Let me tell you where I have been. I started my own news organization in the end of October. Daniel and myself decided to start Fluco Blog and we have had tremendous success.

Fluco Blog covers all things Fluvanna County, “Fluco News. All of the Time.” Daniel has owned the website address for a few years now. I always wanted to write but didn’t want to write on other people’s schedule. I wanted to write when I wanted to.

Hence, Fluco Blog.

It has been exciting so far. We have 416 fans on facebook and many local news organizations use material we have whether it is a RT on twitter or using our copy. We are quite excited with what has happened so far.

I also have increased hours at Strong Team Realtors. When I get home, I just want to play XBOX, go the gym then cover a story. After that, get some time with my girlfriend on Skype then bed. Doesn’t leave much time for a well developed blog post.

I need to make time for a well developed blog post and I plan on doing that. 2009 was the year of the Zebra for Daniel, well maybe 2010 will be the year of the BAR.

That sounded better in my head then it did when I read it.

You know what I mean. I hope I can provide insightful information you enjoy. Here is to 2010!

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Today, Sept. 13, 2009, is my second anniversary with my lovely girlfriend, Sarah.  She is quite special to me.  She does take a quite special interest in this website and frequently comments how she is not the subject of many posts.  Here is a post dedicated purely to her and only her!

She did notice my reasons I love my brother that I posted for his birthday. For our anniversary she recommended I do the same for our anniversary! Easy enough, we have been together two years, so I just need to do two reasons I love Sarah?!

I could do that, but again, we know this website is for raising the bar.

Here are 24 reasons I love my girlfriend (one for every month):

1. She is one of the only people that will let me make fun of her then she responds with, “I love you.”
2. Whenever I am in trouble, there is ALWAYS a way out. It might be as simple as telling her my love or as complex as taking her to Jersey Mike’s or Jimmy John’s.
3. She loves sandwiches, which rubbed off on me. Nothing like stopping in to pick up a good sandwich.
4. She is from Boston. While I always said I wanted to fall in love with a Southerner, she took my heart.
5. My family loves her, more than they love me.
6. She thought SD in our football pool meant South Dakota and not San Diego.
7. She asked me how to make a stall shower get the water to come out of the shower head while water was flowing out of the shower head.
8. She was convinced that “instopped” was the opposite of “outgoing.” I couldn’t stop laughing for weeks. In fact, that makes me smile still.
9. She loves baseball, although she is a Red Sox fan, it could be worse. She could be a Yankee fan.
10. She takes things in stride. While she only has one eye, she plays tricks with me on our friends! It is so funny watching their faces when she hits her finger nail against the fake eye!
11. She cares as much about my best friend as I do.
12. Even though I was really busy in college, she never held it against me, even when it did cause some scheduling problems.
13. She likes weird music. Sometimes it is really, really annoying. Other times she has shown me some really great music.
14. She thinks her stuffed animals are real and have feelings. When I hang them, it causes many problems. (Refer back to number two)
15. One time I hung her stuffed animal from a hook in her room. When she went to break it, I told her it cost me $10. She reluctantly didn’t break it. The next day, she noticed I had 10 of those same hooks. She thought I spent over $100 on hooks! “Bry, those hooks can’t be $10.” “No kidding kid, why would you think…nevermind.”
16. For her birthday last year, she let me buy “her” an iPod Touch [for me] while she got my three year old iPod. She just wanted the storage space and loved that it holds all of her weird songs.
17. She calls her house and leaves messages for her dog. She also tells me that the dog talks to her. I don’t doubt it does.
18. After I started calling her, “kid,” she didn’t know what to call me. She went through, “adult, big kid, etc.”
19. After I started calling her, “Sar Bear,” she again didn’t know what to call me. Convinced that the only thing rhyming with “Bry” was fly. She also said it was a good fit because I annoyed her.
20. One time when I made her mad, I said, “Sar, remember a time when we were in love and you were nice to me?” She responded, “Bry, you keep talking about this love thing. I can’t ever remember that in our relationship.”
21. In the car she leans her head on my shoulder. I always give her a kiss on her forehead. She promptly raises her head. She said once, “Whenever I want a kiss I put my head on your shoulder.” I responded, “Whenever I want you to get your head off of my shoulder I give you a kiss.” She laughed harder than I did!
22. She is super tickleish. When I tickle her, she makes up excuses why I can’t, “I just ate…I’m about to eat…it is late…it is early…I don’t feel well…this will wind me up…it hurts and I laugh when I’m in pain…etc.” None of them are true.
23. She knows how to get anything out of me. “Bry…” works every time. Sadly, she knows of this power.
24. She is her, unique. If you ever met her, you know she is quite unique. If you ever met me, you know she is perfect for me. I just try to be perfect for her.

