Honoring Good Sports

Not to interrupt everyone basking in the glow of America's huge upset soccer win over Spain, but we have the latest awards from the Big South Conference...

The ballots have been scored for the spring Team Sportsmanship Awards and here are the results for the eight sports:

VMI earned the nod two times, once each for baseball and men's outdoor track.

GWU also got a pair of honors, coming in women's golf and women's tennis.

Joining them as a double-winner is Liberty, with awards in softball and men's golf.

The remaining two honors went to High Point (women's outdoor track) and Presbyterian (men's tennis).

For the 18 sports in the 2008-09 year overall, Liberty has merited five wins, VMI has received four awards and shared in two others, Gardner-Webb has won twice and shared twice, Presbyterian has two wins, High Point has won once and shared twice, and Radford has one win.

A final tabulation, taking into account all first, second, and third-place rankings for all sports will now be made, with the overall Big South Institutional Sportsmanship Award winner to be announced next week. This will be the fourth year for that honor, won all three previous years by VMI.

You may now resume your celebration for the US Soccer Team...

Just Think About It

Two topics on my mind today to share, offer a little food for thought on a Monday...

First, for the sports appetite, be sure you've got your calendars properly marked for the start of football season, just over ten weeks away now. As I write this, we sit 73 days shy of the first Big South team hitting the field for 2009: Coastal Carolina, on the road at Kent State for a Thursday night game (9/3, 7pm). It's 75 days for the first big Saturday of the season (9/5), with all the other teams on the gridiron. Only two teams will be at home (VMI vs. Robert Morris, GWU vs. Mars Hill), leaving most of the teams traveling to either regional rivals (PC at Furman, SBU at Hofstra) or national powerhouses (Liberty at West Virginia, CSU at Florida).

And buckle your chinstraps--those last two games above won't be the only ones against the BCS conferences this season. On 9/19, CSU is at it again--this time at South Florida, while GWU wrangles with NC State. Later in the year, one has to ask if it's a trick or a treat that Coastal Carolina travels to Death Valley on Halloween to face Clemson. Of course, the schedule is littered with games against familiar Southern and Colonial foes (mainly prior to the start of Big South Conference play in October), so there will be many additional chances for Big South teams to test their mettle against foes from outside the Conference.

Excited yet? Yeah, me too!

Okay, on to the second topic for the day--and not to sound like Dennis Miller, but forgive me if I go on a bit of a rant here...

YES, we really want Twitter followers, and YES, we really want Facebook fans, and so on...

But NO, that doesn't mean that we're not screening who's coming in--come on, folks, if your Twitter feed only exists to promote content not suitable for college athletics, it won't pass the test. Now I'm certainly not talking about anyone's personal page that may have included an odd remark or photo once upon a time (just in case you were worried), I'm referring specifically to Twitter Spam that points back to sites or services involving one obvious vice or another. It's one thing if you have a business to promote and do so with occasional links from your feed--we support that--we're DOING that--here at the Big South...it's another thing entirely for your "feed" to consist solely of one commercial-content link or an endless series of off-color promotional plugs with links taking you to places unknown.

I hope that makes sense. It's just part of our efforts to keep the Big South outlets fun and appropriate for our growing fanbase. We're still hoping to hit a thousand Facebook fans and as many Twitter followers as we can possibly get, but not by padding the numbers with poor choices. If we "block" anyone in error, or if you should find the Big South linked to something inappropriate as outlined here, just contact me in the Conference office (Mark Bryant) to clear things up, just that simple--thanks!!!

Behold the Power of Friday

So it's a Friday in June at the offices of the Big South Conference...what's going on?

Well, to be perfectly honest, not a whole lot. It's funny--there's a fairly narrow window of relative quiet between one year and the next, and we're in that space right now.

We run on a fiscal year and event calendar of July-June, so naturally there's some year-end wrap-up stuff, a little housekeeping and a little bookkeeping going on, as one would expect...plus there are early preps for the year to come already in motion, but they're not yet up to full speed.

The phones don't ring and the e-mails don't flood the inbox quite the way they do with sports in-season. This time-frame is also when the vacations happen, so the office may be reduced in staff on any given day (like say, today).

All that said, the wheel does keep spinning--those slow preparations will start to pick up speed, particularly after the 4th of July, and the countdown to the fall will begin in earnest, especially with late July and the arrival of Football Media Days. It won't be long before the buzz is in the air again and the days overflow with activity once more (even when you know it's coming, it always seems like a switch gets thrown somewhere and you're off and running).

Nonetheless, a narrow window of relative quiet is better than no window at all...one must find peace wherever/whenever one can (careful, approaching zen)...

Enough musings, here are two real news-notes for you:

Track & Field Athletes of the Year were announced today--
The Men's Award is shared by Liberty's Sam Chelanga and VMI's Donnie Cowart.

