CIS CORNER: FEELING A BIT SAGACIOUS

It's early yet, but this seems to be the year where CIS schools -- and dedicated fans -- really become self-directed in terms of getting better media coverage for the athletes and the teams. One good example is that Scott McLean, the SID at Simon Fraser, posted highlight reels from four SFU men's and women's basketball against NCAA schools on YouTube.



This harkens back to a semi-screed written here early in the new year. It was in response to a National Post column that noted the lack of media coverage for the CIS, but neglected to mention it had spawned a blog culture.

The Internet might be where much of the CIS coverage is headed. Simply put,
we might have to do it ourselves, and hope that eventually the gatekeepers in
the media notice and co-opt us. -- Jan. 5, 2007

Eight months later, Mark Wacyk is continuing to take blogging CIS men's basketball (and Canada Basketball endeavours) to another level at cishoops.ca. Our man Snake Wilson started a blog to chronicle Saskatchewan Huskies football. James Mirtle has now added The CIS Blog to his writing workload and has been nice enough to ask us to contribute.

The media gatekeepers surely see that and realize there is a niche audience it needs to reach. Sportsnet Connected did have a short piece on the U of T football team last night. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix just became the first Canadian newspaper (far as I know) to establish a blog dedicated to the local university sports scene. I'm not privy to the discussions that take place on high, but maybe one of the Ottawa papers will follow suit tout suite. Between Carleton and uOttawa, plus local kids who are playing elsewhere, there's a ton of material.

(For anyone who's interested, Napanee native and Clan centre Matteke Hutzler shows up at around the 35-second mark of McLean's Simon Fraser-Arkansas recap, drawing a charge on defence. That was a big play since the Clan won by a point. Here's links to the recaps from the Clan women's win over New Mexico State and the men's team's games vs. Air Force and Oklahoma.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.