There you go. There are 24 reasons I love my girlfriend. There are many more, but here is a few that come to mind frequently. She is special to me and I love her dearly. I’ll see her this week for the first time since the first week in July!

So this is to year two complete. I’ll see you, Web 2.0, Sept. 13, 2010 to celebrate another year down.

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The reason I bring this to attention is because I learned a few things here and there from Berry. He was the beat writer for High Point University sports. We bumped into each other here and there. Sometimes we were fighting over interviewing players after games, other times we were sharing a table as we ate in the hospitality room of a tournament.

I really never spent a lot of time talking to Berry. Sure I knew who he was. He always got first pick of players and coaches after games. By the time I got to the head coach, the gym had cleared out and Berry probably had written half of his copy.

When I learned of Berry’s death, I remember two instances of interaction with Tom, the reporter.

The first was after HPU played Winthrop at the Millis Center. This was the second time High Point had beaten Winthrop this year and second time in a row at home. The series record stands with HPU only winning four games.

Earlier in the week Gene Harris, active career points leader, was suspended from the team for the game. The whole school population knew why. Harris was mad he lost the starting job to a freshman. Still, a reporter had to ask head coach Bart Lundy for the reason.

After the game, Tom and the beat reporter for the Rock Hill, SC newspaper grabbed the star players from the game. I really lucked out because that left Lundy available. I got the first crack at asking the burning question, “You won without Harris, why?”

I started with the basic questions about how he felt about the game, what were his thoughts down the stretch, etc. Then when I got to the burning question, the other reporters all were done with the players. So there I was, conducting the impromptu press conference.

“Coach, what is your comment on Gene Harris? Why did he not dress?”

Tom stood on my left, the Rock Hill Herald reporter on my right. They quickly jot down the answer. When I was done, I stood nearby to hear if they asked any follow-ups that I missed. Tom didn’t. He had the answers he needed. It was like he gave me a pat on the back. A vet in the industry thought I did the job well. (Read my article here)

The second instance of Tom putting a mark on my journalism career came at the Big South Tournament Quarterfinals. HPU, the last seed, played at Radford, the first seed. It was a blow out. (Read my article here) I think Tom, me and a few fans could have put up that performance. While High Point fell 20 points behind, Tom started writing his column for the paper.

We struck up small talk about the season. We discussed the problems the team had. The Harris incident came up along with a few other player problems during the year. I would add a thing or two that Tom didn’t know. He asked, “What happened with [player x]?” I asked him, “You want the story the team says or what I heard through the grapevine?”
“The grapevine.”

I told him all the dirty secrets that weren’t supposed to get out. I just thought we were having general talk. I am a moron!

The next day I went to compare how Tom’s article was to mine. I noticed his column in this search. The “grapevine” suddenly extended to the High Point Enterprise readership. (Read Tom’s column here)

I learned something, “When you speak to a reporter, he is always a reporter. It never turns off.” I used that same logic when a sandwich maker made small talk with me about the Oak Hollow Mall being for sale. She told me insider information. I broke the story, a week before any daily had it. I sat on the story for two weeks before that too.

When I was writing it all I thought about was Tom and mine “grapevine” talk. It gave me the ok to write the article.

Thanks, Tom. May God give comfort to his wife and daughters along with the many professionals that remember Tom Berry, 48 of High Point, NC.

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I could show another post of the same poor writing, but I’m moving on.  I’ve thought about how I could make a community newspaper better.  What would I do if I were editor for three months?  Could I change the way a community newspaper operates?

Of course I could!  Would they listen?  That’s the million-dollar question.  The advantage I have is I worked on a “community newspaper.”  Working on the Campus Chronicle is like working on a community newspaper.  We came out biweekly (which is every two weeks incase you want to argue, look it up).  We had to deliver news that was old, that people most of the time already knew.  With those problems, we still grew readership this past year.

What we did was study the paper.  We studied how people consumed the news.  We studied our readership.  We studied how we worked.  We kept studying until we figured out a way to correct our ills and continue our strengths.

