SOAR Blog

I’ve now been “officially” working in the Sports, Outdoor, Athletics and Recreation industries for slightly more than 3-and-a-half years now, and I must say I continue to be shocked at the overall lack of new media sophistication I see within these industries.

Understand that this is not meant as a slam against all companies in these markets (although it may come across as such).

I also recognize that almost every company I now find in any industry has a Web site. But for many companies, that’s it. And in some instances, companies have little more than a brochure-ware Website.

Others are beginning to step forward and are beginning to embrace newer forms of interactive media, sometimes known as Web 2.0 technologies. These solutions and tools include

• Blogging,
• Online video,
• Social networks (MySpace and Facebook being the most popular, but not the only ones),
• Microblogging (through such tools as Twitter and Pownce, to name two), and
• Podcasting.

What’s even more amazing to me, however, is the seeming lack of interactive / Web 2.0 sophistication among the media companies serving the outdoor and recreation industries. Here again, I’m not attacking every media-publishing company serving clients and/or end-users in the recreation, sports, athletics and/or outdoor industries. Just most of ‘em.

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As I sit roughly 100 miles south of the Utah State University campus, I believe I can clearly hear Coach Ray Guy’s screams of anguish as he realizes that his all-everything sophomore quarterback has just dumped the hapless Aggies in favor of Brigham Young University.

Elder Riley Nelson, a full-time proselyting missionary in Spain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, apparently decided over the weekend that he will transfer to BYU after he completes his mission in March 2009.

As an All-American QB out of Logan who opted to join his hometown Aggies’s squad, the left-handed, 6-foot-1 Nelson was a coveted passing and running QB who set all types of records for Logan High, while also leading the Grizzlies to the 3A state championship in 2005 during his senior season.

But as reported today by multiple local media outlets, including the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News, Nelson will don the Cougar-blue uniform in 2009 versus the midnight blue uniform of the Utah State Aggies.

So while this is a sad day in Aggie-town, you can bet that Cougar fans around the world are rejoicing today. 

The setting was an tough battle between two teams vying for a shot at the NCAA Div. II regional playoffs: the league-leading girls softball team from Western Oregon University versus the girls team from Central Washington University, a squad trailing Western Oregon by one game.

In a nutshell, Sara Tucholsky (a part-time outfielder for the Western Oregon Wolves), came to bat last Saturday (4-26-08) in the top of the second inning of a scoreless game with two runners on base. After taking the first pitch for a called strike, the 5′2″ Tucholsky smacked a home run over the center field fence for a commanding 3-0 lead.

Except that in her excitement at hitting her first ever home run, the tiny senior with a season batting average of .114 (4-for-35) missed the bag when rounding first base. As Tucholsky turned to touch first base, the ACL in her right knee gave way, leaving Tucholsky in a heap and others around her with a dilemma.

If a coach or her teammates touched/helped Tucholsky, she would be declared out and her run would not count. Similarly, if a pinch runner was brought in to replace her, her hit would be recorded as a single and not a home run. [NOTE: These were the official rulings on the field; according to the NCAA, both rulings are incorrect.]

Regardless, what happened next will stand forever as an epic display of sportsmanship. Specifically, two players from the opposing team, picked up and carried Tucholsky around the base path, allowing her to touch each bag and then homeplate to complete her home run circuit. Here’s an ESPN video with an interview of all three girls:

As one might suspect, players from Western Oregon were in tears as Tucholsky crossed home. And to be honest, I choked up the first time I read the Associated Press story found on the FOX Sports Website and Graham Hays’ detailed version of the story on ESPN.

The outcome of the game?

Tucholsky’s three-run shot turned out to be the game-winner in the 4-2 tilt, a home run that also knocked Central Washington out of the post season hunt.

But talk about losing out on the post season with one’s head held high. WOW!

It reminds me that as important as winning is in sports, it’d definitely not the most important thing. Thanks ladies.

The University of Utah’s football team today announced that it has entered a five-year “performance apparel and footweat outfitter” agreement with Under Armour (NYSE: UA). (Here’s a link to the official news release.)

Under Armour, of course, pioneered the field of performance apparel. And they make really good stuff.

Good for the Utes.

Hopefully, the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games will be thwarted in their attempts to hide the fact that the air quality in Beijing is NOT conducive to world-class, aerobic sporting events that require high-oxygen intake.

If you’re not up to date on this topic, please check out my post from earlier today on TheBettyFactor.com entitled, “China & the IOC Utilize Spin in an Attempt to Minimize Athletes’ Concerns for the 2008 Games.”

So it’s that fantastically fun time for college basketball fans everywhere: March Madness.

That time of year when the top 64 65 Division I teams in the United States get tapped for a weeks-long, single-elimination tournament to determine the top D-I, B-Ball team in all of collegedom.

And in case you were not sure, understand that March Madness is BIG BUSINESS spelled with two capital Bs!

How big you ask? Rumors and reports on the ‘Net state that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has pegged annual March Madness betting at $2.5 billion. Nevertheless, a recent story from KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas says the FBI has never made such a claim.

