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ILLINOIS WATER POLO |
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Tuesday - March 16, 2004
Donations Needed To Retain Web Site By Aaron Brown
Schaumburg, IL -- What has started as a decent web site for Illinois High School water polo has turned into an unbelievable resource. This past Monday, more than 1,000 people visited this web site to check scores, read stories, check rankings, and find out anything else they could about what is going on with high school water polo in Illinois.
As I sat watching the championship game at the Fenwick Tournament between Fenwick and Brother Rice, I couldn't help but feel that it was just as exciting as any high school basketball game that was being played that weekend. Yet when I checked the newspapers the next day, I saw a half dozen articles covering basketball and not even a mention of what happened on Saturday night at Fenwick. The scores were listen in the daily scoreboard and that was it.
If we are to continue to see this sport sustain the positive momentum it has gained in the past few years and continue to grow, then we need to get the maximum exposure for our players and teams. That is the main purpose of this site...to reward the players and coaches for all of their dedication and effort. Why should I sit around and hope that the newspapers pick up a story when I can take a more proactive approach and simply convince them to print information about water polo?
I would like to personally attempt to get as many stories printed in the local newspapers as I possibly can. Whether I get paid for them or not is not the issue; if the newspapers would be willing to help us hype up such a great sport then we may be able to convince other schools that may never have considered water polo to give it a shot.
The problem is, maintaining this web site has become a full-time job. Start editing, writing, and making changes around 11:00am, plan what games to attend and travel to one or two games at different facilities and take notes. Rush home to check phone messages, emails, and instant messages for scores and updates. Start updating the scores, records, and rankings while writing a few stories into the night, usually until 2:00am or so. Contacting athletic departments for scores from previous days the following morning. Sending and receiving close to fifty e-mails per day on average. Driving from Barrington to Fenwick on Friday night, then spending 12 hours at a tournament taking notes the next day. And I love every minute of it! But I don't know how long I can keep this pace up...the cost of web hosting, domains, travel, and the time spent volunteering can be very difficult when all is said and done.
I need your help! My mission is to ensure that the sport gets the proper coverage that these boys and girls deserve, starting with this web site and hopefully moving towards the newspapers. I will do everything I can to make this happen, but if I could get some assistance I would be greatly appreciative.
Any donations can be made to No Limit Water Polo, which is a not-for-profit organization. If you are interested in helping out or have questions, you can contact me by e-mail at illpolo@yahoo.com, by phone at (847) 331-6520, or by sending mail to:
No Limit Water Polo 2220 Briar Hill Drive Schaumburg, IL 60194
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AIM illpoloballer |
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Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved |