'Bleachercoaches.com is talk of Internet'
'Bleachercoaches.com is talk of Internet'
Had a 'little' free time so here is the article for those of you who don't get the paper.
Bleachercoaches.com is talk of Internet
By Mike Herncane
Gazette Correspondent
ROARING SPRING - For true sports fans perhaps the only thing better than attending a particular athletic event is the pleasure of talking about it afterwards.
With that in mind, two young men from Bedford County, using a combination of technical savvy and unbridled enthusiasm, have created "Bleacher Coaches," an online sports community that in a little more than half a year has attracted more than 1,400 registered users.
Garry Black, 22, a 1999 graduate of Northern Bedford County High School and a recent graduate of Penn State University with a degree in elementary education, came up with the idea of an Internet-based multi-sport forum after he saw the success of a former Web site.
"I saw that Cement Job attracted major traffic," Black recalled recently. "And that was just wrestling. I realized we could do the same thing for football as well as the other sports."
"Cement Job" was a Web site, no longer in operation, devoted to wrestling.
After a friend, Sean Jones, came up with the expression "Bleacher Coaches," Black bought the domain name and found a host. Originally the site was an "open-source" or public use community bulletin board package that he installed and then started on Aug. 21, 2003.
Early on, Black experienced some technical problems with Bleacher Coaches. Enter Joshua Rhykerd, 23, a 1998 NBC grad and football teammate of Black's who also happened to be an information science major at the University of Pittsburgh. Black asked him to take a look at the site, and before long he "got addicted." Calling upon his considerable programming expertise as well as his creativity, Rhykerd used a newer version of the hosting software and then started customizing Bleacher Coaches, adding a variety of his own features that now give the site its uniqueness.
"My interest has mainly been in development and design," he said. "I'm a sports fan, but I’m not in Garry's league. I guess I'm a tech guy."
Some of Rhykerd's numerous innovations have involved tweaking the site interface to that it's extremely user-friendly, adding color and special graphics to make the appearance aesthetically pleasing, creating a special scrolling window of the most recent messages, and providing users with a selection of video games that can be played with "points" earned through posting messages.
The Black-Rhykerd partnership seems to have worked well since Bleacher Coaches has flourished since its inception. The month-by-month growth in the numbers of new users is impressive. Last August saw a total of only 69 members, but then the numbers took off: September, 172; October, 118; November, 220; December, 161; January 400; and by late February, 285.
What do people write about on the site? It's not much of an exaggeration to say just about anything to do with sports. The majority of topics and accompanying posts, though, relate to the local sports scene and change, of course, with the respective seasons. For example, one of the most popular subjects in recent months was titled "Who Can Guard Troy Harris?" referring to the junior guard from Bedford High School who led Bedford County in scoring this year. The topic had generated more than 200 replies by early last week, and the responses in turn had been viewed almost 5,000 times.
Another favorite "thread" which provoked a lot of interest was titled "What Will Happen Friday the 13th with Everett at Tussey Mountain?" Before long, 135 users registered their opinions leading up to and then following that highly anticipated boys basketball game.
As might be expected in Bedford County, there is an enormous amount of interest in wrestling - indeed, eight pages worth of topics, each with a series of comments responding to those topics - ranging from district, regional, and state pairings to the actual conduct of athletes on the mat to a discussion of the greatest wrestlers who competed at various schools.
In fact, some of the more recent debate has been fueled by Bedford Gazette sports columns.
Since so many sports fans live and die by scores, Bleacher Coaches has become a place for those unable to attend an event to get results. More often than not, as soon as a game or meet is over, a variety of members who have gone post scores. Although, as with many sites on the Internet, the precision can be sketchy. Still, fans can learn the outcome of a game sometimes hours before the results are available on TV or in the newspaper.
One of the best features of Bleacher Coaches, though, is its variety. In addition to the "Big Four" sports of football, basketball, wrestling, and baseball, there are forums for track, softball, tennis, volleyball, golf, cheerleading, and even band. College and pro sports also have areas where diehard fans can discuss and debate the latest scores, trades, and rumors. Finally, there is a highly entertaining forum called "H.O.B." geared toward "general chit-chat," non-sport subjects, and other good-humored nonsense.
For example, recent H.O.B. topics have covered favorite movies, jokes, video games, skiing and snowboarding, Super Bowl commercials, and the popular "The Person Above You Page," Wherein users form a chain of short, pithy comments about the individual who has just posted before them.
