WHY I DO THE SENIOR REPORTS

WHY I DO THE SENIOR REPORTS

By Dave Schmidt – www.theseniorreports.com

September 18, 2012 – I often have people ask me “Why do you do THE SENIOR REPORTS?” So let’s give all of you some background on how this got started.

Over twenty years ago I started a service to provide information to a new minor league sport – Major Indoor Lacrosse League. We became the official provider of information on graduating seniors from college programs to the MILL officials. Now you know why I called it the Senior Reports. That was in the old days before the web was a big tool in gathering information. I would mail out requests to all college lacrosse playing schools for media guides, cut-out player bios, made lists of players according to position, college coaches contact information. I would then compile that information, tape it on white paper, Xerox it and send out to the league office. Arena Football, Canadian Football League and the big success story was minor league hockey. So I was quite busy.

As time moved forward it was easier for those leagues to use the benefits of the internet to find that information. So I moved forward several years ago to something I enjoyed even more, how athletic conferences operate. I had actually done work during this time with several D1 conferences including the old East Coast Conference on expansion and adding new members. I actually put the ECC and Mid-Continent on the path to a merger and now that conference is the Summit League. However; D1 is in a complete different universe. That is when the focus turned to D2, which turns out to be one of the most active divisions in college athletics.

The first conference issue I ever focused on was the six Ohio schools of the NAIA’s American Mideast Conference who decided to apply at the same time to become D2 members. Little did I know how that would turn out and now my site is followed by many NAIA and D2 schools to find out what is actually going on year to year in the membership process. The goal has always been to get the facts and remove all the rumors related to this process. Thanks to many different folks in the NAIA and D2 it is working. I have tried to build trust with everyone I work with; if they want it off the record I do that. It has never been my intention to cause a situation that puts anyone in a position that would interrupt the process of moving from a conference or adding a new member to the conference. Facts, that is the goal and you can never change the facts. I also focus on D3 conferences as well; it looks like some NAIA schools who do not want to move to D2 may now consider D3.

I love high school sports and the first conferences I focused on were those in my “old” home state of Ohio. Ohio was and still is one of the most active states in the US with athletic conference changes. It is amazing to see all of the changes that have taken place in the last several years. ( http://www.theseniorreports.com/ohiochanges2012.htm ) Since that time we have also added many states with Indiana, Illinois and Michigan being very active. During this process I added special pages covering Private vs Public issues, a page that looks at how economics have become an issue in conference changes. High school changes across the US continue to take place every day.

I do a lot of consulting with high schools and conferences and one item I continue to work on is my HS Athletic Conference Barometer (www.theseniorreports.com/barometer.htm ) form. It is very simple form but I feel it can be used by any HS (even college) to evaluate your present athletic conference and how it is operating. I always tell HS officials that doing a regular check-up at how things are going will cut out surprises in the future. This form also has helpful links to story articles that can help in running a conference. I continue to add items as I find them. Most HS officials have multiple duties and this is my way of helping them with issue.

I do have original articles placed on the site ( www.theseniorreports.com/originals.htm ) that address ways to help a conference or on an issue that is currently in play in conference changes. Tips to help from somebody on the outside and something the school official might have overlooked. I like to call these articles the “fine-tuning” process.

However; I think one of the biggest assets I see to the site is the article links I post from all around the US from many different media sources. Sports writers do a great job of reporting what is actually taking place with a particular conference. I look at those article links as a “history” of how athletic conferences operate. I learn from most of them of what can actually work or see an instance that should have been avoided. Many look at the site to see what is taking place during the conference change. I have a great relationship with many of these media members, many of them send me the story link to post on the site. They love that folks from around the country are reading their stories. The payback for the writers is they can use the site for reference on stories they do in the future. The goal for me is the “FACTS” I get from quotes in the story.

School officials, at both the college and HS levels, are those who use our site. I have a regular email alert system with officials at every level who request updates when I get them. I have also added a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/theseniorreports ) and a Twitter account at @TheSeniorReport and both have a mixture of school officials and just regular readers of the site. Since we are a specialty site I don’t have thousand of “likes” but those who are on these sources make it worth the time and effort.

I use to be very active on “Message Boards” but those can be a “plus” and a “minus”. You would be shocked how many times a school leaving or a conference change is released by someone who knows someone, possibly even a coach or former coach who posts information that was meant to be confidential. In the past I would post links to our site, some posters take offense to that and I have been in some pretty good battles and have been called some real nasty names. Those posters think I should post the actual story link. The Senior Reports layout could remind you of the Drudge Report (one of the largest in the US) who list titles and the links go to other newspapers, the same as we do. I’ve been “stalked” by some posters because of the way we do this format; many posters think I do it to get rich, which my wife would laugh at. I enjoy sharing the information and yes I like folks to visit the site. Just remember the site and all of the items we have in place are FREE, no cost to anyone. Some message boards I no longer post on, others that are well maintained I still do. I do get grief from schools official for being a message board poster, it can be a no win situation sometimes. Again sportswriters often thank me for posting their article link on our site and I sure appreciate all of them for letting me do it.