If I were in charge of a paper like the Fluvanna Review I would implement some changes that would grow the paper.

1. Stop reporting news two weeks old acting like it is still fresh.
When reporting a community event two weeks after later, it isn’t news.  No one cares because they were there or know someone that was there.  Readers don’t care what amusement rides were there.  Do you have a responsibility to report it?  Yes.  It isn’t that you report it, but how you report it.

Why not use the power of a feature article?  Follow a family at the event.  What did they like?  Why did they like it?  What didn’t they like and why?  Answer those questions.  Everyone knows it happened.  Tell me why we should care that it happened.

2.  Report news online unless it is a big story that is timely.
You have a website!  The website doesn’t need to be a static page that changes every time your paper comes out.  At the October Associate Collegiate Press convention a presenter said something that really stuck with our news staff.
“If you have a website you no longer come out every time a paper comes out.  You come out everyday, every minute, every second.”

That is something that seems much more simple than it is.  The mindset to understand this concept is hard to achieve.  It took us the whole year and the Chronicle doesn’t still use all of the capabilities it can.  It is a transition with definite progress.

The easiest way to transition is to remembering your paper comes out every second.  We started with the sports section.  Game reports take an hour to write after the contest is completed.  Grab two players and the coach of the team you are following.  Bam.  Upload and you just had a new issue of your paper.

Small changes in the sports section, leads to small changes in the rest of your newsroom and big changes at your paper.  Every reporter wants to be published.  Seeing your name in print whether online or paper is a rush.  Other writers will want to be published more often on the web.

3. Make the website easy to use.
Because some community websites think, “We want a website like other news organizations.  We just don’t want to pay a lot so we will find the cheapest, easiest [for us] way to do it.”

That ain’t working folks.  You don’t have to spend a lot to have an easy to use website.  $150 per year and one time fee of $100-200 can get you an easy to use website.  Go to Wordpress, find a good theme from a developer and get a server.  Most bloggers pay this and they get a lot less exposure than a community newspaper.

4. Always be willing to evolve.
Times are a changing.  That means so is a newspaper.  Do you have to get a Twitter account?  No.  Should you?  Yes.  Do you have to get a Facebook fan page?  No.  Should you?  Yes.  Should your website have RSS?  Yes, that was a stupid question.  Should your website have internal AND external links in EACH story?  Yes.

I believe I conveyed the idea.  Just because it has always been done doesn’t mean it is still correct now.  I use to always call my parents if I were out past 9 pm.  It doesn’t matter now because I’m 21.  Newspapers need to grow up too.

I only suggest four changes, four rather easy changes. At the Chronicle, our website grew hits and we became meaningful every week instead of every issue.   Everyone thought I was crazy when I suggested a Twitter page.  We got one in February and by April our advisor said that was a really smart move.  He said, “Man, you were right.  This Twitter thing is huge now.  We had one before everyone and their mom showed their Twitter URL on everything they could.

These changes did effect our paper edition.  Instead of our papers sitting on the stands for months, they disappeared, in a good way.  Our stories were interesting because they went in depth to the news item.  Students actually cared about what they read when six months prior they could careless if our paper even existed.

Don’t make your paper be a waste of time and money.  Make it meaningful.

Here are a few examples of my changes displayed at the Campus Chronicle.  Of course, the examples are all my work because this is my blog and I’m a shameless self-promoter.

Sorority recruitment.  We ran two stories, the news item and a feature.  The feature had about 100 more reads online and the paper disappeared quicker than any paper we ever had.  We think it was this story, but who knows.

Game Reports.  Here is a game report that came out the same night as the game.  We tried to get all reports out by midnight of the same day.  People wake up and read the story.

Website.  Here is the Campus Chronicle website.  Pretty easy considering it is College Publisher.  The biggest problem I have with CP is the backend is incredibily difficult to navigate.

Twitter.  Here is a Twitter account.  For the Student Government Association Presidential Debate, which we hosted and moderated, we live tweeted the whole thing.  We also live tweeted during basketball games.  Guess who did that…

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Here is the cover of the July 3, 2009 Fluvanna Review

Community newspapers are vital to many neighborhoods across our great land.  If it were not for community newspapers, some locales would never be covered.  People love reading what is happening not only across the country but also across the street.