Although Bleacher Coaches concerns itself primarily with District 5 and 6 sports, recently Black created a forum for District 7 (the WPIAL) and District 8 (the Pittsburgh City League) since there has always been a strong local interest in these areas.
With so many topics and so many users responding to these topics, abuses are certain to occur, but Black, Rhykerd, and a team of dedicated "administrators" and "moderators" have been diligent in keeping the forums inoffensive. In fact, the overall high level of comments is admirable, particularly for an Internet chat board.
"As an elementary school teacher, I definitely wanted to keep the site clean," Black said.
Rhykerd agreed: "We wanted it to be a place where kids could come to safety and their parents wouldn't have to worry about bad language and other negative influences."
He installed a system that allows the administrators and moderators to edit and delete posts and to even exclude people who just seem to want to be vulgar or obnoxious. Thus, you will find no swearing and no personal attacks on Bleacher Coaches.
One interesting development has been that often the site seems to police itself. When someone comes across as mean-spirited or even just foolish, the critical responses calling for the individual to change the tone or stop posting are quick to follow.
The people who use the site are a varied and colorful group. The screen names themselves are a source of amusement, with Bedrock, BleacherBump, Cheerleadingkills, Dr. Funk, S Cube, Slapstick00, and WakesSissyPie just a few of the more than 1,400 titles individuals have chosen for themselves.
Both Black and Rhykerd are proud of what they have created, but they're also amazed at the site's popularity.
"It's a good feeling that we came up with an idea and then turned it into something bigger," Black said.
"We never imagined it would have grown to the size it has," Rhykerd added.
Those "regulars" you can find on Bleacher Coaches are both appreciative and loyal. One heavy user, who dubs himself "Southpaw," happens to be a local teacher and a successful coach in his own right.
"It's a great site for me because I value high school sports above all others," he commented recently. "I like it because of the other users who are as nuts or more nuts about high school sports than I am."
By far the most prolific poster on the board is "Gunner18," also known as Zack Stellfox, a Bedford High School senior and an accomplished soccer player.
"I use the site because I love high school sports and talking with others who feel the same way," he said. "Bleacher Coaches has provided me with a lot more friends and entertainment. It's very user-friendly, and best of all it's free!"
"Roadie" is Ryan Hale, a close friend of Black's who was instrumental in persuading him to start the site, even lending him some money to help defray start-up costs. Hale, a 2001 NBC grad, is a junior at Shippensburg University. In his spare time he volunteers as a moderator on Bleacher Coaches.
"Who would have ever thought that an idea like this back in the middle of August would have turned out the way it has?" he said. "The main idea originally was just to get a few local guys and gals talking about their teams. But as word spread and more people signed on, we've got users from all over."
He added, "We're also lucky to have several people that are athletic directors and PIAA committee members that can really provide professional information such as schedule changes and standings and the like."
Bleacher Coaches has been online for only six months, but Black sees the potential for continued growth. Recently he started a scholarship fund to be awarded in June to a local graduating athlete.
He and Rhykerd are also excited about the possibility of actually broadcasting sporting events from their own Web site. While the legalities and logistics are up in the air, the technology is already in place.
A step in this direction would probably necessitate getting a dedicated server to handle the increased bandwidth needed for webcasting. Presently Bleacher Coaches uses a shared server, which Black pays for himself. A dedicated server would probably cost $50 a month. While some money for this expense has been contributed by users, Black and Rhykerd are considering using advertising that would appear on the home page but not interfere with viewing the forums.
"With hundreds of visitors to the site each day, businesses would certainly get a big audience," Black noted.
"You can be sure of one thing," he added, laughing. "No one is making any money on this. But we're having a lot of fun."
Bleacher Coaches can be found online at BleacherCoaches.com. It only takes a few moments for new users to register. "Guests" can view forums, but only members can actually post.
Bleachercoaches.com is talk of Internet
By Mike Herncane
Gazette Correspondent
ROARING SPRING - For true sports fans perhaps the only thing better than attending a particular athletic event is the pleasure of talking about it afterwards.
With that in mind, two young men from Bedford County, using a combination of technical savvy and unbridled enthusiasm, have created "Bleacher Coaches," an online sports community that in a little more than half a year has attracted more than 1,400 registered users.
Garry Black, 22, a 1999 graduate of Northern Bedford County High School and a recent graduate of Penn State University with a degree in elementary education, came up with the idea of an Internet-based multi-sport forum after he saw the success of a former Web site.
