Post by Kasey on Aug 6, 2018 16:53:43 GMT -8
To preface this entry, I will just say: Sports Coast to Coast is five years old.
What seems like many years ago, I was sitting at my desk at home. The Portland Trail Blazers announced they were streamlining their websites, and getting rid of the social media, message board and blogger network. Having written over 105 blogs on that site, it was a bit upsetting. To this day, I wonder if that was all put into some archive or saved in another manner. Upon hearing the news that that blog site was being discontinued, I decided to start a new forum, which could be heavy in blog content. We grew quickly with our addition of college football threads, Blazers game threads and the Portland Thunder, the forum was truly born.
It's been an incredible five years. We've grown into a reliable, credible sports news forum. I shall get more to that shortly. First, I wanted to take a moment to recognize some friends we've made along the way. Certainly, David was the first and has been an excellent presence in keeping up with major news of the sports we cover. I personally give him a lot of credit for what has helped us get to where we have over the past few years. David is sort of our eyes and ears in regards to news and updates, especially in the realm of indoor football.
I'd also like to acknowledge spiderfan for his videos and analysis of the NFL and other football related items. Having this type of diversity only helps to increase our readership.
We've seen a jump of membership over the past year and now have topped the 100-member mark. That may not seem huge but, when you look at the hits we're getting on a daily basis, we're averaging in the range of 150-250 hits per day, consistently. The Indoor Football League 2018 season recap which was posted just a couple weeks ago by DiamondThief already has well over 1,100 views. When we have teams, players and coaches retweeting us, you know we're doing some things right. That's helping us grow and to make more people aware of what we're doing
Obviously, our primary focus is the IFL. This year, we raised our coverage to an entirely new level. Instead of previews and coverage of three teams, our site featured previews of each and every game, and recaps of each and every game. Most of those recaps were published within a half hour after the conclusion of the game (It took a little longer when two or three games were going on simultaneously). Nevadanut did an outstanding job in preparing the previews. She tells me it was a daunting task at times. I can't thank her enough for her enthusiastic hard work.
As with Heidi's previews, Angi's recaps were the most thorough of any I've seen around the web. I've done some fishing on some of those sites and can honestly say that We provided more game information than any other site I've checked out. Huge props to everyone involved in bringing the IFL to our readers.
We, as a site, received some terrific news last month when the new ownership of the Cedar Rapids Titans announced they had hired Ryan Eucker as their new general manager. As many of the reader may recall, Ryan was the GM of the Spokane Shock/Empire when we began covering them. We were able to develop a terrific relationship with him, and look forward to that continuing in 2019 as we cover the Titans.
I also will give some kudos to Gary Royall and Adam Lamprecht, our correspondents with the Arizona Rattlers and Sioux Falls Storm, respectively. Adding game photos from our own correspondents, I believe, adds to our own credibility. We will diligently pursue other correspondents with the other teams in the IFL. My goal for next year is to have a correspondent for each of the league's teams, regardless of how many teams there are. I've asked Bannock to make some calls to set up those connections.
With the original intention of the Bloomington Edge to join the IFL for 2019, we decided to cover the Bloomington Edge; something I've taken on personally. My contacts with the team have indicated they will make an announcement on their league affiliation agreement sometime this month. They have not, however, confirmed that it will be with the IFL. The possibility remains that it could be with another league. We will have news of that announcements as we can confidentially provide it.
Many of you have already noticed that SurferGirl has the college football schedules up. We're less than a month away from the start of the season. This year we will feature California, Stanford, Oregon, Boise St., Eastern Washington and Portland St. Plans for the weekly preview capsules are under way; I can say that all teams' games will be included on a weekly basis, likely similar to last season.
We continue to provide full schedules for the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns, as well as the Spokane Indians and Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. Additionally, this year we feature minor league baseball schedules for the Hillsboro Hops and Spokane Indians of the Northwest League. At the behest of Heidi, we added the Normal Cornbelters of the Frontier League. Yeseeka and Heidi and David are updating the results regularly, so I feel we are keeping up in that regard.