The Women's Award goes to the Charleston Southern 4x100 relay team (Dionne Gibson, Jessica Thomas, Misha Morris and Gabrielle Houston).

Look for lots of talk about Big South Women's Basketball this year, with the "Fantastic Fan Program" and support in the form of a grant from the NCAA!

Quick rant--where are our comments and feedback? C'mon, let us know you're out there!!! I know we could try to get more attention by throwing in some popular search terms, like "Next on Big South SHOUT: Lindsay Lohan tweets live updates on the Iranian election, Megan Fox visits Conan O'Brien to discuss Transformers, and the cast of Twilight tests the new iPhone before debating PETA's stance on Obama vs. the fly"...but we're not stooping to that level here, no sir!

Okay everybody, remember to follow us on Twitter--and have a great weekend!

Will Blog for Feedback, Please Help

That's perhaps the next roadside sign of the information age.

Last week I attended a two-day conference on the growing role of video in collegiate sports, yet you know what the number one topic of discussion REALLY was at the "College Sports Video Summit"...?

Social media...what it is, where it's going, how to use it, and so on and so on...everybody practically needs a cyber-compass to figure out what direction to turn next...

Turns out it wasn't that long ago that colleges and conferences were actually being warned off of these new avenues of communication altogether, and now they're being told to jump in with both feet. Seems like every conversation, panel discussion, or speech began with the essential place video must play, particularly for web presence these days, but ended with what's happening on Twitter (and Facebook, the blogs, YouTube, and others).

Yeah, and "so what?" you may well ask.

Well, here's the thing: the next word that inevitably crept into these social media discussions was "monetization"--how can money be squeezed from this free-for-all frenzy? What will these sites come to look like and what will they deliver for both the source and the recipient in the future?

That's where we need you, dear reader (as the great Stan Lee would say).

YOUR FEEDBACK will help chart the next course for the online family of the Big South Conference. You need to keep these social media, well, SOCIAL! Give voice and direction to these outlets, or they could just turn out to be undifferentiated sites--and yes, likely with ads dropped on them or incorporated eventually, but without being very helpful to any of us if they don't develop their own momentum or sense of purpose...

So, what am I talking about here?

Our main website went online several years ago, of course, but in the last year and a half, it has gone from being an exclusive home base to being the flagship of a growing (and global) fleet.

Big South SHOUT, this very blog, has over a year under its belt from launching in early 2008, and may well be considered the first mate of this Conference armada...in that role, it's the ideal place to start this discussion...

YouTube.com/BigSouthSports joined the fray primarily to allow another way for the "Best of the Best" 25th Anniversary videos to reach the public, but soon became a home to more...

Twitter.com/BigSouthSports and the Big South Conference Facebook Fan Page arrived in quick order, rounding out the stable of what is now theoretically the "Mount Rushmore" of new media opportunities, particularly as regarded through the vague filter/label of "social media." Primary websites have graduated into traditional media in the eyes of some--you realize that the current generation has grown up entirely in the personal computer and internet age, don't you? At this point, younger readers naturally say, "Yeah, of course," while older generations may think, "Oh my, never really thought of it that way."

Okay, so we pretty much have the new baseline established--now it's all about "what's next"!!!

Main site: a redesign is in the works--is there anything in your opinion that must be added/removed or changed--what do YOU want out of BigSouthSports.com, the Official Site of the Big South Conference?

SHOUT blog: this very forum--more opinions, more perspectives, more frequency (or less of any of those)? Tell us the dynamics you want by offering comments--and help support this venue by subscribing or bookmarking and reading, forwarding links, etc.

Twitter: a big one, just because it's growing so fast on all fronts...the obvious way to help is to follow BigSouthSports and encourage others to do the same--let's get the "following" number way up there so updates spread quickly, and again, let us know what you want more or less of from the Twitter feed.

Facebook: so far, we've been slow to generate "fans" of the Big South's Facebook page, so spread the word and help us get a bigger fanbase in advance of the coming seasons. We wanted to give the page one of the new Facebook custom username addresses, but we're WAY short of the thousand fans needed to make that happen--"Become a Fan" and help us reach one thousand!

YouTube: subscribe to BigSouthSports for updates to uploaded videos, comment on existing videos, post links to your favorites, help us generate some more activity and interest--and let us know what you want to see from our channel there.

Whew. I know...I was away for a few days, now I've come back, and thrown a lot of words out there...but seriously, it's been very quiet on the response side from all these fronts for a while. Without your feedback, we'll never know if we're on target or not. This is an open call for comments, posts, tweets, ratings--any/all of the above. We want you to share!

To borrow an immortal movie line ("The Breakfast Club"): "It's social--demented and sad, but social."