"I saw that Cement Job attracted major traffic," Black recalled recently. "And that was just wrestling. I realized we could do the same thing for football as well as the other sports."
"Cement Job" was a Web site, no longer in operation, devoted to wrestling.
After a friend, Sean Jones, came up with the expression "Bleacher Coaches," Black bought the domain name and found a host. Originally the site was an "open-source" or public use community bulletin board package that he installed and then started on Aug. 21, 2003.
Early on, Black experienced some technical problems with Bleacher Coaches. Enter Joshua Rhykerd, 23, a 1998 NBC grad and football teammate of Black's who also happened to be an information science major at the University of Pittsburgh. Black asked him to take a look at the site, and before long he "got addicted." Calling upon his considerable programming expertise as well as his creativity, Rhykerd used a newer version of the hosting software and then started customizing Bleacher Coaches, adding a variety of his own features that now give the site its uniqueness.
"My interest has mainly been in development and design," he said. "I'm a sports fan, but I’m not in Garry's league. I guess I'm a tech guy."
Some of Rhykerd's numerous innovations have involved tweaking the site interface to that it's extremely user-friendly, adding color and special graphics to make the appearance aesthetically pleasing, creating a special scrolling window of the most recent messages, and providing users with a selection of video games that can be played with "points" earned through posting messages.
The Black-Rhykerd partnership seems to have worked well since Bleacher Coaches has flourished since its inception. The month-by-month growth in the numbers of new users is impressive. Last August saw a total of only 69 members, but then the numbers took off: September, 172; October, 118; November, 220; December, 161; January 400; and by late February, 285.
What do people write about on the site? It's not much of an exaggeration to say just about anything to do with sports. The majority of topics and accompanying posts, though, relate to the local sports scene and change, of course, with the respective seasons. For example, one of the most popular subjects in recent months was titled "Who Can Guard Troy Harris?" referring to the junior guard from Bedford High School who led Bedford County in scoring this year. The topic had generated more than 200 replies by early last week, and the responses in turn had been viewed almost 5,000 times.
Another favorite "thread" which provoked a lot of interest was titled "What Will Happen Friday the 13th with Everett at Tussey Mountain?" Before long, 135 users registered their opinions leading up to and then following that highly anticipated boys basketball game.
As might be expected in Bedford County, there is an enormous amount of interest in wrestling - indeed, eight pages worth of topics, each with a series of comments responding to those topics - ranging from district, regional, and state pairings to the actual conduct of athletes on the mat to a discussion of the greatest wrestlers who competed at various schools.
In fact, some of the more recent debate has been fueled by Bedford Gazette sports columns.
Since so many sports fans live and die by scores, Bleacher Coaches has become a place for those unable to attend an event to get results. More often than not, as soon as a game or meet is over, a variety of members who have gone post scores. Although, as with many sites on the Internet, the precision can be sketchy. Still, fans can learn the outcome of a game sometimes hours before the results are available on TV or in the newspaper.
One of the best features of Bleacher Coaches, though, is its variety. In addition to the "Big Four" sports of football, basketball, wrestling, and baseball, there are forums for track, softball, tennis, volleyball, golf, cheerleading, and even band. College and pro sports also have areas where diehard fans can discuss and debate the latest scores, trades, and rumors. Finally, there is a highly entertaining forum called "H.O.B." geared toward "general chit-chat," non-sport subjects, and other good-humored nonsense.
For example, recent H.O.B. topics have covered favorite movies, jokes, video games, skiing and snowboarding, Super Bowl commercials, and the popular "The Person Above You Page," Wherein users form a chain of short, pithy comments about the individual who has just posted before them.
Although Bleacher Coaches concerns itself primarily with District 5 and 6 sports, recently Black created a forum for District 7 (the WPIAL) and District 8 (the Pittsburgh City League) since there has always been a strong local interest in these areas.
With so many topics and so many users responding to these topics, abuses are certain to occur, but Black, Rhykerd, and a team of dedicated "administrators" and "moderators" have been diligent in keeping the forums inoffensive. In fact, the overall high level of comments is admirable, particularly for an Internet chat board.
"As an elementary school teacher, I definitely wanted to keep the site clean," Black said.
Rhykerd agreed: "We wanted it to be a place where kids could come to safety and their parents wouldn't have to worry about bad language and other negative influences."
