Checking In / Any Ideas?

With the local hockey scene done, and baseball just kinda gettin rolling... and due to my sporadic posting of late, my I see this blogs hits are taking a "hit" lately. Can't blame ya... not much to read about over here these days. But there are still a few faithful readers out there, so I figured I'd hit the refresh button.

- I took most of last week off as kind of a "post-hockey break." Branded calves at the farm last weekend, spent some time in Stoon, and finally some house hunting all day Saturday. Want to get into an affordable housing market? Don't come to Yorkton. Seriously!

- Not doing my regular website checks as often last week... I just noticed tonight (SUN), that the new MJHL team in Steinbach, did infact shed itself of the Blades' name, and the Steinbach PISTONS will begin play in 09-10. Didn't roll off the tongue the first time I said it, but it's like anything, you'll get used to it. Steinbach's a big "car town," so I figured the name would have something to do with the auto industry. Voice of the OCN Blizzard Jamie Smalley tells me the Blizz will announce their new Head Coach Tuesday morning. How they let Doug Hedley go after last season, and with the amount of guys coming back this year is absolutely beyond me, and as an outsider I'd like to say B.S., but I don't claim to know the ins and outs of what went on up there. To me it looked like a big stab in the back to Hedder, who was the first coach I worked with as a radio guy in Dauphin in 2005-06. I was sad to see that for sure.

- My Saturday night was spent at St. Mary's Cultural Centre for the 3rd annual "Football Night in Saskatchewan." I've attended the event the last two years, I think everyone will agree it does get bigger and better every year. It's a fundraiser for the Yorkton Pee Wee Football League, and SO many people work their tails off to make the night happen. I can't name everyone, but kudos have to go to YRHS Raiders' Coach Roby Sharpe. He's one of the many brains behind the idea, and I know for a fact Sharpe-Dawg enjoyed himself again this year. The Saskatchewan Roughriders are always generous donating auction items and of course supplying the keynote speakers. This year we were treated to one of the best Riders ever, runningback George Reed, President & CEO Jim Hopson, OL Gene Makowsky DL Chunky Adams and DL Luc Mullinder. Also gotta thank my boss Lyle Walsh. I wondered why Hopson and Reed were looking lonely with a bunch of empty chairs around them at the head table. They wound up auctioning off the other 8 seats... and the GX94 (Lyle) table was the high-bidder, and we got to spend the evening with those gentlemen. Also had a big gift basket full of Rider goodies at the head table, most of which I swiped (yes, I'm the grubby on-air guy!). Fantastic food by the way... kind of a given being made by the gifted Babas at St. Mary's! Thanks as well to Preeceville Panthers' Head Coach Jason Boyda for the beer! I've grown pretty tight with that team the last couple years, having called a provincial game on the air in each of the last two seasons and MC'd their banquet in February. They went to provincial final last year, falling to Clavet, but they bring back a lot of guys, so hopefully 2009's the year... and hopefully you'll hear the championship on GX94. Congrats to GX94's Randy Atkinson on another job well done as MC of this year's Football Night. I enjoy doing those gigs, but I never complain about watching someone else do it... just means more food/drinks for this guy. I got some audio from Hopson, Reed, local Rider Cheerleader Brittany Thies, and Hamilton Tiger-Cat and Yorkton product Jordan Matechuk. Look for those interviews on the blog and on GX this coming week.

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Since this site's only getting MAYBE a third of the traffic it was getting during hockey season, I'll pose this question a few times in the coming months. I was actually proud of myself for actually sticking with this for what's been close to a year now... I really thought it'd run its course and die out. But I still wanna make it better and increase viewers for next season... even starting with Cardinals/Millionaires baseball (but probably mainly hockey season... I'll tell you right now I'm off from July 23 - August 10, so I won't be seeing as much WMBL action this summer).

But back to the question... is there anything else you'd like to see on the blog? More of? Less of? I'm open to any suggestions... you're the viewer/listener afterall. I'm thinking of adding more video for the hockey season. I think audio/video is what makes it worth reading. Anyone can write up game summaries from the SJHL or MJHL website and preview games with stats that anyone can see on the same sites. However not everyone can take a microphone and camera to 80 out of town games per season... so I wanna keep doing that and adding to it. As far as the template (backgrounds, colours, etc)... blogger.com has a pretty good selection, but nothing's THAT flashy... I honestly like my current colours the best... but I might get bored with it and relaunch a new look in the summer/fall. I still haven't made one red cent off this little project, and don't plan to, but it's fun, so might as well make it worth while.

Please do comment!

CS