All American Red Heads

For the March 2013 issue of Rural Missouri magazine I did a history piece on the All American Red Heads basketball team. The all-women's team was founded in 1936 in the small town of Cassville. From the Ozark town in southwest Missouri the team traveled to states all across the country playing strictly teams full of men — and they consistently won. For 50 years, the women played close to 200 games in a 7-month season.

Read more about the Red Heads in the March digital edition at:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ruralmissouri/201303/#/22

I was lucky enough to find two former Red Heads that were still alive and able to visit with. Brenda Koester, who lives in Moberly, and her sister Kay Burk, met me at the Cairo High School gym for a portrait session. I set up one Nikon Speedlight with a Lastolite box diffuser on camera left and had another Speedlight firing towards the basket in the background. I fired the flashes via a Pocketwizard.

The ladies were great and still had a few tricks up their sleeves. Their story is truly a privilege tell.