He installed a system that allows the administrators and moderators to edit and delete posts and to even exclude people who just seem to want to be vulgar or obnoxious. Thus, you will find no swearing and no personal attacks on Bleacher Coaches.
One interesting development has been that often the site seems to police itself. When someone comes across as mean-spirited or even just foolish, the critical responses calling for the individual to change the tone or stop posting are quick to follow.
The people who use the site are a varied and colorful group. The screen names themselves are a source of amusement, with Bedrock, BleacherBump, Cheerleadingkills, Dr. Funk, S Cube, Slapstick00, and WakesSissyPie just a few of the more than 1,400 titles individuals have chosen for themselves.
Both Black and Rhykerd are proud of what they have created, but they're also amazed at the site's popularity.
"It's a good feeling that we came up with an idea and then turned it into something bigger," Black said.
"We never imagined it would have grown to the size it has," Rhykerd added.
Those "regulars" you can find on Bleacher Coaches are both appreciative and loyal. One heavy user, who dubs himself "Southpaw," happens to be a local teacher and a successful coach in his own right.
"It's a great site for me because I value high school sports above all others," he commented recently. "I like it because of the other users who are as nuts or more nuts about high school sports than I am."
By far the most prolific poster on the board is "Gunner18," also known as Zack Stellfox, a Bedford High School senior and an accomplished soccer player.
"I use the site because I love high school sports and talking with others who feel the same way," he said. "Bleacher Coaches has provided me with a lot more friends and entertainment. It's very user-friendly, and best of all it's free!"
"Roadie" is Ryan Hale, a close friend of Black's who was instrumental in persuading him to start the site, even lending him some money to help defray start-up costs. Hale, a 2001 NBC grad, is a junior at Shippensburg University. In his spare time he volunteers as a moderator on Bleacher Coaches.
"Who would have ever thought that an idea like this back in the middle of August would have turned out the way it has?" he said. "The main idea originally was just to get a few local guys and gals talking about their teams. But as word spread and more people signed on, we've got users from all over."
He added, "We're also lucky to have several people that are athletic directors and PIAA committee members that can really provide professional information such as schedule changes and standings and the like."
Bleacher Coaches has been online for only six months, but Black sees the potential for continued growth. Recently he started a scholarship fund to be awarded in June to a local graduating athlete.
He and Rhykerd are also excited about the possibility of actually broadcasting sporting events from their own Web site. While the legalities and logistics are up in the air, the technology is already in place.
A step in this direction would probably necessitate getting a dedicated server to handle the increased bandwidth needed for webcasting. Presently Bleacher Coaches uses a shared server, which Black pays for himself. A dedicated server would probably cost $50 a month. While some money for this expense has been contributed by users, Black and Rhykerd are considering using advertising that would appear on the home page but not interfere with viewing the forums.
"With hundreds of visitors to the site each day, businesses would certainly get a big audience," Black noted.
"You can be sure of one thing," he added, laughing. "No one is making any money on this. But we're having a lot of fun."
Bleacher Coaches can be found online at BleacherCoaches.com. It only takes a few moments for new users to register. "Guests" can view forums, but only members can actually post.
Last edited by bison1 on March 1st, 2004, 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you so much Mr. Gardill!
We are also getting more pub at http://www.bedfordtalk.com/index.php !!!
We are also getting more pub at http://www.bedfordtalk.com/index.php !!!
Make sure you Like BleacherCoaches.com on Facebook! Make it easier for us to reach you!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches
http://www.facebook.com/bleachercoaches
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Townshipwrestler
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 451
- Joined: December 19th, 2003, 1:24 am
- Location: Conemaugh Township
wow, awesome article, its still amazing to me that a site this huge was started less than a year ago, its really taken off an i applaud all that were involved in creating it, great job everyone
thanks for posting the article, never would have seen it out here in somerset county
thanks for posting the article, never would have seen it out here in somerset county
Wrestlers" The best kind of people in the world. The cockiest,dirtiest, most irresponisble group of athletes in the universe. Will get with any broad and come back and tell all his buddies about it. Will booze at least 2 times a week and pretend they are still dedicated. Not afraid to live the dream untill they are 35 then realize they never made it anywhere. Ladies Love us. Guys want to be us. We are the soul of the universe.
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AUSTIN_22:22
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 505
- Joined: November 13th, 2003, 9:59 pm
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Captain Coveman
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 513
- Joined: October 28th, 2003, 3:48 pm
- Location: The Ugliest Town Around