The easiest, and by far lousiest, way to go about this column would be to cut it off after one sentence and leave you all with a brazenly, unapologetic plug for this site’s podcast, but I’m neither that bold, nor so reductive.
The first programs that personally come to mind, when I think of tougher teams to follow, are the varsity swimming and diving programs. This should probably be considered an interesting take. After all, the swimming and diving program routinely provides ACC Network Extra streams at its home meets, as do the men’s and women’s tennis teams and their similar streams on YouTube for most home games. When you consider a sport like golf, which only has rare access to television or streaming, such as the ACC Championship, the NCAA Championship or the very rare invitational tournament – and we’ll get to that in a moment – or cross country and track and field, which receive almost no media coverage, it might be strange to start my mental list with the swimming program.
I spent a lot of time at the swimming pool. I mean, one plot time at the pool. Sure, a lot of that time was in the water, but it was also elsewhere around the building, like organizing the club’s swim team storage unit or attending meetings. I admit that sometimes it was cool to take a look at the club’s national championship banner when they first put it up – I couldn’t believe it was actually real. Over the years, I eventually discovered that just sitting in the pool press room, with its many outlets and always-available counter, saved me a lot of time looking for a place to study and walk around campus.
I spent a lot of time at the pool. Hell, I met my future wife at the pool.
I participated in many swimming competitions, out of interest, proximity and because, several years in a row, my friends and I were timekeepers. A few years later, even though the same conventional methods of observing the team exist, a distance has set in, especially now that most of the athletes close to me at school are gone, but even more so that it n There is no longer the same proximity to achieve this. to the campus rec center for a weekday meeting, or something.
Am I saying that in order to build an audience for a program that might interest you, you have to spend years of your life in close proximity to the time, largely by chance? No, that would be completely impractical. What I recommend, however, is to try to attract an interesting team in a live environment. For many programs, this can be done with as little as a subscription that gets you access to ACC Network Extra, like YouTubeTV or ESPN+. New viewers of volleyball, baseball, softball, or basketball can expect commentary and score charts, which help a lot with context. Of course, some games have higher production quality than others, like conference games, but the professionals who reliably broadcast technical teams do an excellent job of providing context to players and coaches’ decisions. game, and often have either longevity or gaming experience, or both, to provide useful information. For baseball, volleyball, and women’s basketball, the respective radio teams do a phenomenal job, and having a technology-centric perspective allows for a tremendous amount of information not only specific to the sport, but also related to technology.
I freely admit that other sports can be more difficult. Of course, a quality opponent or high-stakes match helps build interest, or even the chance that the event will be watchable, and all it takes is a brief flashback to prove it. Looking back at the month of June, golf-related discourse and content quickly increased thanks to the combination of championship stakes and a television feed for multiple back-to-back events. And yet this slight rise concerns a team that has spent little more than a brief period among the top ten in various golf polls and math rankings over the past decade.
Tennis can be tricky. There is understandably little PA content during matches, given the unsynchronized action in singles and doubles, but there is a relatively detailed video board if you attend a match in person. It’s also worth noting that college tennis gets incredibly loud, making it easy to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a match and pinpoint when – and where, while multiple courts are in action – something important is happening. product. Between the two teams, there are dozens of home games to potentially attend, if you have the time and are in the area. Even athletics has annual dual meets during the outdoor season, and these usually span entire weekends, allowing flexibility around another sporting event or occasion in town .
That really only leaves cross country, and I freely admit that it can be difficult to get a feel for a team’s dynamic in that particular sport, given the lack of streaming and match options. home. This is where reading scores from events or results pages from sports new to you can be helpful, as well as ramblinwreck.com and other recaps. Come to think of it, reading box scores and results pages is a topic we’ll definitely be returning to over the coming months. In addition to summaries and results, other sources of statistics, national stories or conferences, surveys and rankings may also be useful. Sometimes there is not one simple option, but between multiple sources one can perceive a broader context.
During the pandemic lockdowns, I couldn’t go to the swimming pool. Instead, I bought a tennis racket for the first time in years, traded in the wetsuit and goggles for a pair of running shoes, and attempted to combat a general lack of skill on links, a sport that I knew absolutely nothing about before. the experience of playing, going out and moving around. Looking back, did playing the sport provide context for the specific performances of the Tech team? No.
At the very least, it provided a little more perspective on the sport in general. And for that, I suppose I find it useful, even when I post a 110 on golf or a double fault for a point in tennis. But I’ll definitely leave the competition to the experts.
Event of the week
Golf at the East Lake Cup: 10/30 – 11/1 — 3:00 p.m., Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Georgia (Golf Channel)
I noted in the column that we would return to golf, and indeed, it is the event of the week. The East Lake Cup begins Monday, with one day of stroke play and two days of match play. With Tech set to take on the other three Final Four finalists from last season, the quality of competition couldn’t be better. Golf can be difficult to broadcast due to the many holes and simultaneous or near-simultaneous action, and it is a fairly rare treat to find it on television. With the extremely high level of opposing talent on display, now is the most ideal time possible to tune into Tech on the links.
Dashboard
Swimming & Diving vs. Florida State (10/19): Men: L, 151.5-148.5; Women: L, 160-140
Volleyball vs. Duke (10/20): F, 3-1
Volleyball vs. North Carolina (10/22): F, 3-1
Women’s tennis at the ITA Regionals (10/19-10/23): Individual competition, Full results here
For more details on just about all of the above, check out this week’s Southland Scions podcast.
Let me know what you think of the new format below. If you have any suggestions for future goals, leave a comment below or send us an email at [email protected].
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