Equipment can be a big help. I use a Nikon D-40. Its an old school entry level digital SLR. It has low mega pixels but I read lots and lots of good reviews about it before I got one. I recommend you do the same before you buy a camera.
A good SLR camera gives you many tools to help in getting the right shot. The auto feature is great, but spending time to learn these features is time well spent. I have lots of room to improve on the technical part of photography, but what I have learned has made a huge difference.
Thankfully there are a lot of good ones out there to choose from; you can spend as much as you want but there are some very good ones for entry level in the $400-$800 range. A tripod is a must. Either get a really good one that will last, or a real cheap one because you will most likely break one before long.
And lastly I found out that taking a lot of digital photos gives you affordable practice, and if you take enough shots, you are bound to get one good one. You might be surprised how many hundreds and even thousands of shots a photographer takes at a single sporting event to get that one cover shot. And you won’t get a good one if you don’t shoot, so fire away.