Sunday, February 27, 2011

Future of Sports Communication

This is what I envistion as the future of sports communication. It is going to continue to build through technology. Athletes could conduct interviews after the games using web cams and social media sites. The internet allows people to get information so much quicker. I also see that athletes might now use Twitter and or their blog to announce retirements or other news.
We live in a society that everyone wants information now and sports communication will grow and become an even more important aspect of our daily lives.
The city that I would identify that would need a skate park is the city of Princeton, Kansas. This is a small town in northeast Kansas. Princeton has a population of 330 as of June of 2009. The estimated per capita income in 2009 was $19,172 and the median household income was $50,639.  
 (http://www.city-data.com/city/Princeton-Kansas.html

The most knowledgable or appropriate person to prepare the grant would be the Princeton City Clerk. She has been a resident of Princeton since birth (she was literally born in the home). She is 25 years old and loves the area. She knows, like myself, that there just isn't anything for kids to do in town. Princeton has an average age of 31.5 years old. More than half of the residents in the town has 2.5 kids. This skatepark would be a great place for kids to play. There would also be a basketball court and play ground equipment. Those two things are already donated to the city by the Central Heights PTO. The closest skatepark is in Ottawa, Kansas. It is 10 miles from Princeton, but it is small and run down. There is noting else there, just a skatepark. For the kids of Princeton there needs to be something to keep them occupied. For some of them, their parents work all day. So there is no way for those kids to get to the skatepark in Ottawa.

Most of the money will be fundraised with the help of the Central Heights School District PTO. They also believe in our goal to put something for the kids to do in town. The grant will help us fund what we cannot raise through our fund raising efforts.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Communication Deadlines

The Lady Braves avenged an early season loss to the Friends University Falcons with an 88-55 victory on Saturday night in Wilson Field House. OU fell earlier in the season to the Falcons, 94-65 in Wichita, Kan. The Lady Braves broke a seven game losing streak to Friends with the victory. It is OU's first win over the Falcons since January 24, 2008. Maggie Hasenkamp tied her own school record for single game threes with eight.

Within the first15 seconds of the contest an intentional foul was called on the Falcons' Raneisha Hunter. Hasenkamp connected on both free throws, giving OU an early 2-0 lead. Hasenkamp hit two straight three point field goals, giving OU an 8-0 lead on Friends with 18:29 on the clock. The Lady Braves pushed its lead to double digit points, 20-10, on a free throw by KiKi Smith with 11:16 left in the half.

OU slowly began to increase its lead and with 6:49 on the clock OU was up by 15 points, 33-18, after a three by Hasenkamp. Two minutes later, Myah Sprew's two free throws pushed the lead to 23 points, 42-19. In the final four minutes the Lady Braves held the Falcons to only one point, taking a 45-20 lead into the half.

The Lady Braves scored the first five points of the second half on a three by Hasenkamp and a field goal by Emma Hartzler. OU pushed its lead to over 30 points, 58-25, on a field goal by Tessa Porter with 15:30 on the clock. The Lady Braves took a 37 point lead, 80-43, on Hasenkamp's eighth three point field goal of the game. Friends was never able to get the game under 30 points and OU took an 88-55 victory.

Ottawa shot 52.7 percent from the field (29-for-55) and was 9-for-19 from behind the three point line and 21-for-28 from the free throw line. Friends was 16-for-71 from the floor for 22.5 percent and shot 3-for-15 from behind the three point line and 20-for-33 from the free throw line.

OU led in fast break points 19-2, points in the paint 32-24, second chance points, 12-6, and bench points 42-10. Friends had a slight lead in points off of turnovers 22-20.

The Lady Braves had two players in double figures led by Hasenkamp's career high 30 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the floor. Amber Ramsey scored 17 points off of the bench with her perfect 7-for-7 performance from the floor.