Community newspapers are also important for journalists.  One of my favorite reporters started at a small community newspaper in Queens.  Mitch Albom’s first article was about a parking tickets hearing for the Queen’s Tribune.  I once read, which I can’t find currently, he went there looking for the who, what, when, where, and/or how of his story.  And he reported it, even if it was just parking tickets.

The reason I bring this up is because my favorite newspaper comes every Thursday.  I get my community newspaper, the Fluvanna Review, from my cubbyhole and read it cover to cover.  I love reading what is happening “across the street.”

The thing that pains me the most from my community paper, as well as other community newspapers, where did the journalism go?  Where was the who, what, when, where, and/or how?

An article this past week violated the same rule I violated the first time I wrote an article.  Instead of a parking ticket hearing, this story was covering a school board meeting.  The writer took the logical writing style but the illogical reading style.  The dreadful style is telling the meeting chronologically instead of by importance.

By reading the article (full disclosure: I did not attend the meeting) I would say the most important issue talked about was the last thing in the article.  The district superintendent and two citizens discussed the International Baccalaureate program.

The article’s headline has the IB program listed first in it!  This proves one of two possible problems.  Either the editor incorrectly identified the most important subject or the writer buried the subject.  I think the latter.

The second most important subject, employee salaries, has played itself out for at least a month in the public interest.  It led the story because it happened first in the meeting.  I only think it should be second because it seemed pushed into the meeting, not planned for.  The board has discussed salaries at previous meetings and this was just “beating a dead horse,” for lack of a better term.

It could go either way though.  The salaries could go first and the IB program elimination second.  Either way, they are the two most important subjects and deserved “top of the fold” treatment.  (Unfortunately, the Fluvanna Review doesn’t have a cross fold in it, but you get what I mean.)

The problem of the chronological style is it doesn’t keep interest.  Readers don’t want to feel like they were at the meeting.  Readers would read the meeting notes and agenda if they wanted to know what transpired or they would just have attended the meeting.  You read the article to know what you missed.

The simplest way to think of it is to imagine you run home to tell someone the story.  What do you tell them first to make it seem interesting?  Are you going to lead with the meeting started promptly at 7 pm, like this article did, or are you going to talk about how eliminating the IB program is welcomed by many?  Will you talk about how the school board is defending the salaries of many employees?

There is a reason why the inverted pyramid has survived millions of articles.  Use it.  You think Mitch Albom went to the parking tickets hearing thinking he would receive more sports writing awards than anyone else?  You could become him too.

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Daniel and Kari asked for people to comment on the blog entry Daniel used to break the news.  With that came 38 comments! And no, I didn’t leave a comment.  Why?  Because I’m too good for comments!  I raise the bar, not answer to it!

That is where this post comes in.  This one is for you Lil Zebra (and Daniel and Kari too).  This is my open letter to my future niece/nephew.

Dear Daniel and Kari’s child,

I’ll tell you what.  Your parents’ little announcement of your pending birth really ruined millions of jokes I had about their lack of children.  But there couldn’t be a better way to ruin jokes than to have the jokes end by bringing in another beautiful person into the world.

Your parents’ announcement pleased many in our family because we have lots of love to share and have waited some time to share it with you.  You have people that will cook, entertain, teach you, you teach us, help you through life problems, share life’s joys with you and many, many more things.  Our family might be a little unconventional at times, but hey, name one that isn’t?  We sure have fun at doing it and will always have the love.

And don’t you worry, love will come in bundles from me.  I have a few promises I have thought of for you.  Why, you might only be in your first trimester, I still can make some promises to you.

I promise you that no matter how far we are away from each other by domiciles, we will be near each other in thought.  Visiting you will be fun, I might even make time to see your parents too!

I promise you, an addendum to the first promise, I will try to make as many of your life changing experiences as possible.  I don’t know how far we will live away from each other, but I will try my hardest to make it like we are 10 steps away even if we are 10 hundred miles apart.

I promise to play you in whatever technology games whenever we can.  Let’s face it, your parents, especially your father, will always want the newest games.  If they don’t, I’ll be on your side to persuade them, or whatever else you want to persuade them on (except not anything that brings a permanent change to your body and/or relationship with your parents).

I promise to also play with you outside.  Throw a baseball/softball, take a walk, ride bikes, whatever.  We can’t always be inside; every now and then we have to go outside.