We also present to our readers basic news on the Blazers, including live coverage of the NBA Draft. Schedules and results of the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League also give us a foot in the door of those leagues. As Julie did with the NBA Draft, she provided live coverage of the NFL Draft. We already know Spiderfan is ramping up to deliver his Spiderfan On series of videos with comments regarding the NFL season.
This year we covered our third Olympics, the Summer Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Julie, Jessica and Cam worked in unison to create previews of the United States and Australian teams, and they did a tremendous job of updating the medal count several times throughout the each day of the competition. It was enjoyable following the teams as they strove for the gold, or other medals. The Olympics are always a patriotic time in my household. This was no different. While the U.S. didn't top the medal counts, there were some outstanding highlights from this set of games. It was terrific to follow the athletes and see our updated results.
And then there are the blogs. From Angi's updates to Heidi's perspectives, we are treated to exceptional writing by our staff. We have some terrific writing on this site. I would invite anyone reading this who has not checked out the blog section, please do. I'm proud to see these pieces featured here.
As I list the areas of our content, I am amazed that this group keeps up with everything. I guess amazed should not be the correct word. Proud is more accurate. We have our hands dipped in several different areas. I'm proud of and thankful to everyone on this site for keeping up with things. I know each of us have our busy schedules, to that makes things more challenging for each of us.
As I have begun my career as an attorney, and as Julie is finalizing her medical studies while interning at a Southern California hospital, it is probably inevitable that we will be busier than usual professionally. We have discussed this and both feel it is vital that we bring in some new correspondents for our areas of coverage. This will start with the IFL next season, but we can also search out those who can update our information as needed. If anyone has ideas to that end, throw it out there. Additionally, for anyone reading and who would like to oversee one of our coverage teams or leagues, please private message myself or Julie (SurferGirl).
For the site, we are going to continue the growth and success we've had. We're going to both continue what we have done, and do it even better. We will be more forthright in planning our coverage. Myself, Julie, Angi and Heidi are working on plans to better coordinate and schedule how we handle things. This likely will not be a major overhaul; just a matter of tightening up some things.
I feel everyone involved in this site has done a remarkable job over the past year. For those who feel overburdened, we are already working on bringing in some help. For those interested in other sports or teams to add, or better cover what we cover, I would be interested in working with them to accomplish that. We are doing a great thing here.
Our growth over the past year has seemed like an improvement which we previously had seen in a couple or three years combined. Again, we are doing a great thing here. What we have accomplished over the past 12 months is absolutely tremendous. Honestly, that has not come from me personally. The great majority has come from all of you who have contributed. I know in these messages that I tend to be positive, saying that each year has been our best yet. I'm going to share that sentiment once more because, this past year, has indeed been our best ever.
I consider Sports Coast to Coast to be unique and the best of its kind. While we always seem to be in an uphill battle of competition, we are the underdogs of the sports news internet world and I feel we are a major player in our lead area, the IFL. Next year can be our best year ever. I have confidence that it will turn out to be just that.
In a time when there is much turmoil in the news. Rudeness, heartlessness and non-acceptance of others' views, sports serve as a way to help bring us together. We have been successful in keeping the negativity off of this site. That is still a vital directive of what we do here. This is a safe, non-judgmental place where fans can come to learn about and participate in conversations involving the sports we love, and that we love to cover. This always will remain a family friendly website.
As usual, I urge everyone to spread the word about the site. Family, friends and friends of friends are what will make our membership grow. As they say, the more the merrier.
Thank you to everyone who has made this site amazing and informative over the past year, and over the past five years. We're heading into year six, something five years ago that I had no Idea would be possible. Thank you to our readers as well. Even if you've not registered nor commented, we appreciate your attention to this site. We encourage you to join the conversation.
