Follow Paul on Twitter: @IdahoSportsPaul
State tournament time. Is there a better time of year?
Covering high school sports for you, the fans, is something we take very seriously here at IdahoSports.com. Maybe 'seriously' isn't the right word because we have way too much fun doing what we do to have time to be serious. Whatever it is though, we've been doing it a long time - since 1997. Most of the kids playing in these tournaments have never lived in a world without IdahoSports.com.
Every year, we try to come up with new ideas for better coverage and we think we do a pretty darn good job of it. Hopefully you agree.
The team here at IdahoSports.com is a pretty mixed bunch, which helps us give you better coverage. We have former band geeks, state champions, soccer moms, wrestling dads, varsity coaches, school paper editors - we even have a Canadian, eh. And Lorin. Not sure where he fits in all this, but he's here anyway.
This group of misfits and high school sports junkies come together to create the best state tournament coverage in Idaho year in and year out. Here's what we are doing this year:
1. Live Tournament Broadcasts - All 66 state girls basketball games will be broadcast live on IdahoSports.com - for FREE. Of course, so will all 66 games during boys state basketball, both days of state wrestling, the State-Wide All Star Games at NIC and State Dance and Cheer. Since 2005, we have held the exclusive Internet broadcasting rights for these games and we have added more and more coverage every year.
Here is who we have at the girls games next week:
5A @ Ford Idaho Center
Gary Jones & Glenn Jones / Paul Kingsbury & Lorin Jensen
4A @ Timberline HS
Scott Burton & Mike Savage
3A @ Middleton HS
Sven Alskog & Josh Byers
2A @ Kuna HS
Lance Taylor & Lucas Gebhart
1AD1 @ Columbia HS
Joe Hughes & Aaron McCree
1AD2 @ Nampa HS
Matt Harris & Will Nordquist
5A Third Place & Consolation Games @ Skyview HS
Gary Jones & Ken Webster
2. Action Photographers - We have the BEST action photographers posting galleries on IdahoSports.com! If you have never checked out their work, you owe it to yourself to look at what these 'masters of the camera' do week in and week out. As of this writing, every single girls state basketball game will be covered by our team of action photographers. Our photographers do this on their own dime and only make money when people buy prints from them - they keep 100% of everything they sell. Hint hint.
1AD2 - Nampa High School — Patty Theurer — Early games on Thursday. Friday games and Saturday games. Loren Orr — Late games on Thursday night.
1AD1 - Columbia High School — Brian Pennington — Thursday/Friday/Saturday
2A - Kuna High School — Willy Harris — Thursday/Friday/Saturday
3A - Middleton High School — Kelly Magee — Thursday/Friday/Saturday
4A - Timberline High School — Jason Duchow — Thursday/Friday. Chris Melgaard — Saturday 5A - Ford Idaho Center - Steve Conner - Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Jason Duchow - Saturday.
3. Social Media - Over 8000 of you have 'liked' us on Facebook and over 6,000 of you follow us on Twitter. If you haven't done it yet, do it now. We have added a Social Media expert to the state tournament team this year, Will Hoenike. You might have heard of him. Will's job will be to social-media the heck out of all the games going on around the entire tournament.
Follow us on Twitter @IdahoSports and on Facebook.com/IdahoSports so you won't miss anything. We are also going to have special contests and give-a-ways available only to our social media followers.
4. Daily Re-Caps, Blogs and Previews - For some reason you all really like our state tournament previews and predictions. We got lots of comments last year and we have been getting emails already this year asking when they are coming out. Well, we are all a bunch of people-pleasers so we will be doing it again.
The first round will come out Wednesday the 17th and then every morning of the tournament come back see who we think will be moving on and why.
5. Brackets & Results - The most important thing fans want to know, if they can't be there in person, is who won the game! We will be updating brackets and scores immediately after every game so you won't have to wait to know if your team won. We will also be updating the web site every night with the next day's game schedules and broadcast schedules.
Of course, the best place to be during the winter state tournaments is AT the games. Support your local schools, teams and athletes and drink all the chocolate milk you want courtesy of the our title sponsor and official State Tournament sponsor, The United Dairymen of Idaho. Show your support today and go kiss a cow. I said kiss, not tip, Lorin.
See everyone at state!
|