Insanity or insatiability?

Once upon a time there will little, stocky bald guy whom it seemed couldn't get enough attention.

(No, I'm not talking about George Costanza, I'm talking about me, of course! But I digress.)

This guy ... OK, I ... bounced from one online venture to the next willy-nilly; never settling in one place too long and often leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

First there was the defunct Sports Central, the online sports arm of the St. Albans Messenger. I wrote the business plan for that baby and it would have worked if it had been properly funded and staffed. SC lasted about two months before it was abandoned to die a slow, but nearly invisible death.

Next up was neksports.net

I worked there as a stringer for most of the fall of 2008. Great work, great people (especially Chris Preston and Eric Berry), but alas it wasn't to last. OK, to be fair, the website lasted, but I didn't. The budget was slashed and I was shown the door, but in a nice way. The website continues to exist, although with less emphasis on written game coverage and more on broadcasting over the web.

In February of 2009, I started onthesidelinesvt.com

I neglected it much of the year, but in December I began using it as a medium to share updates on my photo business and to rant and rave.

Then I moved on to Examiner.com

One of the reasons why OTS took a back seat was this good-looking website that provided a lot of flexibility, the ability for me to promote my photo biz and a promising business model. What it couldn't deliver was a lot of buck for my bang, if you get my unintentionally PG-13-rated drift. Still, my couple of months working for the site were well-recieved, if not profitable.

Next up on my online sojourn was a stop at coachesaid.com

This one was going to be the real deal. A great-looking site, tons of support, a great business model. They said within a year I'd be working full-time and hiring helpers. Less than two months later, I was laid off, but I was not alone. Vermont's site was dumped along with 37 others to cut costs. CA.com still exists and my articles are still posted, but the site has been in suspended animation since mid-May. When the plug was pulled, Vermont ranked 12th in hits out of the 50 state sites.

So at this point, what I have learned?

1. That I can draw readers to a site.

2. I can't make any money doing this.

3. Most online ventures I align myself with either close, scale back or kick me out within two months.

(In my own defense, I was one of the architects of vermontsportsimages.com - Vermont's top sports photo site - and my own photo site coldhollowphoto.com is profitable and growing, but these are different types of sites - in other words, sites that can and have made money!)

So why am writing about this?

Because I'm doing something Mamma told you never to do ... making the same mistake twice.

Yep, I've signed back on with Examiner.com

I know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

But this time I think I'm a little wiser and can take some of what I learned at my other online forays to improve my chances of success. (Of course, the first thing I'm doing is altering my definition of success to "satisfies my urge to be in print [or is it pixels] somewhere at all times.)

At any rate, OTS will continue to be updated. I'll still post my latest photo assignments, deliver the occasional rant and non-sports poll. And I'll also continue to use it share links to my Examiner work which will consist of columns, features, lists, polls and occasional game stories and slideshows.

Furthermore, if you (for God knows what reason?) want to know when I have posted something on any of my websites, you can follow me on Facebook or on Twitter (scorrow).

Poll party

Hope everyone had a great Christmas - mine was wonderful - great to have a few days off, some quality time with the family, good food and plenty of fun.

The blog will resume in fits an starts over the next week.

I'm heading into a stretch of some steady shifts at the Free Press and there's a limited schedule of games I'll be shooting.

Still, I wanted to tie up a couple loose ends.

A trio of polls closed over the past 48 hours.

The first one stunned me.

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

National Lampoon's Christmas 47%
Christmas Story 26%
Elf 11%
It's a Wonderful Life 5%
Other: 11%

NLC is funny, but Christmas Story is my pick - I watched snippets of it four or five times over the past week and it never gets old. Not sure what the 'other' picks were.

•  •  •

What is your favorite Christmas TV special?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 44%
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas 33%
A Charlie Brown Christmas 11%
Frosty the Snowman 11%
Other: 0%

Again, my pick didn't win - I'm a Grinch guy, but this poll had the most votes of any I've posted so far.

•  •  •

The next poll's results didn't surprise me - most people took the safe route.

Should the media name kids who are suspended from teams for breaking playing rules?