So again, thanks to everyone. I hope you're looking as forward to year six as I am.
~ Kassandra
What seems like many years ago, I was sitting at my desk at home. The Portland Trail Blazers announced they were streamlining their websites, and getting rid of the social media, message board and blogger network. Having written over 105 blogs on that site, it was a bit upsetting. To this day, I wonder if that was all put into some archive or saved in another manner. Upon hearing the news that that blog site was being discontinued, I decided to start a new forum, which could be heavy in blog content. We grew quickly with our addition of college football threads, Blazers game threads and the Portland Thunder, the forum was truly born.
It's been an incredible five years. We've grown into a reliable, credible sports news forum. I shall get more to that shortly. First, I wanted to take a moment to recognize some friends we've made along the way. Certainly, David was the first and has been an excellent presence in keeping up with major news of the sports we cover. I personally give him a lot of credit for what has helped us get to where we have over the past few years. David is sort of our eyes and ears in regards to news and updates, especially in the realm of indoor football.
I'd also like to acknowledge spiderfan for his videos and analysis of the NFL and other football related items. Having this type of diversity only helps to increase our readership.
We've seen a jump of membership over the past year and now have topped the 100-member mark. That may not seem huge but, when you look at the hits we're getting on a daily basis, we're averaging in the range of 150-250 hits per day, consistently. The Indoor Football League 2018 season recap which was posted just a couple weeks ago by DiamondThief already has well over 1,100 views. When we have teams, players and coaches retweeting us, you know we're doing some things right. That's helping us grow and to make more people aware of what we're doing
Obviously, our primary focus is the IFL. This year, we raised our coverage to an entirely new level. Instead of previews and coverage of three teams, our site featured previews of each and every game, and recaps of each and every game. Most of those recaps were published within a half hour after the conclusion of the game (It took a little longer when two or three games were going on simultaneously). Nevadanut did an outstanding job in preparing the previews. She tells me it was a daunting task at times. I can't thank her enough for her enthusiastic hard work.
As with Heidi's previews, Angi's recaps were the most thorough of any I've seen around the web. I've done some fishing on some of those sites and can honestly say that We provided more game information than any other site I've checked out. Huge props to everyone involved in bringing the IFL to our readers.
We, as a site, received some terrific news last month when the new ownership of the Cedar Rapids Titans announced they had hired Ryan Eucker as their new general manager. As many of the reader may recall, Ryan was the GM of the Spokane Shock/Empire when we began covering them. We were able to develop a terrific relationship with him, and look forward to that continuing in 2019 as we cover the Titans.
I also will give some kudos to Gary Royall and Adam Lamprecht, our correspondents with the Arizona Rattlers and Sioux Falls Storm, respectively. Adding game photos from our own correspondents, I believe, adds to our own credibility. We will diligently pursue other correspondents with the other teams in the IFL. My goal for next year is to have a correspondent for each of the league's teams, regardless of how many teams there are. I've asked Bannock to make some calls to set up those connections.
With the original intention of the Bloomington Edge to join the IFL for 2019, we decided to cover the Bloomington Edge; something I've taken on personally. My contacts with the team have indicated they will make an announcement on their league affiliation agreement sometime this month. They have not, however, confirmed that it will be with the IFL. The possibility remains that it could be with another league. We will have news of that announcements as we can confidentially provide it.
Many of you have already noticed that SurferGirl has the college football schedules up. We're less than a month away from the start of the season. This year we will feature California, Stanford, Oregon, Boise St., Eastern Washington and Portland St. Plans for the weekly preview capsules are under way; I can say that all teams' games will be included on a weekly basis, likely similar to last season.
We continue to provide full schedules for the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns, as well as the Spokane Indians and Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League. Additionally, this year we feature minor league baseball schedules for the Hillsboro Hops and Spokane Indians of the Northwest League. At the behest of Heidi, we added the Normal Cornbelters of the Frontier League. Yeseeka and Heidi and David are updating the results regularly, so I feel we are keeping up in that regard.
