Blogs : Trackshark

A review of Trackshark.com - This is why we exist

It came to my surprise that Eric from Athletics in the News provided a review of Trackshark and our coverage of the 2008 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships.  You can read the review at the link below:

http://athleticsinthenews.blogspot.com/2008/03/about-track-news-sharks-and-things-in.html

Eric also compares our coverage of the meet with that of Track & Field News.  I did not have the chance to visit their coverage page during the meet since I was so busy providing our own, but I had the chance to take a gander after the weekend and I thought it was excellent as well.

Track & Field News is still playing catch-up, if you will, in the transition between print-to-internet.

Many people don't realize that I actually designed their site and they were very generous to offer me free hosting in return for advertising a few years ago.  They have fine people over there and I have a great deal of appreciation for what they do.

Going back to Eric's review of Trackshark's coverage of the NCAA meet, I was not present at Arkansas although many people thought I was.  We did have several photographers at the meet, but nothing in terms of on-the-field coverage. 

I was stuck back here in Massachusetts for the weekend for my full-time job that I couldn't afford to leave.  That first day coverage was quite hectic.  Here was my day:

6am - wake up, shower, have breakfast with my wife and 1-year-old daughter

7am - drive daughter to daycare

8am - go to work

5pm - come home from work

6pm - eat dinner with family

7pm - start live coverage of NCAA meet from our bedroom

midnight - go to bed

The person we should all thank here is my wife who was taking care of our daughter while I was having fun on the computer all night.  While others were on location at the meet, it still felt as though I was there thanks to the technology available. 

Trying to pipeline that information into one clean, organized and generous package is what I tried to do and what Eric was trying to get across.

If others in our sport would understand what the fans want to see, then it would only be better for all of is.  This is why companies such as CBS College Sports (formerly CSTV) bother me.  They claim to be the "home" for college sports, yet they haven't even updated their own site on who won the meet:

http://www.cstv.com/sports/c-xctrack/cs-c-xctrack-body.html

This is why Trackhark exists.  This is why Track & Field News provides what they do for all of you.  Without us, what would the alternative be?