Sports
Something new! Vote for The Desert Sun’s best high school sports photo of the week
Palm Springs area high school football 2024 first month recap
Sports columnist Shad Powers and reporter Andrew John discuss the first month of the 2024 high school football season in the Coachella Valley
You’ve seen their work.
The one-handed catch. The game-winning goal. A volleyball spike, a baseball slide, a backstroke in the pool or a backhand on the tennis court.
The Desert Sun’s award-winning team of photojournalists blanket the valley — particularly when it comes to high school sports — providing readers with immaculate images that combine artistry and the essence of athletics.
There are only three of them — Jay Calderon, Taya Gray and Andy Abeyta — but the sheer volume and quality of the work they put in each week is remarkable, and we wanted to honor that with a fun new weekly series where you get to vote.
We’re debuting our High School Sports Photo of the Week poll, where you can vote for your favorite image from our award-winning trio. Whenever they are out at a high school sporting event, they’ll suggest their favorite photo from that night, and then you can vote on the best of the best for that week.
Sounds like fun, and we love to take any opportunity to celebrate our photojournalists.
Here are their favorites from the five live high school events we covered last week. Look at them all and vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of this article, by noon on Thursday. As a bonus, each one has a gallery of all the photos from that contest attached. Enjoy!
Shadow Hills-Rancho Mirage flag football (Tuesday)
A focused Samm Campos of Shadow Hills runs with the ball against Rancho Mirage.
Click here for full gallery from Shadow Hills vs. Rancho Mirage flag football.
Indio-La Quinta Flag Football (Tuesday)
Indio ball-carrier Marina Guerro swivels to avoid a flag-grab from La Quinta’s Emily Castillo
Click here for full photo gallery from Indio-La Quinta Flag Football.
Palm Desert-Serrano football (Friday)
Palm Desert’s Zach Gibbs completes an interception return while his teammates celebrate.
Palm Springs-Yucaipa football (Friday)
The Palm Springs High cheerleaders form a tunnel as the Indians rush out on the field to start the game.
Click here for a full photo gallery from the Palm Springs-Yucaipa game.
Shadow Hills-Patriot football (Friday)
Gabriel Gout and his teammates celebrate a win to move to 4-1 on the season.
Click here for full photo gallery from Shadow Hills vs. Patriot football.