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	Judges' Comments
	"His shot of a physically challenged child swinging at a baseball captures the pure joy of the game and the strength of the human spirit. This is an incredibly moving photo that also has strong technically compositional elements."

There’s just the right amount of light and exposure, plus a generous helping of a veteran photographer’s sensitivity, in Rod Aydelotte’s heart-stopping photo.

A child without arms takes part in the Challenger League of youth baseball. Aydelotte, photo director of the Waco Tribune-Herald, captures a moment of triumph that likely will be in the child’s memory for a long time.

Dismissing with a lot of superfluous information, the Tribune-Herald copy desk begins its caption simply:

"Zachary Gardner, 6, connects for a single."

"We’ll probably run into the Gardner family again since the Challenger League in which Zachary plays is just starting up," Aydelotte said. "He’s a neat kid."

Aydelotte is a graduate of Baylor University with a degree in journalism.

He has three first places in Best of Cox. They are: 1988 Photography on deadline; 1999 Sports photography, and 2002 Feature photography.

Aydelotte snapped a famous news photo on April 19, 1993. It depicts black smoke rising from the burning Branch Davidians’ compound at the community of Mount Carmel, near Waco.

During a siege there by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Aydelotte photographed one of the world’s best-known images as bullets flew around him.