Dell’s column- Nov. 26th
Written by: Dell Jackson on November 26, 2020
Dell’s column Nov 26
Another year….LLhoops enters its 21st year of covering the LL. We are ready to roll and hoping the teams/players get to display various skills this season. The LL is suggesting a 17 game limit. The Mid Penn is going with 18 games and no playoffs.
Last season…Lots to talk about here. Check out this link for Dell/Andy’s season wrap zoom.
On the site end, we continue to grow our viewership. Unique followers and total page views were at another all-time high. We participated in the PA writers all state boys teams and have them posted here. Between Andy’s (@AndyBrackets) and LLhoops (@llhoops) twitter accounts, we are over 5k followers. Our Facebook page (LLHoops) draws in viewers to our live-stream games, and each year we are gathering more likes and followers. The Youtube account (LLhoops) is steadily growing as well (we look to improve in this area as we are doing more video this season). Please subscribe to our YouTube account. Finally, we live-streamed both the girls and boys LL finals last season. With over 4,000 views, we considered the production a success.
Live-stream….we are in the process of purchasing some equipment in order to produce some games this season. The schedule will change quickly, but we should be good to go if we are allowed into the gyms due to spectator restrictions, and we can hop on the school’s wifi. Since the schedule will probably be in constant flux, we will announce the game the week of our coverage. The goal is to cover about 6-8 regular season games and try to get coverage of the LL finals, if they have the games.
Press Break…a new feature on LLhoops for this season – featuring Rocky Parise, Andy Herr and Dell Jackson. The goal is to have a “show” once a week once we get in full swing mode. We will talk about things around the LL, past games we covered/witnessed, and have some guest join us. Special thanks to Spooky Nook Basketball for being our major sponsor for the production. Also, thanks to Dessie Jackson (@DessieJackson) for the new Press Break banners. The first session is here.
Schedules…Currently the “old” schedules are posted. We will adjust when we get the “New” ones. We have been informed that this might take a few weeks. AD’s have to figure out who can play when and deal with multiple issues as they try to cobble together their non-league schedules. The LL league games will begin in Jan. Stay tuned.
Rosters….We will post rosters as we receive them. With teams starting practice at various times, the rosters will take time to appear on the site—-but we WILL get this done with the help from Ad’s and coaches:).
Changes…We will have a tab somewhere on the menu for Press Break. The Facebook and Twitter icons on the main page will take you to LLhoops accounts. On a single page, the Facebook and twitter accounts will allow you to share the content from your own accounts- we love the attention. The sponsor tab is now scrolling down the page- we might or might not change this. However, each sponsor is linked to their website. Please thank and consider these businesses for your business.
Interviews….thanks to all the coaches that joined us the past season for a zoom chat. We had a lot of interest in the posts of the interviews. You can search by typing in the name of the coach in the search bar on the bottom right or use the page arrow also near the bottom of the page. We will try to get some more coaches and perhaps some players on in the future. Here is an example- Charlie Fisher Man. Central
Beats…will remain about the same. The Northeast is manned by Jon K and Phillip (coverage of both boys and girls in the great NorthEast). Andy and Dell will continue with warps of games they covered. Coach Goodling and Eric Thomas will be joining us on the live-stream. Delaware Beats by Curtis W will be posted throughout the season. Bruce Badgley (Berks Beat and @BadgleyBruce / @small_play) is using SmallPlayer/Big Play app to bring various contest for viewers. The application/product is a good way to help fund high school teams. We are looking for an llhoops girls beat writer- the pay is terrible but the followers are great:)
LLhoops store….we now have LLhoops masks for sale (probably player of the game gifts so we can interview the players after the live-stream game). Also, several styles of LLhoops t-shirts are available to purchase. We can hand deliver to a game we are covering if you want to save of the shipping- trust us that the shipping costs are just that. 🙂 We can also burn CDs and/or sticks of the LL final games.
Web design- LLhoops customer
Design and upkeep …Thanks to Ed Weaver at Circle W Sports for updating the pages and setting up our site to update team pages, standings, and scores. For those of you in charge of running websites, you will appreciate all the behind the scenes that are necessary to keep things running smoothly (SSL, SEO, spam protection, marketing, updating, server issues etc..)
At LLhoops we use 3 different servers (one for email and keeping our name, one for content, and Circle W for rosters/schedules/standings).
Sponsorships…Thanks to all who are helping LLhoops this season. Our current sponsors are on the side bar of each page. We purchased new video equipment this year, so can always use more help. We have several packages available- individual pages, slider on all pages, sponsorship of Livestream games, sponsorship of player of the game, re-tweeting of business content, and, hopefully, sponsorship of the LL finals. Email us for more details (webmaster@llhoops.com).
Let the games begin…when they begin, you can count on LLhoops being there.
Mask up and keep your distance:)
~Dell Jackson
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
