DAILY FEATURES & COLUMNS BEGIN THIS SUNDAY!

by the Grand Poobah, ARRG Newscenter Correspondent

Dear fans and friends of ARRG Nation:

Since December 2009, the folks here in the ARRG Newscenter have attempted to raise the bar when it comes to online coverage of women’s flat-track roller derby at a local level.

We’ve personally looked at the interleague online coverage by all WFTDA leagues – currently 147 leagues internationally – and determined that we wanted to set the benchmark for others to potentially follow. A small percentage of the top leagues nationally consistently feature well-penned bout recaps that effectively highlight monthly action. A healthy portion of the leagues mention quick snippets of upcoming events for their respective squads via a solo-paragraphed blog entry.

Anything to promote the sport…we’re totally cool with that! Internal online coverage by WFTDA leagues – regardless of size – is an effective catalyst of the sport’s awareness and promotion. We respect those respective leagues’ writers and salute their efforts in spreading the good gospel of the sport, both local and nationally. It’s the foundation of community journalism.

But for the ARRG Newscenter internally since December 2009, we’ve desired to do just a little bit more in comparison to the other WFTDA leagues.

We were not solely interested in quickie bout recaps and “quick-hitters” more suitable for social media websites. We wanted to go well beyond that. For the WFTDA league, tweeting a score or Facebooking an event is one thing. By golly, the ARRG Newscenter wanted depth!

Were we successful? That’s debatable. Yes, we do have the tendency to misspell and abuse simple grammatical procedures. But one does have to give notice that we have presented 165 individual full-length columns the past 28 months. From previews to recaps to analysis, we like to think that the quantity and quality of material presented here has kept our faithful local readership informed and engaged perpetually.

So what if we had an error in the formatting of the phrase “double header?” At least we had over 2,000 other words to supplement that error. We’ll play the percentages.

It has made others nationally take notice. When the good folks at Derby News Network – the online portal of national derby coverage – inquire about your local coverage efforts, you kind of figure you’re on to something good. You get a sense of pride from those things.

Overall, it’s been a blast. We enjoy this sport and we love to tell others -both in and outside the sport – of about this hard-working league and the people that are involved with it.

And it also gives us the incentive to take it to the “the next level,” just to show others how it can be done.

With one month prior to ARRG’s biggest night of its seven-year existence, the plan is now set to bring that journalistic level to a new high…albeit a crazy, wacky, somewhat ludicrous high.

And I guess we wouldn’t have it any other way, because that’s how we operate.

In the build-up to the 2012 ARRG Local Championships – held at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis on Saturday, April 28 – archrivalrollergirls.com will feature a brand new column DAILY in this section for the entire month of April. This collection of columns will span all thirty days of the month.

Yes, you read that accurately. We’re doing thirty columns in thirty days. Or for our purposes, we’re calling it “ARRG 30n30,” because acronyms are supposedly what the cool kids like.

To our knowledge, no WFTDA-affiliated league has ever attempted this concept before. And going into it, we’ll admit, we might have bitten off more than we can proverbially chew.

Even though the project begins on April Fool’s Day, there won’t be any foolin’ around. We’re going to be serious about this and we think you’ll like what we have to offer.

Keep in mind, this series should not be considered thirty personal blog entries. This concept is not about personal commentary – this is about journalism.

The “pink and black print” goes like this….Every morning at 8 AM for the entire month of April, a new column will be featured at archirivalrollergirls.com.

So how are we going to do this? Alongside the normal bout previews and recaps that you’ve come to expect here, we’ll also present feature articles that highlight all aspects affiliated with the league.

We’ll feature the teams – both local and travel – their members and the support staff that are vital to the league’s operation, as well as some of the committees that continuously augment its activities. We’ll also feature “human interest” stories that personalize the athletes outside bout night.

In short, we’re gonna show you what makes this hard-working league tick.

Some current features expect here in the Newscenter will remain intact. I’ll bring you bout previews and recaps for both the ARRG All-Stars bout vs. Memphis the week of April 14, the Saint Lunachix bout vs. Southern Illinois the week of April 21 and the 2012 Local Championships the week of April 28. I’ll have features ranging from pre-bout rituals to the “Superfans” of the league to the “moms of ARRG.”

In addition, ARRG bout co-announcer Magilla Guerilla will present installments of “Guerilla Uncaged” as well as team previews heading into championship night. We’ll also feature the excellent work of derby photographer Bob Dunnell, who expertly documents digitally the “ins, outs and arounds” of ARRG.

The process is threefold. For the hardcore ARRG fan, this will provide an opportunity of reflection and anticipation to the big event at Chaifetz. For the casual visitor of this website, this will give insight as to how this league operates and the people behind it. To the first time spectator, this will give you give you a reason to join this sport that the league holds true to its heart.

In short, if this was a collegiate graduate course, this would be ARRG’s thesis paper.

We’ll see you here on Sunday, April 1 at 8 AM for the beginning of ARRG’s “30n30,” where we’ll look at the formation of the league and its first exhibition bout from 2006.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 2:57 am and is filed under Bouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.