The brackets for the KCAC Tournament will be released on Sunday. Please go to www.ottawabraves.com for more information about the KCAC Tournament.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Media Release

RICHMOND, Kan. - The Summer Time Softball Club will host a pancake feed on Saturday, Feb. 19th at Applebee's in Ottawa, Kan. The pancake feed will run from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. You can purchase tickets at the door for $5.00 or from players who will be going door-to-door through the city of Richmond.

The girls are raising money for new uniforms, travel expenses, and tournament entry fees. There will be not only pancakes but candy bars and The summer Time Softball Club athletic gear for sale.

"This is a great fundraiser for the girls," said the club's general manager, Tracey Wade. "This will help the girls be able to travel all over the state, without having to pay out of pocket.

For more information please contact Wade at 785-242-1123 or tracey.wade@summertimesoftballclub.com. Wade is the coordinator of the Summer Time Softball Club and will be able to answer any question that you have about what these girls are trying to accomplish. You can also contact their head coach, Myah Johnson at 785-242-2211 or myah.johnson@summertimesoftballclub.com.

The Summer Time Softball Club is made up of 12 year old girls who have been playing together for the past three years. Last year the team qualified for the ASA National Tournament, finishing 3rd. It is the highest finish by a team from Kansas in over 20 years. The Summer Time Softball Club is made up of girls from Richmond, Lane, Princeton, and Rantoul.

-30-

Media Kit
Fact Sheet about the team
Roster
Coach and General Manager contact information
Schedule
Action shots from last season
Statistics from last season
A breakdown of what this fundraiser last year paid for


Saturday, February 5, 2011

Recruiting and Fundraising

The beginning of the article starts off with a very good example of comparing fundraising and recruiting. Any potential player is a recruit and every person in the world is a potential donor. Just like in recuriting and fundraising you have the find the perfect fit for your program/school. Before you even talk to the recruit/donor, you have to find out everything that you can about them. There is also the personal connection. With the recruit it helps if you know that players high school coach and or summer team coach. That way you have that personal connection with them. That is the same way with fundraising. If that donor has a personal connection with the fundraiser then there might be an opportunity to get a large donation from them in the instance that you are trying to build a new football field or a library.

I found this article interesting because I never thought to compare a fundraiser to a college recruiter. After reading this article though I can see how a fundraiser and a recruiter is exactly, well pretty much, the same thing. I believe that if you can recruit then you can fundraise and vice versa.

Sports Celebrity Endorsement

For the first blog in unit 4, identify a sports celebrity and post comments about their endorsements deals, the relationship between their image and the choice in products/events endorsed, and their ability to raise revenue for a product or event.

The sports celebrity that I am chosing for this blog is Peyton Manning. He makes over 13 million annually in endorsements (Eichelberger, 2010). Some of his endorsements are MasterCard Inc, PepsiCo Inc, Gatorade sports drink, Sony, and Oreo cookies (Eichelberger, 2010).

In my opinion, Manning has a very clean cut image. He doesn't have a scandle associated to his name like Tiger Woods and Brett Farve. His clean cut image is a major factor with corporations, they just don't want to associate themselves with someone who has scandal. That is exactly why Tiger Woods lost a majority of his sponsors. I believe that endorsments works because fans want to be associated with their favorite athlete.

I think that the reason why celebrities endorse the products they do is because one, these products pay them a lot of money and two I think that celebrities are also wanting to endorse themselves in the product and it helps their image to be associated with a certain product.

People will buy products that are endorsed by Peyton Manning. My sister is the perfect example. Manning endorses Zig Techs. My sister never knew that existed until Manning had them on in a commercial. For the first week, everything that commercial came on, she un-muted the TV and we had to watch Peyton in the commercial. After that she was  bound and determined that she was going to get herself some zig techs. Now she has three pairs and another pair that she wears just for officiating basketball. That is the power of a Peyton Manning endorsement.

Eichelberger, Curtis (2010). Colts Victory May Bring Manning $3 Million More in Endorsements. Retrived on February 5, 2011 from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHsGo8GH1EJ4

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl, the game that was named by former Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Lamar Hunt. This is a game that has grown into a multi-million dollar business. The two teams that are featured both have strong histories. The Green Bay Packers, a team that is owned by the city of Green Bay, Wis. They own the most championship titles, 12 to be exact and are the only NFL team to win three straight NFL Championships. They have won nine NFL titles and three Super Bowl Championships to earn the right of being called Title Town USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers).

