Any photographer, even one who takes pictures purely for the enjoyment of it, has lamented that shot that didn't take for one reason or another.

I've missed a lot of potentially great pictures over the past three-plus years. Sometimes, it's an athlete's expression after an important play; other times, it's a surprise play - an interception, an impossible tennis return, that Bobby Shimpa pickoff move.

Rolling bulk film has its advantages, namely price and convenience, but the disadvantage is that since you're rolling each film separately in daylight, you lose the last few frames on each roll. Thus, every once in a while I hear that nasty half-click (when I'm using my Pentax K1000) or the auto-rewind (on the Minolta 3xi).

It was the Minolta Saturday on the UMC football field. The game was over, I was on photo No. 25 of my third roll, and a fourth roll was in my pocket. Unfortunately, the cap had come off the film cartridge, which would have let in some hefty light leaks.

Derrick Sanders, who had surpassed 4,000 career yards with a 149-yard day, was going through the handshake line after UMC's 49-23 loss to the University of Mary. As he started to come off the field, people came from all over - teammates, opponents, spectators to hug him and shake his hand. I took a couple of pictures, spoke with him briefly, and walked away, still watching.

For just a second before someone gave him another hug, Derrick stood alone, looking I don't know where - maybe he didn't even know - with this beautiful expression, emotional yet serene, tears spilling down his cheeks. I snapped the picture.

Bzzzzzzz. Auto rewind. No picture.

I hate that sound, and I really hated it Saturday, because I wanted that picture. I knew I wouldn't see Derrick jumping up and down and doing handsprings after achieving his milestone; I felt that what I saw, and what I tried to photograph, mirrored that young man's personality: Emotional, driven, yet self-contained, easygoing. The picture I didn't get was not of pride, but of happiness and fulfillment.

I enjoyed getting to know Derrick Sanders a little better in the last couple of weeks, through interviews with him, his coaches and his mom, who's a real sweetheart. I didn't know how many people would read through a full-page feature, but I've heard from a number of readers who said they read every word of the article I wrote last week prefacing Derrick's last college game and his quest for 4,000.

I had planned this article for quite a while, before I even knew he was approaching 4,000 yards. I've had four seasons of hearing glowing comments on not only Derrick's athletic ability, but also his work ethic, his personality, his love of the Crookston campus. His was a story that needed to be told.

This was the most enjoyable feature story I've ever written, and I love writing features. I love to be able to take my time, to play with the words, shape them, move them around. I get ideas for features all the time; most of them stay just ideas, because I don't have enough time or space, but this one couldn't have come at a better time. I had time, and I had space, and so I spent some 15 hours interviewing, digging through material, writing, editing, designing the page. Of course, I had city editor Mike Christopherson go over it with a fine-tooth comb, which was fortunate, because he came up with several glaring errors.

I know I'm going on and on, but I have a tendency to do that - remember, I just wrote a full-page story. I'm just glad to have had the opportunity to cover Derrick Sanders for all four of his years with UMC football and witness the mark he's made in the college's history.

In years to come, UMC will be graduating many more than three seniors, but this is a young team, one that is fortunate to have had the leadership of Sanders, nose guard Kenny Bond and offensive guard Jesse Maruska. If not for Bond and Maruska's desire to return to the team, Sanders could have been the lone graduate, but when UMC went to four-year athletics, it became apparent that students had enjoyed their time here and wanted more, on the football team as well as other teams.

Maruska and Bond were two of those who came back after a one-year break, giving the football team a trio of captains whose leadership qualities are unquestionable. Maruska is the quietest of the three, both in personality and in position; as an offensive guard, his job is to get people out of the way, to make those holes "that trucks could drive through," as Sanders put it a week ago. It gets Sanders where he's going, but it often goes unnoticed - although not by Sanders, and not by the coaching staff.

With two quiet leaders like Sanders and Maruska, a team needs a Kenny Bond, an intimidating, bold weapon on the field, a fiery celebrator on the sideline, an element of looseness in the locker room. How do you replace that mix?

You don't. Like UMC athletic trainer Bill Tyrrell said, "You can replace the position, but you can't replace the people." Jesse Maruska, Kenny Bond and Derrick Sanders are a huge part of UMC's history and its future. They are the cornerstone of UMC's entry into four-year football.