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Hello

By Brian Hillabush

Yesterday was crazy and I never got a chance to formally say hello.

I started my day at 9 a.m. in Fairport, which for me was a heck of an accomplishment, came home and took a short nap and then was out at the Muckdogs game. Throw in the photography and writing and it was insane.

Now that I've got a moment to actually sit down and think, I would like to tell you all a little about what I'm going to be doing here at The Batavian.

I love high school sports and want to take the coverage I gave readers at The Daily News for eight years and take it to a new level here. Print newspapers are fading fast (ask Jay Mariotti) and the Internet gives me the opportunity to do so many new and exciting things.

I have some blogging experience but am still pretty raw, so bear with me as I work on that writing style. 

I will be trying to get out to as many games as possible to shoot video, take photographs and blog, giving the great local athletes the best coverage possible.Video intrigues me a ton because I've done very limited work with that and think I can do some excellent work with that. Expect to see video highlights and interviews with local athletes in the very near future.

I am a huge football fan and you can expect to get the best coverage of area teams here in the coming weeks. My quick previews that I wrote at 3 a.m. is just the beginning of what you will see every Wednesday or Thursday.

I'll be covering games Friday night and Saturday afternoon, then doing some in-depth stuff during the week to preview games. Come sectional time, you will get to know everything about the squads making runs here at The Batavian.

I did a basic roundup of local scores last night, but I would like to get local coaches involved with posting blogs to give great coverage of their own teams. I will start making calls next week and asking soccer, volleyball and cross country coaches to directly post their results on the sports page.

Rather than having to wait for tomorrow's Daily for a couple paragraphs on each game, you will be able to come here and read exactly what the coaches saw just after the game ends.  Imagine how well you will get to know, for example, about the Alexander girls soccer team if coach Chad Flint posts after every game. Please let your coaches know about this opportunity if they have not seen The Batavian yet.

Those coaches that do post regularly will stand a much better chance of seeing me out at a practice with my video camera, doing special features on players and the team. 

High School athletes, parents and fans can also register and post comments on any blog. 

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have story ideas or just want to talk high school sports. My AIM screen name is hillabush12, my cell phone number is 585-993-4662 (expect to hear anything from rap music to Jimmy Buffett when you call) and my e-mail is brian at thebatavian dot com. And don't be shy if you see me at a game, come say hi.

I'm looking forward to meeting many new people and giving my home community the best sports coverage in the coming years.

wayne bell

Hilly I know you have a love for the High School Sports in Genesee County, but as you also know I have a love for the teams from GCC. It is my hope the those teams will get some coverage from you in this forum. Theyhave a new SID and maybe you could go to that person and get the schedules then post them. And like I've have talked to you before about the schedules that the newspaper put in. The games should be listed a day in advance so people know when a game is going to be played at 4:30 or earlier so they could go if they wanted to. I have talk to Coach Von Schiller of the Mens team at the college and he promises a good and an exciting team, the ladies team is still in a bit of transition with a new coach coming in, but they also should be a exciting group to watch. So,Hilly , with your help and maybe mine we can get people out to the Anthony Zambito Gym to watch the next step in an athletes career. And the price is right....FREE

Sep 14, 2008, 11:22pm Permalink
Brian Hillabush

I left a voicemail for Peg Sisson on Thursday and never heard back. I think we should cover GCC as well as the local high school sports, and I plan on doing that.
I am still having problems with the work e-mail, but I'd love the contact info for the new SID.
My phone number is 993-4662 so give me a buzz sometime tomorrow afternoon. Monday is basically going to be my day to contact local coaches so that we can get them directly involved.
I very much look forward to the basketball season and covering the quality programs at GCC.

Sep 15, 2008, 3:13am Permalink

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