The Pittsburg Steelers were horrible in the beginning of their existence. They were one of three NFL teams to move to the AFL when the merger happened (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Steelers). The Steelers did win four Super Bowl Championships in a six year span in the 1970s under the leadership of Chuck Noll. Pittsburgh has won more  Super Bowl titles (six), won more AFC Championship Games (eight) and played in (fifteen) and hosted more (eleven) conference championship games than any other AFC or NFC team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Steelers). .

Who is going to win, who knows. Both quarterbacks are elusive but Big Ben Roethlisberger is the larger of the two and is very hard to bring down. In my opinion the Steelers will keep the game close and in the final minutes, Big Ben, as he always seems to do, will bring home the championship for the Steele City.

Personally, I wold like to see Green Bay win. The way Aaron Rogers handled himself through the whole Brett Farve (gag me with a spoon) saga was very good. He was a media relations person's dream client. I think that he derserves this Super Bowl, but we don't always get what we deserve.


Monday, January 31, 2011

Olympic Media Coverage

I believe that I read somewhere that the 2008 Beijing Olympics was one of the biggest events televised in not only China but in the history of the world. I think I read that over 4 billion people across the world watched the games. Which is a new record. I think that it surpassed the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
In the video it talks about the media center that the Chinese had set up for the incoming media. Over 900 work stations, a place to bank, make flight changes, get a hair cut, a post office, and being able to get help in your native language. At the end of the video the reporter from CNN talked that information will flow freely in China. The Chinese government changed its press laws starting in January 2007, and said the changes would remain in effect through October 2008 when they would elapse (Lapchick, 2008).

But there were a few instances where information was sensored by the Chinese Governement. One instance was the murder of the father-in-law (Todd Bachman) of the U.S. Men's Volleyball coach. According to Richard Lapchick (2008), " Bachman's murder was not mentioned in the main Chinese TV evening news but was reported by the official Xinhua News Agency. According to press reports, Chinese journalists reportedly were censored from tying the murder of Bachman to the Olympic Games. Several Chinese reporters at a news conference held by the U.S. men's volleyball team had their notebooks and at least one tape recorder confiscated afterward. The Chinese press generally reported the "murder of a tourist" and did not connect Bachman to the volleyball coach or cover the concerns of U.S. Olympians so widely covered in the US media."

At one point during the games "Internet sites in the press center were restricted so journalists could not get access to human rights Web sites and those critical of China. The Chinese relaxed the restrictions after extensive media protests (Lapchick, 2008)."



Lapchick, Richard . China well-versed in controlling flow of information. (2008). ESPN.com. Retrieved Jan. 31, 2011, from  http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?id=3535638

Sports Information Technology

Identify the latest in information technology or software to assist professional, intercollegiate, or recreational sport organizations with functions such as ticketing, donor management, recruitment, NCAA compliance, video analysis, HR training, scheduling, etc.).
To help keep stats at collegiate and professional sporting there are two stat software programs. Stat Crew is one that is used by the NCAA, most of the NAIA, and professional sport teams. The other stat program is DakStats, which is the official stat program of the NAIA.

To help with ticketing there is a program called TIX. There are several college that use this service to help their ticketing offices run smoothly. Some of the colleges and universitys that use this product is Seattle University, Ball State University, South Dakota State Unversity, and Reinhardt College (http://www.tix.com/).

