Yearly Archives: 2008

What we’re reading

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We at D3football.com know we are not the only ones writing interesting stories about Division III football, and even if we had a full-time staff of writers we couldn’t corner the market on everything interesting.

I and Keith McMillan and Gordon Mann especially come across many stories we could never hope to write or do justice, since we all have “real” jobs and such. But we haven’t had an easy way to bring all of those stories to you. Aside from the occasional blog post about a story, which takes more time than we usually have to devote, most just get filed away in the cobwebs of our brains.

However, we’re about to change all that, thanks to a new Web site for journalists called Publish2. One of the features of the site is a tool I’m using to create a feed of stories that I’ve tagged as being of interest. You can always find it on the right-hand rail here in the Daily Dose, and we’ll work on getting it incorporated into our already cluttered front page as well.

The feed is labeled “What we’re reading” and contains stories we’ve tagged that are of interest to us, along with a quick summary of why they might be of interest to you. Currently that box contains stories about what a couple of prominent D-III players are doing after graduation, a feature on incoming College Football Hall of Famer Jim Ballard, a trend story and a player profile. You can see what else is in there beyond the five most recent by clicking on the link at the bottom of the box.

Enjoy!

D-III alum using game as escape

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In a decade at Baseball Weekly, I read a lot of stories, and two of the most touching were of how Torii Hunter and Latroy Hawkins each escaped their own home lives through pro baseball. Hunter, especially, had to deal with his own father’s legal issues, to the point of shunning him.

Dustin JohnsonHe’s not the only athlete with that kind of problem to deal with. For Dustin Johnson, playing indoor football half a country away keeps him away from a potential source of trouble: his father, who was “shot in the stomach in a drug deal gone bad,” he said.

More on Johnson’s story and his pro career in a story from the Shreveport Times.

Homeward bound

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I came out to the East Coast in August of 1990, 17 years old, about to start my freshman year in college.

And other than going home for the summer between that and my sophomore year at Catholic University, I’ve been out here ever since.

It’s been a long 18 years; it’s time to go home. We’re leaving Northern Virginia in August and moving to Minneapolis.

I’ll miss the vast number of Division III schools there are here on the East Coast, where I can basically stumble over a D-III school every 20 minutes on the highway. I’ve seen 98 Division III football teams play, as near as I can tell, and been in 58 teams’ stadiums. Now I’m looking forward to seeing a whole new group. I’ve seen only three WIAC teams and stadiums, and St. John’s is the only MIAC stadium I’ve ever been in.

There will be a lot of new things to experience.

Like flying to the Stagg Bowl. 🙂

So I apologize that it’s been a bit of a quiet offseason around here. We’ve spent a lot of time repairing, painting and packing. I’ll keep the same day job, as sports editor of the Verizon Central Newsroom, and simply work from there instead of Virginia.

Thanks to everyone who has been so hospitable over my years here on the East Coast. Hundreds of SIDs and coaches have made time to help us cover Division III in the past decade. Now I’ll get a different perspective, meet new people and spend a lot more time on I-94 and I-35 rather than I-95 and I-66.