Ross Weller '03 is charging towards the finish line, dead even with another runner.  His head is back and he lets out a scream as he puts every bit of energy into that final kick.  I am also drawn to the two pictures that capture the solitude that sometimes envelops athletes.  There’s Teddy Zimmerman ’06 lining up a putt on a cold, raw day.  “The golf team loved having me out there because they get so few people to come and watch them compete,” Renee noted, since our home course is several miles from the school campus.  And there’s the shot of Kristen Willwerth '06 arcing back in the middle of a dive.  “I tried really hard to get that picture of Kristen because she was a four-year diver, a great person, and I coached the diving team for her lower-middler year.”  Renee, too, was a diver in high school.  She also played basketball and ran track.

When asked why sports photography holds the most appeal for Renee, she tells me that she likes to capture moments that are not wholly predictable, and that “those opportunities occur more in sports than elsewhere.”  Now that I have become involved in sports writing for the school, I see Renee frequently on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  And when I hear the whirring click of the camera’s shutter, I look more closely at the match being photographed and try to see the next shot that will appear on “The Wall.”

Parents, coaches and friends are welcome to view photos from recent Mercersburg events. You're welcome to browse and  to buy prints or other photo products.