Revenge of Web-O-Rama!

Today's SHOUT has a lot going on, so let's actually start with a little preview of what follows:

1- BigSouthSports: now officially on You Tube!
2- The Web-O-Rama feature returns to SHOUT for a full tour around the Conference.
3- The EDGE has a basketball schedule full of important upcoming games for you--and we've got the preview right here (with yours truly leading the way)!

So first, the news of the day--the Big South Conference has stepped up to offer its fans and friends yet another outlet for finding what they want to see regarding the great schools and student-athletes of the Big South. Next time you're visiting YouTube, look for our official dedicated channel: BigSouthSports. Right now you'll see all 25 of the "Best of the Best" 25th Anniversary features and the overview piece highlighting all our "Best" honorees, plus the latest "On The EDGE" promo, and very shortly you'll see the preview pieces for recent seasons in basketball and football and additional Big South video segments. All these clips can also be found through The EDGE at BigSouthSports.com, but now you can just hop on while you're already surfing around YouTube--or even subscribe so you know when new videos are popping up on the BigSouthSports channel!

Speaking about doing a little surfing, it's been a while since SHOUT took you on the tour of Big South sites that we call Web-O-Rama...but it's back! Remember, we know that every site will tell you about the latest games and scores--but we're always looking for things you may not know about: the unusual, the special, or simply the different pages you may have missed along the way...so let's begin, shall we?

Charleston Southern wants to know if you played sports for CSU or its predecessor, Baptist College. The folks with the athletic department would like to stay in touch with all the student-athlete alumni, and in particular keep them informed about alumni events and Hall of Fame Weekend activities. Does this apply to you or someone you know? Go visit the Bucs' site and let them know!

Coastal Carolina has a recent story about a specific alumnus that you might not have caught...Jack Leasure, the Big South's all-time leader in three-pointers made, will be playing basketball for a team in Austria! You see, Austria sent us a big guy who kept saying "I'll be back" and eventually became a governor--and so we send Austria a big guy who keeps popping threes and eventually becomes...well, we don't know yet, but we wish him luck!

Gardner-Webb reminds us that our student-athletes do a great job of contributing to the community. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at GWU held a fundraiser in December to help needy families in the Boiling Springs area for the holidays. They were able to raise over $1,000 and turn that money into gifts so that Christmas could be a little merrier for those who could use a helping hand.

High Point knows it's never too early to make those big summer activity plans. The Panthers and men's coach Dustin Fonder have announced the schedule for their soccer camps in June and July. They've got just about everyone covered, with a wide range of age options along with camps designed for half-days, full-days, and overnights.

Liberty wants to take you inside the life and times of its women's basketball seniors, with six different student athetes contributing to the "Life with the Lady Flames" feature. It's a series of linked journal-style articles in which you will find first-hand accounts from the Lady Flames (including all three Frazee sisters) on how the season is progressing.

Presbyterian gives us a profile of a group that doesn't get much press from most athletic websites: the pep band! Check out the full story on the Blue Thunder Pep Band and at the bottom of the page, you'll even find bonus offerings in the form of fight song audio and sheet music as well!

Radford has been quite busy lately, unveiling a fantastic redesign of the RUHighlanders website in December (go look if you haven't seen it yet--they did a great job) and reopening the newly renovated Dedmon Center in January. As part of the major web changes, say goodbye to the "Lineburg's Line" blog...but don't worry, you can still read the perspective from the A.D. with online updates in the new "Lineburg's Notebook" blog: new name, new look, familiar point-of-view.

UNC Asheville often offers great stories in its ongoing "Bulldog Blog"--this week it tells the tale of teamwork between teams in different sports within the program. The Bulldog Blog is actually an article series rather than a traditional blog, but perhaps its time to revisit putting it on the SHOUT blog roll... In any case, give UNCA's Bulldog Blog a look (link right off the UNCA home page).

VMI is enjoying great basketball success these days, but there's a lot more going on in Lexington, and the Keydets will be showcasing plenty of it with the upcoming 2009 VMI Sports "Winter Blitz." On Saturday, February 7th, the VMI athletics facilities will be buzzing with a track & field meet, wrestling competition, and a basketball game all in the same day!

Winthrop has joined the Big South in the Vortex revolution! Who needs old-school widgets when you get grab the power of the Vortex? Much like the Big South Vortex, which you can see in the right-hand column of this page or access through the Conference site, the Winthrop Eagles Vortex can be copied into your social networking pages as an application or embedded in your blogs or websites (UNCA also has a Vortex, and other schools are in development). Capture one now!

Okay, as promised, here's the video preview/promo for the upcoming game schedule on The EDGE. This week includes a few doozies, as we begin the "crunch time" stretch for men's and women's basketball (I won't go into details here, I'll let...well...ME do it in the clip below):

All right, this has gone on long enough.
No, really, it has...I'm done.

Enjoy the weekend everybody--we'll have another SHOUT soon!