Always 13%
Often  0%
Rarely  25%
Never 63%
Don't know 0%

•  •  •

This final poll is ongoing until just before midnight on Dec. 31. To vote, click here

Best Northwestern VT sports team in 2009

BFA-Fairfax boys basketball - Division III runners-up 34%
Milton girls soccer - Division II champs 28%
Missisquoi girls hockey - Division II runners-up 10%
Missisquoi boys soccer - Division II runners-up 7%
BFA-Fairfax girls soccer - Division III runners-up 7%
BFA-Fairfax softball - Division III runners-up 7%
Milton Broncos 7/8 Youth Football - NVYFL runners-up 3%
BFA-St. Albans girls basketball - Division I runners-up 3%

Poll: Should the media name kids suspended from athletics for breaking training rules?

In the interest of full disclosure, at one time I was a full-time employee of the Burlington Free Press sports department and I currently am a 'temporary part-time' employee there. That said, I have not worked there since last Thursday and have no direct knowledge of the details on the reporting of the following story.

On Tuesday, the Free Press published a short note naming three players who allegedly were suspended from a team for allegedly drinking at a party (I know that's a lot of alledgedlies, but that's the world we live in! Also, perhaps this story first broke on some other media outlet - I only learned about it a couple of hours ago while trolling the Freeps website for sports scores and checking out their Varsity Insider blog).

At any rate, naming high school athletes who break training rules (and/or the law) can be a difficult choice for a media editor, whether in print, over the air or on the web.

(I should know, I was the sports editor of the St. Albans Messenger for a lifetime one decade. But I digress.)

On one hand, these are kids and naming them is embarassing, if not humiliating. Do media outlets name kids who break laws/rules when they are honor students or in a school play? For an underage drinking citation? Unless there were extenuating circumstances, probably not. But that doesn't mean it's right or wrong.

That said, if a journalist is given a tip about a story like this, is there is some obligation on the media outlet to report on it? One could ask if it's the journalist's job and the media outlet's obligation to report any news, regardless of the age of the people involved or whether it is embarassing? One could also ask if the incident is 'public knowledge' within a school community and it is not reported upon, is the media outlet - and/or the reporter - running the risk of losing credibility as a trusted news source?

I'm going to refrain from passing any judgment on this situation and how it was handled. As I said before I have no insight into how the Freeps learned about this particular story or any other details whatsoever and without that information I can't offer an opinion. (Moreover, even if I did have that information, I could be ethically, if not legally, prohibited from discussing those details on my blog due to my work relationship with the Freeps and its reporters.)

Instead, I merely wonder what your thoughts are on the subject.

(Hopefully, I can't get in trouble for that!)

Please vote and if you have a stong opinion, please add your comments to this poll, as well. I'd like to know how people stand on this issue and why they feel the way they do.

This poll is limited to one vote per computer per hour to discourage ballot-stuffing, but this should allow for multiple people to vote from the same computer. The poll closes at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

Poll: Northwestern VT's best team in 2009

As I wrote last week, I thought it would be interesting to gather opinions on which Northwestern Vermont team was the best team in 2009. Obviously, this is a subjective excerise and unsceintific, but let's give it a go anyway.

Unlike my other polls, I've allowed for multiple votes from individuals using the same computer so feel free to stuff the ballot box!

The poll will remain open until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31.

The winning team gets ... um, to win, I guess.

What's a St. John's Prep?

The BFA-St. Albans boys hockey team hosted St. John's Prep on Saturday in the final game of the annual Doc Tulip Holiday Classic. The Bobwhites lost, 4-2, but played well against a very quick and indivdually talented team. (My story from the weekend will appear in Monday's Messenger.)

 

St. John's Prep has played in the tournament for most of the 15-or-so years the Doc Tulip has been played.

That said, until I decided to do a little research on the school, I knew very little about it.

Here's five things you probably didn't know about St. John's Prep.

1. The school - which has almost 1.250 students - is located in Danvers, Mass. (near Boston) and is 102 years old. The team's mascot in the Eagles.

2. Brian Kelly, the new head coach of the Notre Dame football team, graduated from the school in 1979.

3. Bobby Carpenter, the first American-born player to enter the NHL directly out of high school, played for St. John's Prep. He was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1981 draft and went on to score 320 goals in an 18-year career.

4. Steve Langston, who graduated in 1997, is a member of Team USA's top two-man bobsled team that will compete in Vancouver this winter.

5. Former major league baseball player Paul Sorrento graduated from SJP in 1982. Sorrento had an 11-year career in which he posted a .257 batting average with 166 homers and 565 RBI. He also had the first-ever hit at Camden Yards, the first grand slam at Jacobs Field and he was the first DH in Tampa Bay Rays' history.