Without the interaction of our fans and friends throughout the Big South community, we'll still be "social," but it will become a lot closer to the "demented and sad" part. Don't let that happen!

Cheers to all--make it a great week!

This is Tuesday's midday SHOUT--out...

Web-O-Rama Goes to Camp

We haven't taken SHOUT through a tour of the Big South sites in a little while, so it looks like time for another edition of WEB-O-RAMA--today we are going to narrow the focus to SUMMER SPORTS CAMPS!

You heard me kids...

WELCOME TO SUMMER CAMP!

Yes, camp: baseball, softball, football, soccer, you name it, a number of schools and coaches are working on making some happy campers this month (most are in mid-late June, some trickle into July). The variety of camp offerings available is amazing (if not staggering), from some open to campers as young as four years old, up to others restricted to high school seniors...from those hosted by the head coach to others led by former players or professional camp services...and from those working with individual athletes to others geared toward teams.

Look for the Big South member in your area and your sport of interest for dates--here are just SOME of the links to help you on your way to upcoming summer camp information:

Charleston Southern: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Volleyball

Coastal Carolina: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Softball, Soccer--Men - Women

Gardner-Webb: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women

High Point: Baseball / Basketball / Soccer (main info on one page)

Liberty: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Wrestling

Presbyterian: Baseball, Football, Basketball--Men - Women, Softball, Soccer

Radford: Baseball, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Softball, Volleyball

UNC Asheville: Baseball*, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer, Volleyball

VMI: Football / Basketball / Baseball / Soccer / Lacrosse*, (main info on one page)

Winthrop: Baseball, Basketball--Men - Women, Soccer--Men - Women, Softball, Volleyball

* = updated information pending as of June 4th.

Whew!

That's more than 50 links, so I'm all linked out now...hope you find the camp that fits you best!!!

More from SHOUT coming soon...

Big Night, Big Year, Big South

Well, we've made it to the next day...whew!
What am I talking about THIS time? Let's jump back to Thursday night and review...


The Big South Conference 2009 Awards & 25th Anniversary Dinner--a gathering of not only VIPs from all the Big South member institutions and sponsorship partners, but also of great student-athletes and coaches from the full span of Conference history! It was a special night at McBryde Hall on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC.


The Sunbelt Rentals Scholarships were formally awarded.
The Christenberry Award and Graduate Fellowship recipients were recognized.


Then came the major yearly awards--the All-Sports Trophies: Liberty won the Men's, Coastal Carolina won the Women's, and Liberty earned the Sasser Cup for overall sports performance. The Flames had a sensational year, pulling down Conference championships in men's cross country, men's track (indoor and outdoor), football, volleyball, and women's basketball. In addition, LU also notched five runner-up finishes. A sensational season, congratulations to Liberty University!


But as amazing as those honors and awards are, they only served as preamble to the highlight of the night: a salute to the 25th Anniversary "Best of the Best," followed by the announcement of the Top Ten Countdown for the "Best of the Best" through a special video--this one right here, as a matter of fact...

In summation (or for those who don't have a few spare minutes to watch):

10-Martin Sayer, Radford tennis--player of the year all four of his seasons
9-UNCA MBB 2003--first-ever NCAA MBB tourney win for the Big South
8-LU Track & Field--dominant winner of vast majority of Conference titles
7-Coastal Carolina Baseball--nationally prominent and still on a long run of success
6-Josh McDougal, Liberty track--distance sensation, National Champion, 14-time All-American
5-Katie Feenstra, Liberty WBB--among nation's best players, engine for title run
4-Radford WBB Dynasty--the Highlanders were virtually untouchable for a decade
3-CCU Men's Soccer/Joseph Ngwenya--great player and team to Sweet 16
2-Winthrop MBB 2007--knock off Notre Dame in NCAA tourney, go to 2nd round
1-Libery WBB Dynasty--10 straight Big South titles & Sweet 16 berth!!!

There you have it--a fantastic night for the Big South...

Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina Baseball is at the Chapel Hill Regional, just starting against Kansas--AND several Big South student-athletes are at the East Regional for NCAA Track & Field. Good luck to all our remaining competitors!

Have a great weekend, everybody...

It's a Blog-centennial!

Tales of Baseball Tangles, Meeting Wrangles, and Anniversary Angles...the 100th post for Big South SHOUT!

And yes, for the Word Police, "blog-centennial" is all wrong (it's a hundred posts, not a hundred years, after all)...but it sounds a lot better than the more accurate "hectoblog" would have, so I'm taking poetic license on that one...

The final champion of the 2008-09 season has been crowned: the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers have won the Big South Baseball Championship. Yes, the top seed won, but it wasn't easy for them--or for the casual bracket follower.

