Programming Note

I am back to my normal schedule which means a normal schedule will resume here shortly. To round out the rest of April (and the beginning of May) I've moved around my daily posts a bit.

Monday - NFL Draft Averages Recap
Tuesday - Nittany Lions in the Pros
Wednesday - Around the Interwebs
Thursday - NFL Draft Analysis
Friday - NFL Draft Averages Recap
Saturday - Penn State Update
Sunday - Phillies Update

Later today I'll be publishing my final (for real this time) look at former Penn State players in the pros. The last position to be analyzed is quarterback.

Tomorrow (and for Wednesday's throughout May) will be my weekly Penn State football link dump where I highlight what has been going on "around the interwebs".

Starting Thursday will be my draft "grades", where I will attempt to say how I think each team did in the 2009 NFL draft. There will actually be two "grades" for each team. More information on how I am "grading" will be available on Thursday. Up first? The AFC East, naturally.

Friday's (and Monday's) I'll look back on my NFL Draft Averages to see how my predictions fared by position.

Over the weekend will be regularly scheduled PSU Update followed on Sunday with a quick Phillies Update.

Of course with NLIPs ending today, things may be shuffled again soon. Stay tuned.

Programming Schedule, NFL Draft Tomorrow

I have taken a trip back to my hometown to enjoy the draft with my family and friends. As I do many other things outside the realm of sports during my trip, posting will be sporadic. The normal updates for Friday through Monday will NOT be available. However, I will be active all day Saturday in conjunction with the NFL draft. I will be having a LIVE BLOG here at Sports Fountainhead, where you can get immediate draft updates and my flash judgments. I'll be posting my mock pick, who I think they should pick based on what has happened so far, and then what actually happened. The draft starts at 4 PM tomorrow and the first two rounds will most likely take 6-7 hours to complete.

So stop by Saturday afternoon and evening for real time draft updates and analysis if you can't watch the draft live! Hope to see you all tomorrow!

The LIVE BLOG will be conducted with the Cover It Live software, allowing for audience comments as well as polls, pictures, and video!

A Few Good Men: Looking for Bloggers

As you all have probably been aware, I have been holding down this place all by myself for the last 8 months or so. While my other contributors have been lazy with something called work and/or graduate school, I have been trying to provide some form of content to the massive (read: few) readers that this site draws in. What slackers!

Until I came up with a monthly schedule (and actually stuck to it) Sports Fountainhead was registering months with only 11, 13, and 8 posts. Unacceptable. I'd love for the site to be averaging three or more posts a day with a goal of close to 100 posts per month. Though I have maintained a decent pace the last few months it won't last forever. That's where maybe you come in.

I'm looking to add one or two bloggers to provide content daily. Ideally I'd like to add someone with a passion for hockey because that is one thing that I don't keep up with on the site. I'm a big Flyers fan but Penn State, the Dolphins, and the Phillies get most of my attention. Let's do a list of wanted/requirements for a new blogger, it's easier that way.

• Daily posting - I want someone that will contribute at least once per day. That's ~30 posts/month. It can be a simple but informative link list like my Around the Interwebs, a game review, or a researched post. Whatever. Just some content that the readers will enjoy.
• Love of sports - If you're here I assume you already qualify. Why else would you read someone rant and rave about future draft choices or how much they hate New England?
• Previous experience NOT REQUIRED - When I started this blog I didn't have any previous experience. I just knew I had my own opinions on sports topics and was interested in statistics. You don't need to have previous published writing experience. As long as you sound intelligent in text you'll do fine. Steely McDonati stretched my limits at times but if he can manage anyone can... just kidding Steely.
• PA/northeast focus preferred - I'd like to keep this space centered around northeast sports but that isn't a dealbreaker. It might be interesting to have a contributor writing about the ACC or SEC.

Simple. If you are looking to spend an hour a day writing for a sports blog, drop me an email at sportsfountainhead@gmail.com. We'll get into more specifics then.

Of course E, TAS, JRAFF, and Steely are all welcome backat any time... i guess.

Where have I been?

No, I don't mean about posting. I clearly haven't taken a vacation; posting has been pretty regular around here of late.

What I mean is, what sporting events have I been to? This exercise was really for my historical reference to reminisce about all the tings I have done in the sports world.

However, if you're interested to see the games I've been to check out the right sidebar under the schedule and you can see what sporting events I have attended. It is limited to football and basketball right now but I hope to add hockey and baseball soon.

I've limited it to professional and collegiate matches. I could go on and on about all the lower level events I've seen. I have attended probably more than 30 Reading Phillies games and close to 20 Reading Royals games.

So check out where I've been. Eventually I'll have my thoughts on some of the games up and any pictures I may have from the event.

Taking It All In While I Still Can...

...because Sunday at 8 PM it's all over.

The Phillies host the Braves in the regular season MLB opener. Though they still are the defending champions, we can't dwell on the past. It's 2009; a new year.

I didn't do too much during the offseason to honor my favorite baseball team so I've taken the time now. For the next week or so the banner will be dedicated to them.

Don't worry, a sweet PSU banner will be back shortly. You may have even gotten a sneak peek at it today.

