Nothing tends to keep Andy Silvas down.

Not even a pandemic.

Silvas’ warm smiles are as automatic as his perfect pictures. The independent photographer is a high school sports regular on the sidelines.

When the Arizona softball season, one of Silvas’ favorite high school sports to shoot, was canceled for the rest of the school year, the former high school baseball player didn’t cry. Instead he is making sure the softball seniors are still being recognized as if the Coronavirus didn’t take their final high school swings.

On his Twitter account, Silvas is spotlighting seniors with photos he or others took.

The seniors will cherish those photos for the rest of their lives. Those photos are also a reason why Silvas is cherished in the Arizona high school community.

Social media helped him make a name for himself in Arizona high school sports, but he’s currently using it to promote others.

“I’m just giving them the recognition that they deserve,” Silvas said.

Silvas’ day job is in sales with Hershey’s.

But he’s not planning to kiss that job goodbye, because it affords him to continue shooting sporting events. Silvas began to dabble in photography during his son Vincent’s Pop Warner days.

By the time Vincent enrolled at Desert Ridge High School, Arizona’s high school fields became the self taught Silvas’ canvases. Besides taking photos of Arizona’s athletes in action, he also uses some of Arizona’s picturesque landscapes as backgrounds for senior portraits.

His wife of 30 years, Susan, is usually with Silvas helping him during photo shoots. And his team and individual sports banners are draped around the state’s high school fields.

The senior spotlights he is posting on Twitter isn’t the first time Silvas gives back. When Moon Valley football player Carlos Sanchez died in 2017 as a result of an on the field tackle, Silvas raised about $600 for Sanchez’s family.

He did so by by raffling off his services for free as a photographer.

“It’s just giving back to the kids,” Silvas said. “I’m giving back with a photo.”

Andy Silvas. Photo by Doug Dutke.

Arizona’s high school teams are sidelined, but the athletes continue to train on their own and communicate.

azpreps365.com is planning to stay in touch with Arizona’s high school sports community during these trying times. One way is through a communtiy page we started, where we’ll post blogs, photos and social media interactions until #playball instead of #socialdistancing starts trending.