We also present to our readers basic news on the Blazers, including live coverage of the NBA Draft. Schedules and results of the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League also give us a foot in the door of those leagues. As Julie did with the NBA Draft, she provided live coverage of the NFL Draft. We already know Spiderfan is ramping up to deliver his Spiderfan On series of videos with comments regarding the NFL season.
This year we covered our third Olympics, the Summer Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Julie, Jessica and Cam worked in unison to create previews of the United States and Australian teams, and they did a tremendous job of updating the medal count several times throughout the each day of the competition. It was enjoyable following the teams as they strove for the gold, or other medals. The Olympics are always a patriotic time in my household. This was no different. While the U.S. didn't top the medal counts, there were some outstanding highlights from this set of games. It was terrific to follow the athletes and see our updated results.
And then there are the blogs. From Angi's updates to Heidi's perspectives, we are treated to exceptional writing by our staff. We have some terrific writing on this site. I would invite anyone reading this who has not checked out the blog section, please do. I'm proud to see these pieces featured here.
As I list the areas of our content, I am amazed that this group keeps up with everything. I guess amazed should not be the correct word. Proud is more accurate. We have our hands dipped in several different areas. I'm proud of and thankful to everyone on this site for keeping up with things. I know each of us have our busy schedules, to that makes things more challenging for each of us.
As I have begun my career as an attorney, and as Julie is finalizing her medical studies while interning at a Southern California hospital, it is probably inevitable that we will be busier than usual professionally. We have discussed this and both feel it is vital that we bring in some new correspondents for our areas of coverage. This will start with the IFL next season, but we can also search out those who can update our information as needed. If anyone has ideas to that end, throw it out there. Additionally, for anyone reading and who would like to oversee one of our coverage teams or leagues, please private message myself or Julie (SurferGirl).
For the site, we are going to continue the growth and success we've had. We're going to both continue what we have done, and do it even better. We will be more forthright in planning our coverage. Myself, Julie, Angi and Heidi are working on plans to better coordinate and schedule how we handle things. This likely will not be a major overhaul; just a matter of tightening up some things.
I feel everyone involved in this site has done a remarkable job over the past year. For those who feel overburdened, we are already working on bringing in some help. For those interested in other sports or teams to add, or better cover what we cover, I would be interested in working with them to accomplish that. We are doing a great thing here.
Our growth over the past year has seemed like an improvement which we previously had seen in a couple or three years combined. Again, we are doing a great thing here. What we have accomplished over the past 12 months is absolutely tremendous. Honestly, that has not come from me personally. The great majority has come from all of you who have contributed. I know in these messages that I tend to be positive, saying that each year has been our best yet. I'm going to share that sentiment once more because, this past year, has indeed been our best ever.
I consider Sports Coast to Coast to be unique and the best of its kind. While we always seem to be in an uphill battle of competition, we are the underdogs of the sports news internet world and I feel we are a major player in our lead area, the IFL. Next year can be our best year ever. I have confidence that it will turn out to be just that.
In a time when there is much turmoil in the news. Rudeness, heartlessness and non-acceptance of others' views, sports serve as a way to help bring us together. We have been successful in keeping the negativity off of this site. That is still a vital directive of what we do here. This is a safe, non-judgmental place where fans can come to learn about and participate in conversations involving the sports we love, and that we love to cover. This always will remain a family friendly website.
As usual, I urge everyone to spread the word about the site. Family, friends and friends of friends are what will make our membership grow. As they say, the more the merrier.
Thank you to everyone who has made this site amazing and informative over the past year, and over the past five years. We're heading into year six, something five years ago that I had no Idea would be possible. Thank you to our readers as well. Even if you've not registered nor commented, we appreciate your attention to this site. We encourage you to join the conversation.
So again, thanks to everyone. I hope you're looking as forward to year six as I am.
~ Kassandra
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