New Monthly Schedule: April

Well I think I've done pretty well over the last six weeks. After posting a combined 32 times from November through January, I managed 39 in February. This is the 47th for March. Set schedule are goooooood.

After writing about the same things for the last month and a half, I've decided to make some changes. April brings to mind two things (to me at least): the NFL draft and Phillies baseball. The former will be the focus of many of the daily posts.

Below is a description of each of the daily features.

Mondays - Mock Draft Update: I have two primary reasons for moving this to the first work day of each week. First, this allows me a week off to do some more analysis for my own mock and also decide if I want to expand the expert comparisons and, in turn, the ADP. Second, I feel moving my mock to Monday will generate more traffic. Let's face it; on Friday's - the old day for the update - people are focused on the weekend. Then the weekend comes and the mock update gets buried. Hopefully this will make my mock more prevalent. Perhaps I'll even get some comments and/or suggestions!

Tuesdays - Nittany Lions in the Pros: Yep, it's back! Though I finished chronicling the positions in which former Penn State football players are hoping to make an NFL roster this summer, there are a few left to examine. Starting a week from tomorrow I'll examine former Nittany Lion Ps, TEs, RBs, and QBs.

Wednesdays - NFL Draft Averages: Hey, a new feature! This weekly installment will actually run twice a week in order to examine all positions. What I'm going to be publishing here is 10-year draft averages for each position and what it means for this years prospects.

Thursdays - Around the Interwebs: This will be the standard PSU football update complete with links and my analysis. This will be much more in depth this month thanks to the presence of spring football.

Fridays - Phillies Update: And finally something other than football. This post is pretty self-explanatory.

Saturdays - Penn State Update: Football is at the front of our minds here at Sports Fountainhead, however we respect all of the sports Penn State has to offer. While this post will include football news the focus will be how other Nittany Lion athletes performed the last week.

Sundays - NFL Draft Averages: This was covered above. I have to post two updates a week or I won't cover all of the positions prior to draft day (April 25th).

So there's the new schedule. Hope you enjoy the new features!

Some Site Updates

• I will be a guest blogger for the new Phillies site Macho Row this weekend. Macho Row is spearheaded by Kevin McGuire, who also operates Nittanydelphia.

• Only a week remains for the month of March. A new schedule for April - starting next Wednesday - is being created right now. There were be shuffling of item days, changes or suspensions of an item or two, and the introduction of at least one new item. Being the month of the NFL draft, expect more features on that subject. Plus baseball starts!

• I'm actively looking for guest bloggers to do a feature pretty much at any time. The topics, for now, will be focused on baseball, the NFL draft, or the Flyers. If you operate a sports blog associated with general professional sports leagues or one that focuses on one of the teams covered here, send me an email or leave a comment below.
  

New Monthly Schedule: February

In order to get myself to post more than twice a week I have decided to create a set schedule. With a set schedule I believe I can manage to make at least one post per day about sports. The schedule highlights the daily feature and each day, Monday through Sunday, has something to offer. I'm starting this right away and already kicked off the weekly installment of Around the Interwebs. Descriptions of each feature can be found below.

Mondays - Nittany Lions in the Pros: I have already done three of these but will do the remaining six each Monday through March. The first three were defensive backs, defensive ends, and fullbacks. Next up are kickers.

Tuesdays - MLB Update: This baseball update will focus on teams most important to the contributors and site readers, generally the Phillies, Pirates, Yankees, and Mets. If someone wants me to cover another team just leave a comment for me.

Wednesdays - Around the Interwebs: This is a Penn State football roundup for the past week, gathering posts and news from blogs and broadcast media. If you'd like to send a tip on a specific post or news item, leave a comment or send an email to: sportsfountainhead@gmail.com.

Thursdays - NFL Update: Pretty much the same as the baseball post, general news and information on specific teams. For football they will be the Dolphins, Steelers, Jets, Giants, Eagles, and Cowboys. Again, if you want me to look at someone else (like the Ravens or Redskins) leave a comment.

Fridays - Mock Draft Update: Obviously this one will be changing come May but for the next 2.5 months I hope to update my personal mock draft, highlight others from "experts" and bloggers, plus post about player draft stocks. This will be spread out over multiple posts.

Saturdays - Penn State Update: Football is at the front of our minds here at Sports Fountainhead, however we respect all of the sports Penn State has to offer. While this post will include football news the focus will be how other Nittany Lion athletes performed the last week.

Sundays - NCAA Football Update: College football is big business. I'm going to (try) to add to it. This will be much like the baseball and pro football updates and, most likely, be FBS and Big Ten laden. I have my biases, sue me.

Well that's that. I hope this works out. At the beginning of each month I'll update the schedule and outline the daily features. Through at least April I doubt many of these features will change. Hope everyone enjoys the upcoming items!

Contact Information

Email: SportsFountainhead@gmail.com
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Sports Fountainhead Gear

UPDATED: 3/23/2009

Bloggers

• J Mays - Site founder and primary contributor. Penn State alum.
  
• E - Contributor. Penn State alum.
  
• Steely McDonati - Contributor. Penn State alum.
  
• TAS - Contributor. Penn State alum.
  
• JRAFF - Contributor. Duquesne & Kutztown alum.
  
• A - Contributor. Michigan alum.