You see, it all started getting complicated with Radford's upset win over Coastal in Game Five...that resulted in five surviving teams after six completed games...and that in turn meant leaving the standard double-elimination bracket (no picnic to follow in any case) and going to the first contingency bracket. With me so far?

Coastal dispatched High Point in the revised bracket's Game Seven, leaving four teams standing--but then the Chanticleers stirred up another bracket racket, this time by defeating the previously unbeaten Liberty Flames in Game Nine (I haven't lost you yet, have I?) and forcing the final three teams into the second contingency bracket.

Really. No point in making this stuff up, after all.

Here's the irony--the double-elimination bracket plays out in orderly fashion if the seeds hold, yet we wound up going through these extra twists and turns only to follow the seeds: the last four teams were the top four seeds and they were eliminated in four-three-two order to leave the number one seed in the champion's throne!

Anyway, next up for the Chanticleers, a date with Kansas at the Chapel Hill Regional on Friday. CCU is the 2-seed, facing #3 KU, while host and top seed UNC plays Dartmouth.

Baseball may be the last Conference Championship, but it's not the last activity for the Big South on the traditional academic/athletic calendar...not when the Spring Meetings are upon us. Meetings? Yes, it's time again to gather the CEOs, ADs, and other administrators from all the member institutions of the Big South to discuss matters of policy and procedure, finance and function, impact and interest. Parliamentary Procedure does not make much of a spectator sport, but the votes cast in these sessions do reach the fields and courts of competition in a variety of ways. I'll keep you posted on any major developments as warranted.

The other thing that comes out of these meetings is the Awards & Anniversary Dinner (in other years, it's the Hall of Fame Dinner, but no HoF this year--we're finishing off the 25th Anniversary celebration instead). Not only will we have the annual presentations of the Christenberry Awards and Graduate Fellowships, the All-Sport Trophies, and the Sasser Cup, but we will also reveal the final results of the "Best of the Best." A special video will count down the top ten from the 25 sensational spotlight athletes, teams, and moments of the Big South's first 25 years. Designated representatives from all 25 honorees will be acknowledged and someone from the top "moment" selected will address the crowd. I know the order, but it's top secret--you're not getting it out of me...

By the way, the Anniversary Dinner is invitation only, but don't worry, you can catch up on what went on--starting Friday, the countdown video and the evening's ceremonies will be available as free video on BigSouthSports.com!

Did a fun interview today with the NCAA News on the impact of Twitter for collegiate sports. That should run sometime in June--I'll let you know where to find that when it runs.

That's all for now--SHOUT, out!

The Gretzky Post

What, you say? A hockey reference? Surely it's not to imply that this entry is a "Great One"...

No--it's about the number. This is post #99 since we got SHOUT jump-started on Leap Day 2008. Using that reasoning, I guess I could've called it "The Sapp Post," but that just didn't have the best ring to it.

Speaking of this blog and its brethren, here's a little love from the Conference's main site.

Moving on...

THE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP HAS ARRIVED!!!

Yes, we've begun the 2009 Royal Purple Big South Conference Baseball Championship. Hopefully you'll be able to get out to McCormick Field in Asheville and soak up some of the atmosphere in that classic minor league park (home to the Asheville Tourists), but if not, there's always our wall-to-wall coverage on The Big South EDGE. Kudos to Championship Host UNC Asheville for making the event happen so smoothly--and a special SHOUT-out to Everett Hutto of UNCA for making the production of the live streaming top notch, with SIX cameras out there to capture the action from every angle. Looks great, sounds great: follow your team's path through the double-elimination bracket by ordering the game on The EDGE.

Enough promotion, how about the hardball? Well, Tuesday night got things rolling with the tournament's two lead-off elimination games--the bottom four seeds contesting for two open slots. High Point held off Charleston Southern to advance, while 8-seed VMI pulled off a surprise by routing Gardner-Webb. That victory may not have left much in the tank for the next morning, as the Keydets fell to top-seeded Coastal Carolina...but the good news for VMI fans is they're still in it--they just have to play their way back out of the loser's bracket to do it (a tall order for anybody).

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, HPU and Winthrop are just starting in the day's second game. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday each feature a trio of games (at 11am, 3pm, and 7pm) before we get to Saturday's Final (one game or two as needed).

So what about the other postseason efforts not concluded at our last post?

Softball--Radford dropped the opener to Georgia, but fought back with a win over Campbell, only to lose to Regional Host North Carolina, eliminating the Highlanders.

Men's Golf--Coastal Carolina finished 11th at the NCAA Northeast Regional, ending the season for the Chanticleers (the top five teams from each Regional advance).

Is it just me or were there a lot of links today?

That's all for now...enjoy the baseball--the Big South crowns its champion on Saturday!

Next post is the century mark for SHOUT (and they said it would never last)--oh, and next week we reveal the "Best of the Best" top ten countdown, so don't miss that!