Donor management is a major part of any college and university. Because there is such a huge market for this kind of product there are several products out there to help the donor management department. Here are the 13 most popular donor management software programs

  • DonorPerfect Visual Edition and DonorPerfect Online
  • TowerCare Technologies DonorPro
  • eBase
  • eTapestry
  • Telosa Exceed! Basic and Telosa Exceed! Premier
  • Mission Research GiftWorks
  • PledgeMaker (Installed and Online)
  • The Raiser's Edge
  • Sage Software – Sage Fundraising 50
  • Salesforce.com
  • DONATION by Software4Nonprofits
    (
    http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/databases/page5961.cfm)
One of the best recruitment software is a product called Front Rush. It a web-based recruiting and team management application built on simplicity and ease-of-use. It is customised for every coach at every school. Because it is web-based you can have secure access to all of your vital recruit information whether in the office, on the road, or on the field. Here are just a few of the things that you can do with the software:
  • Manage your prospects from Recruits to Roster to Alumni
  • Customize your layout and track anything from Academic Accomplishments to Favorite Movie
  • Search, Filter and Tag by any field
  • Update your athletes records with one click saving
  • Assign a school to your Recruits with our High School Database
  • Create a database of high school coaches, club coaches, campers, boosters, parents, etc, with our custom Contact Section
    (
    http://www.frontrush.com/web/index.html)
The NCAA national office coordinates the NCAA Compliance Assistant internet (CAi), which is a Web-based system developed to assist NCAA member institutions. It is available at no cost to NCAA members. The CAi is a tool designed to help administrators ensure that their athletics department and student-athletes are in compliance with NCAA legislation. The tool can be used to monitor information in the areas of financial aid, eligibility, recruiting, athletics personnel and playing and practice seasons. Information is inserted by institutional personnel in various areas on campus. The system processes the information and applies applicable NCAA legislation.

The system also can be used as a data-collection system to generate NCAA required forms and other forms created by the user. This program, documentation and technical support also are provided at no charge to the NCAA membership.  Many institutions use the system although the members may not use all programs
within the system. Training is available online as well as at the NCAA Regional Rules Seminars. A few commercial software packages are available for purchase to NCAA member institutions. These range from comprehensive programs to a package focused at a specific area like recruiting (http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/DII_MC_PC/Management_Council/January2008_Agenda/S09_Attachment.pdf).

Software that is used for game break down anaylsis is called MotionClip! from All-Sports Systems. This software is MotionClip!  and is a game film video editing and breakdown software is designed for coaches of football and all other team sports. If you coach football, soccer, rugby, volleyball, lacrosse, basketball, or any other team sport,  then video editing, play breakdown, statistical analysis and scouting software is a must! With MotionClip! software you can perform quick and effective game film analysis at an affordable price. Easily identify (tag) each play with a simple mouse click or a keystroke. Capture the plays from video tape or live at the game using our single key recording feature and any video camera (http://www.allsportsystems.com/index.html)!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Global Sports Reporting - Unit 2

The newspaper website that I will be examining in the United States in the Lincoln Journal Star (http://journalstar.com/) and from Bournemouth, England  the Daily Echo (http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/).

When I chose the Daily Echo I really had no idea what to expect. This is acutally the first time that I have ever looked at a newspaper from another country. As I look at the sports page online I see alot of soccer coverage. Especially about the local team the Cherries. There are six main sports stories on the sports page and it is all about the Cherries, their players, the management and the coaches. Not only are there stories about those teams but there is a blog about the team and their upcoming matches.

What I find very interesting is that it doesn't have any sports information about what is happening around the world, like the Australian Open or even the NFL Playoffs. They seem report only what is happening in their area of the world.

One of the things that I do like on the page is that it has a running list of job opportunities available for people who are looking. This is a great placement. A majority of people do read the sports section and this allows them to also see what is available in the job market.

There are advertisements for a cell phone company that I have never heard of and two ads for chiropratic care and self defense lessons. The last ad I saw was about online learning for college at home. All-in-all I did not care for this sports page, but I am sure that if I lived in that area then the Cherries would be all that I cared about.

