Post by Kasey on Aug 6, 2023 5:36:35 GMT -8
Prior to beginning this entry, please allow my apologies for not having providing an update for the past five years. I had intended this column to be annual, but professional life and aspirations have prevented some of that.
To that, I will say, Happy 10th Birthday to this forum, effective today.
It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I was sitting at home thinking about how and where to put my blogs about the Portland Trail Blazers and other sports since the Blazers Blogger site was being discontinued. I had written over 100 blogs on the site, and had the idea to just open up a sports forum which could be used as a blogger site. Sports Coast to Coast was born.
From a personal standpoint, that was just a couple of weeks before I headed down to Stanford for my senior year. Through that year, off to law school and back home, I worked on a lot of content for this site. So did others and as we've really centered our efforts on the Indoor Football League over the past five-six years, we've added contributions from even others. Pardon me if some of this is repetitive to previous entries. Originally, it was blogs, college football schedules and some Trail Blazers news. Then just two months after our forum was up and running, Clackamas, Oregon businessman Terry Emmert announced he was bringing an Arena Football League team to Portland. That's when the forum really found its direction.
SurferGirl , who began as the President of SCtoC, left us in February 2019 and her legacy here is unquestionably still with us. DiamondThief , who stepped in at that point has helped solidify us in the realm of our IFL coverage. A few years ago, Angi pressed me to change the structure of the personnel here; to make it more structural looking. That led to our current trio of vice presidents; David Nevadanut & Yeseeka . The trio have been absolutely exceptional in their roles and in their work for the forum.
In addition to that, we have three-four non-staff who provide consistent contributions. Monika seems to always find away to follow in her older sisters' footsteps and has become such a wonderful resource whether it comes to IFL game recaps or coverage of other sports and teams. spiderfan has been with us for about about seven years and is a terrific resource with his NFL columns and draft coverage. Angi, David and Monika have worked with alecs regarding IFL game recaps, Wager Wednesday and other interesting IFL features. As a matter of fact, I don't know that I've ever had an exchange with Alec. That's unfortunate, but also a tribute to those who have made him comfortable here.
We've done a great job of putting together game previews and game recaps when we can. I am particularly impressed with this year's United Bowl (yes, I'm still calling it that) preview. It seems as though every year, Heidi finds away to add or tweak information to make an improvement over previous incarnations of the game previews. David gets a lot of credit for that for getting information or graphics which go a long way toward the presentation and content of the previews.
On the other side of things, we have the recaps. Over the past couple of seasons, we have cut back on some game previews due to staffing; or lack there of. This season, Angi, Monika and Alec picked up the steam. Monika and Alec took care of several of the live recaps. During the second half of the season, Angi took on the shorter recaps of other games on the schedule. This was an exceptional idea. I know this takes a little more on her part, but it's terrific to look at the IFL Schedule and look down to see a recap available for every game. The more of that we do, the more viewership we should be able to get.
I also would like to take some time to specifically thank three people who stepped in during the early part of this IFL season when we had a family emergency in New Mexico. As VP of Primary Content, Heidi picked up the slack of the others when it came to the IFL. Also, David helped keep up with a lot of things during that time all around the site. Alec, became our primary recap reporter over a few weeks there. My profound thanks to all three of you for your efforts during that time and during the season. As the IFL is this site's bread and butter, it was terrific that we could keep things going until some of the others could come back.
Of course, there are other areas which we cover, and have covered for several years. The Hillsboro Hops, Spokane Indians and Portland Pickles schedules pique interest from our readers, as does the Portland Winterhawks and Spokane Indians schedules. It was also fun last year to follow Portland Thorns FC as they claimed their third NWSL championship.
As I mentioned earlier, Spiderfan has sown us some consistency in his NFL columns, and I would like to see those continue. He provides a different perspective that you don't see in the mainstream media and other "professional" analysts. It's a welcome addition to our forum.
In speaking with Angi over the past month, we have talked about bringing back some college football schedules. Monika already has resurrected the Portland Trail Blazers schedules and News Tracker. It will be great to see those items back in our forum lineup.
One of our goals should be to continue our growth and to increase the number of members to the site. I'm confident that with our professional interactions and conversations, we should be able to continue to make some progress in that area. We are getting over 200 readers during the IFL season and around half that during the off season. Something to think about would be to come up with some ideas which would draw more readers and, perhaps, more members.
I like what we've done with a lot of the schedules and references to other sports. If there is more that we can do with those sports, I believe that something we can talk about. The other thing to consider is if we want to do more with additional teams and/or leagues The latter is something I don't think we have the capacity to undertake with the collective time we have to take on.
As always, we will always continue to be a family friendly site. I remember thinking that as I was creating this forum that if my five-year-old sister was looking over my shoulder while I was on the site (which she often would do with myself and her other two older sisters), I would not want her to see something inappropriate or to see a bunch of spam. Fast forward 10 years: We have never have had a serious incident, and Monika has become a consistent contributor to the site. Who would have imagined? I think we can all take some pride in that and that we still are that type of site which does not allow certain language and attitudes, as some other sites do.
I don't foresee a whole lot of changes in the structure of the site as we enter our second decade. It seems we have a pretty good structure and good people in place. There may be a couple of things here and there, but Angi will address them with those who may be affected. Trust me, any such thing will be a real positive thing. We also will be looking for additional people who can help the site grow and others who may be able to provide some content, such as recaps and maybe introductory information regarding things which we're not already covering.
I would also like to see us get back to some of the blogs in the same manner we have done before. I know those can be kind of personal sometimes, but I think it would be a fun continuance. Of course, the Santa Tracker always is a seasonal favorite and I don't see Monika ending that any time soon given the number of nieces and nephews we have.
I feel everyone involved in this site has done a remarkable job over the past five years. We can always work 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. I still believe are doing a great thing here.
Our growth over the five years has been a vast improvement over what we accomplished during our first five years. We've all learned a lot and I think that only enhances what we are trying to accomplish. My gratitude goes out to 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.
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 five years. We're heading into year 11, something 10 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 the future as I am.
~ Kassandra
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