I promise to be whatever you need and the greatest uncle you could imagine.  I guess that’s kind of an open-ended, all-inclusive promise.  Good thing I left it for last.  Maybe you don’t want me in play video games or walk outside or whatever.  I just want to make sure you can think of me, a smile comes to your face because I know when I think of your family, a smile will always come to my face.

I can’t wait to meet you and see you in January!

Love,

Uncle @HeRaisesTheBar

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This will be Cherry’s first time at the helm of a program and he becomes the 11th head coach in HPU. He was an assistant at University of South Carolina this past season. He also made coaching stops at George Mason, Western Kentucky and Tennessee Tech.

“Sometimes you just feel it is right and I knew it was right from the beginning,” Cherry said.

Keilitz outlined what he was looking for in a head coach including ethics, concern for the student athlete as well as a winner.

“He’s won every place he’s been, and that’s no coincidence,” Keilitz said at the press conference.

Cherry has never had a losing season in his 14 years involved in college basketball. He has been in postseason play in ten seasons, including a national championship as a player at UNC under Dean Smith.

He was an assistant at George Mason during their improbable run to the Final Four in 2006. Cherry also helped Western Kentucky march to the Sweet 16 in last year. This year’s South Carolina team made it to the NIT before being bested by Davidson.

Cherry admitted, “There’s big expectations and there should be. [Winning] can be done here. There’s no question about it.” He continued, “I want to win now and we are going to win now.”

HPU has only been to one Big South Championship game, which happened in former coach Bart Lundy’s first year in 2004. HPU has never made it to the NCAA tournament or the NIT. In the last ten seasons, HPU has won 18 or more games twice. Cherry has won 18 or more games in nine seasons.

The terms of the contract were not released but his contract is a four-year minimum deal with a buyout encouraging Cherry to stay the length of the deal. Keilitz said, “There is no way he’s leaving. I tell you that.”

Cherry takes over a maturing basketball team with everyone eligible to return except for Melvin Crowder. Gene Harris returns just nine points short of 1,000 for his career total. Nick Barbour is coming off of a stellar freshman campaign with Big South All-Freshman honors and averaged 14.2 points per game. David Singleton started every game in his first year with 4.8 assists per game.

On the post Cruz Daniels almost doubled his career points this past year while averaging 8.1 rebounds a game and blocking a school record 83 shots. Steadman Short averaged 6.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest. Jourdan Morris put up similar numbers with 6.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per clip.

Cherry will immediately begin searching for assistant coaches as well as spring workouts with the team.

More information will follow in the paper edition of the Campus Chronicle on Friday, March 26. You can listen to the entire press conference here.

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Bryan’s Bracket

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“Our desire and commitment to build a successful and championship-caliber basketball program are very strong,” said athletic director Craig Keilitz in a press release on www.highpointpanthers.com.

This past year HPU went 9-21, marking the second time in program history losing more than 20 games. In Lundy’s six years, the Panthers compiled a record of 96-87 overall and 48-46 in Big South play.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Gene Harris said, “We didn’t think this was going to happen at all.”

Lundy told the High Point Enterprise the move was “a surprise.” Returning next year are the team’s top nine scorers including Harris, Cruz Daniels and Big South All-Freshmen team member Nick Barbour.

The Panthers also expect to see redshirt freshman Corey Law and signed recruit Jairus Simms.

Harris also said, “(Lundy) really cared for his players on the court and especially off the court. It is a tough time for me right now and I know for a lot of the players.”

Lundy’s HPU-era started in 2003-04, finishing 19-11 and an appearance in the Big South Tournament Championship game. That year he was named National Rookie Coach of the Year by www.collegeinsider.com. The highlight of Lundy’s tenure came in the 2006-07 season going 22-10 and finishing second in the Big South.

Under Lundy’s guidance, the Panthers have had three players reach 1000 points while Harris is nine points away. Also, Arizona Reid and Danny Gathings earned three Big South Players of the Year awards combined. Both are HPU’s only NCAA Division I AP All-Americans. Gathings was named 2004 NCAA Division I National Sportsman of the Year.

Lundy previously coached at Queens and was an assistant at Queens and Winthrop.

Harris added, “I wish the best for coach Lundy, definitely. It is a tough time right now.”

Triad rival, Elon also made a coaching change yesterday firing Ernie Nestor. Both coaches were hired April 2003 and dismissed the same day.

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