The Lincoln Journal Star is a newspaper that is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. When I clicked on the sports tab, underneath pops up four different sub categories that you can click on to find out more information on the sports team. It has Husker Extra, Prep Extra, Youth Sports, and Star City Golfer. When you click on Husker Extra it gives you all of the information that you could possibly want about the Nebraska Cornhusker athletic teams. It includes, blogs, video, schedules, stats, and recuriting information. On the Prep Extra it has information about the surrounding high school athletic teams. The Youth Sports section includes information about sporting events and programs going on at the local recreation centers and how you can sign your child up. Star City Golfer features information about all of the golf that is available in Lincoln, Nebraska and the surrounding area.

The sports main page includes information about college sports, high school sports, baseball, hockey, golf, basketball, football, auto racing, and any other information that comes across the sports wire that is news worthy.

The advertising that I have found on the page is a ad for a law firm, job listings and online education.

So this is the difference between the two newspapers. The Daily Echo only includes basically one sport (soccer) and one team, the Cherries. While the Lincoln Star Journal covers a lot of different sporting events. Could this be something different in the culture. For example, we Americans like to know a little about every sporting event that is going on and the English want to focus on their soccer clubs. I think that it could be.

One thing that I noticed about both sites is that they were advertising jobs that were available and how to get an education online. It must be something that was figured out through a study that showed a percentage of people who read a sports section online that these are the things they will look for and job searches and oneline college education must be the two.

Monday, January 17, 2011

"Dandy Don" Meredith: His Impact on MNF and Evolutionary Changes in Broadcasting NFL Games

Don Meredith passed away in December and with him went a huge part of the history of Monday Night Football (MNF). Meredith was a quarterback first with Southern Methodist University, where he became a two-time All-American, then with the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1968. He became the Cowboys starter in 1965 and led them to their first winning season in 1966. He retired in his prime at the age of 31. By 1970 he was doing Monday Night Football with the great Howard Cosell and play-by-play men Keith Jackson and then Frank Gifford.

What they did with MNF was revolutionary. Football was never in primetime and many thought that it would fail because at the time women controlled the remote. It is funny now because women make up a huge fan base for the NFL. MNF was something new and different, football in primetime, who would have thought it. The three men in the booth made it work because of their ability to entertain fans and non-fans alike.

The first football game, college or professional, was televised was on Sept. 30, 1939,  Waynesburg College vs. Fordham University. It has come a long way since then. Sports are about entertainment and there have been many changes that happened to turn the game into the most watched sport on television.

Tex Schramm, who was the original president and general manager of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, helped pave the way for changes in the NFL that helped put the game live and in primetime on television. Schramm first propsed instant reply, sideline radios in quarterback helmets and starting the play clock immediately after the previous play. This helped speed up the game and made it easier to get the games on television. Schramm also suggested wide sideline borders and wind-direction strips dangling atop of goalpost uprights.

Another way to make football more entertaining and to make people want to watch it and keep up with their teams is the idea that Schramm came up with for six divisions and the wild card playoff concept. He also came  up with doing a second game on Thanksgiving, making that day one of the best football days of the year. Schramm came up with another way to have more entertainment for not only the fans but the television audience. In 1972 he hired professional dancers rather then high school cheerleaders, this is what NFL teams had been using. This move made one of the most recognizible squads in the world, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.





 

Hello All and Welcome

Hi, my name is Kathrine Tooley but please call me Katie. Kathrine is much too grown up and I am not quite there as of yet.

Now on to why I want to be a sports information director. This question is not a hard one. I have been involved in athletics since I was born. Mom would take all four of us kids and we would travel to the football, basketball and even track and field events where my dad would be coaching. So athletics has been a huge part of my life.

When I graduated college I tried getting a normal 9-5 job but I found out that it wasn't for me. After helping out in the sports information department at my local college I found my one true calling, I wanted be a sports information director.

To be a sports information director you have to be self motivated and be able to work crazy hours. There are some months that I will work 21 straight days and then some when I will only be in my office four times during the month.  There are benefits as I can  make my own hours and I can work from anywhere.

After working in the field for the past five years I feel that I have never really worked a day in my life. But I also feel that I have to better myself and get ready to take the next jump in my professional development and that is getting a masters degree.

This is a new journey in my life and I am looking forward to taking it.