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Goal achieved: Sports Illustrated – Danny Wild

Goal achieved: Sports Illustrated

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seantrel henderson — USC-commit Seantrel Henderson, a 6-foot-8, 330 pound offensive lineman from Minnesota, poses for his father's camera after declaring his choice for college at the MaxPreps CBS College Sports National Signing Day special in New York, NY on Feb. 3, 2010. (Danny Wild/MaxPreps.com)

I had the great opportunity of covering two high school football players making their decisions for college on Wednesday — Seantrel Henderson, an enormous lineman from the St. Paul area of Minnesota, and J.R. Ferguson, who will leave a Virginia military academy for LSU next fall.

Here’s a story about the day with some of my photos.

JR ferguson — JR Ferguson smiles at the CBS College Sports TV studios on Feb. 3, 2010 after commiting to LSU's football program. (Danny Wild/MaxPreps.com)

Shooting for MaxPreps can have its perks — the site is part of CBSSports.com, which became a partner with Sports Illustrated this past year. I was lucky enough to have one of my images of Henderson picked up by SI.com earlier today:

Henderson on SI — My image of Seantrel Henderson in Sports Illustrated on Wednesday evening.

Getting a photo run by Sports Illustrated has to be one of the biggest goals for any sports photographer, and it’s something I always dreamed of, to sound cliched. Sports Illustrated is known to even non-sports fans for two things — the best sports photography out there, and the swimsuit issue (I have a feeling I know which one is more popular, but…)

It may not be the most thrilling of images, but I was the only photographer who got that shot, and so all things considered, I’m pumped.

Here’s a couple more shots from the afternoon:

Seantrel Henderson holds up his new USC jersey for the cameras. (Danny Wild/MaxPreps.com)

Seantrel seemed incredibly relaxed all afternoon. This was somewhat of a can’t-lose decision of course — picking amongst the best college football programs in the nation, on live TV — but he seemed perfectly calm the whole time.

J.R. Ferguson smiles behind the CBS College Sports desk after making his choice. (Danny Wild/MaxPreps.com There were two other photographers who joined me for Henderson’s announcement, one a stringer for a local Minnesota paper, and someone from the New York Times. Neither of them used flash, so I’m interested to see how their shots came out. CBSSports.com used one of my photos today as well, as did MaxPreps.com Looking forward to seeing both on the field next season. No word on commits for Army, although West Point used one of my photos as well today for their news on National Signing Day.