Maybe not; but I’m sure there’s a TON of money sitting in office pools all around the country right now.

As for us within the POLITIS universe of agencies, we take a non-gambling (yet still serious) approach to March Madness.

Specifically, the top two March Madness prognosticators in our firms will each win a $25 gift card to a local eatery (provided by the company):

• One for the top “point getter” (we assign escalating points for each win within each round of the tourney; ergo, the most points wins); and
• One for the top predictor of wins (pretty simple: the person who predicts more wins within the entire tournament than everyone else comes out on top).

This year we’ve also instituted what is affectionately known as the Bacon Equation, which means that if one person comes out on top in both categories, the second place finishers in both categories will pick-up $25 gift cards/certificates. [Yes, the Bacon Equation is named after Jonathan "Canadian" Bacon who nailed both categories in 2007.]

So . . . although we’re having fun while not gambling on March Madness, don’t think we’re not into this annual B-Ball lovefest in a big way.

In fact, everyone at SOAR Communications, Politis Communicationsand the other Politis entities takes the competition pretty seriously.

How seriously? Enough so, that although I’m banking on the No. 8-seeded BYU Cougars winning their first round match-up with the No. 9-seeded Texas A&M Aggies (which is nowhere close to being a sure thing), I had no compunction notching a loss for BYU in the second round to the No. 1-seeded UCLA Bruins. Sorry, Cougs!

= = = = = = = = = =

For the record, I have all four No. 1 seeds making the Final Four (North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and the aforementioned UCLA), with Memphis winning it all.

Go Tigers!

In a landslide victory Saturday, NCAA Division I coaches overwhelmingly voted to ban the use of text messages in recruiting athletes.

Designed to rein-in overzealous coaching staffs in their use of new technology to recruit potential student-athletes, the ban passed by margin of more than 3-1, with more than 78 percent of the votes being cast in favor of the ban.

According to the official NCAA News announcement about the new ban, Kerry Kenny (the vice chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee), urged coaches to vote against text-message contact of potential recruits claiming that “text messaging between prospective student-athletes and coaches was intrusive, unprofessional and expensive.”  

The vote was held at the annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, conducted this year in Nashville, Tenn. from January 10-14.

Given how many teenagers have cell phones today and how pervasive text messaging is in their lives, this sounds like a no brainer idea to me.

Good job, coaches.

For more than 10 years (1994 - 2004), I wrote a self-syndicated column called “Utah Tech Watch” that began as a biweekly column and six months later moved to a weekly schedule.

Over time this column was published by three papers — the Deseret News (now the Deseret Morning News), The Daily Herald (in Provo, Utah) and The Enterprise (Utah’s weekly business paper) — as well as being distributed for free via email to several thousand subscribers.

Each year, one of my most fun and yet difficult self-directed assignments was to identify the top 10 stories of the year.

I plan to resurrect “Utah Tech Watch” as an online media property in 2008, and when I do, I’ll also resurrect its annual Top 10 stories piece. But for now, let me transpose this idea to this SOAR Communications blog with what I propose are the Top 10 Global SOAR Stories of 2007.

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Rivalry week is over, and what a fun week it was.

The Brigham Young University Cougars defeated the University of Utah Runnin’ Utes 17-10 on a last-minute, come-from-behind, touchdown-scoring drive late in the fourth quarter of what had primarily been a defensive struggle.

Much has been written about the game itself, so as I write this post Sunday afternoon (11/25/07) I will not elaborate here about the ins and outs of the contest. (Those interested in additional info should check out the sports sections in the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret Morning News or the Provo, Utah-based Daily Herald.)

The win elevates BYU to a season record of 9-2, with eight straight wins and a likely move upward within the national polls of two to four spots from their current consensus ranking of 23 in the nation in both the USA Today and Associated Press polls.

While driving back home to Sandy from Provo and listening to “the most interactive and uncensored post-game BYU talk show” 1280 the Zone, I was shocked by some of the comments from Cougar fans who felt that BYU wasn’t getting the national respect or attention it deserved. Some felt that BYU and the rest of the teams in the Mountain West Conference were being unfairly slighted. Continue Reading »

I’m a huge fan of college football! But there’s no week I love better than the week of Thanksgiving. It’s when almost every college football team plays their own rivals.

In Utah, it’s no different. The rivalry game between No. 23 BYU and Utah has come to be known as “The Holy War” for the connection BYU has with the LDS Church (Mormon). With the schools located only 40 miles apart, pranks from each school have heated up the rivalry to fever pitch for years. Last year’s late-game heroics by now-NFL quarterback John Beck has only added fuel to the fire. There’s been nothing but trash talk between SLC and Provo for almost 12 full months now.

Here’s the clip that fueled the fire:

This year’s game should be even better. Each team is riding a seven-game win streak, with BYU looking to secure the top spot in the Mountain West Conference with a win, and the Utes looking to share a piece of the top spot with a win and a BYU loss at San Diego State.

If this year’s game is anything like last year’s, it will be awesome! Go Cougs!

(This game will be televised live on CSTV at noon MT.)