Meet your hosts

Meet the flag guys, Gary and Mike

Gary-
Ok, so I'm in the band and not the next Shep Harder, but I can pretend at least.
Class- 2002
Major- Geology, education minor
Favorite sports to watch- Football, hockey, soccer.
Other interests- Playing sports, music, community service

Mike-
Theater guy, hockey and football fan, caveman?

The squirrels bring good luck to Colgate's sports teams.  Here, 13 squirrels surround our Matt Underhill Cornell doll,  Colgate won all three games against them this year, coincidence?  Or too much free time?

The Story

It was a little over a week before 2000 hit us, and I was home on winter break.  I was also bored and missed my Colgate sports.  I already had a personal webpage that needed updating, but that wasn't interesting me anymore.  On a whim, I created a new webpage, a webpage for Colgate sports, one that would be by a fan, for all the other Colgate fans out there.  It was late Christmas day, that the Red Raider Sports Site was created.

To go back a little bit, I have always been a sports fan.  In high school I played a total of 4 varsity sports.  Every day I had a practice of some sort.  Even though I wasn't the most gifted athlete, I still was voted captain of my cross country team, and track and field team senior year.  I was also named assistant captain for the wrestling team.  Sports was in my blood, and over the years I have gotten a lot out of it.

I gave up playing for a varsity team when I came to Colgate, but still stayed fairly active.  Most of my sports energy was now devoted to being a fan.  My first game was a football game.  I was instantly hooked on Colgate sports.  Later on, I went to a women's soccer game, which I also enjoyed a great deal.  It would not take me long to find out that any time Colgate was on the field, court or ice, playing against another school, I would like it.  I had always been a fan of professional sports.  But soon began to prefer college sports to the big leagues.  Colgate is something I'm a part of, it's something you can cheer for.  The athletes are in it for the love of the game and the level of competition and skill is great.  Following Colgate sports also gives you a chance to sit right up close and enjoy the game with your fellow fans.

I have always had a lot of pride in my alma mater.  Even when I do not agree with some of the things Colgate stands for, or do not see eye to eye with some of the students here, Colgate was still my home.  I remember after hockey season started my freshman year, I would usually be one of the few people staying after the game to listen to the pep band play the Alma Mater.  A friend of mine asked me why don't I join them since I had musical experience in high school.  A few weeks later, and I was ready to play at my first game.  Pep band is a great way to contribute to the environment at the games, not to mention make some great friends and get to travel with the teams for some away games.

Pep band was where I met Mike, a fellow sports fan with a big interest in football and hockey.  Sophomore year, me and him would get together a couple of days before every football game and do a head to head analysis of both teams strong points and weaknesses.  We didn't have any audience for our opinions, other than the people who read my roommates website, where our final score predictions would be posted.

Over the winter break, this site was created and the first thing to be put up was a game by game review of the football season, from a fan's point of view.  Basketball and hockey were added a few days later, followed by what I saw as the highlight of the site, the message board.  This is the one thing that would bring Colgate fans together and give me and Mike a chance to share our opinions with a larger community.

Mike joined me in working on the site when school resumed.  I still did most of the writting,  but Mike helped me do a lot of the things that made the site look good and make it more interesting.  I remember it took us several hours, and holding two differnt Colgat shirts and hats up to the computer screen to find the correct "Colgate maroon" to use as our background color.

The site grew by word of mouth at first.  Showing it to a few friends, having it passed along, now about 4 months and 3000 visitors later, I can look back on the growth of this site and hope for it's future growth and improvement in the years to come.  One of the most important events in this sites growth, was its acceptance to the Yahoo directory.  Anyone who searches for Colgate University or Colgate sports will see a link to this site.  I also would circulate to other message boards and when I talked on them provided a link to this site.  As the hockey season drew to a close, many hockey fans from all different fan bases would look to this site to follow the Red Raider's campain.

That brings us to now.  I provided coverage of our spring sports teams with mild fan response.  The big news of the spring was the Golden Gates' I had a weekly fan quiz, and wanted to use it to have Colgate fans vote for the best this...or their favorite that....  I think it has gone pretty well, and showed me that fans witha  wide variety of interests view this site on a weekly basis.

So, what's to come?  I hope to continue to follow all the Colgate sports I can and provide coverage on this website.  Advertising is also an issue I want to work on this year.  One of my major goals is to get more people on the message board to talk Colgate sports.  When I originally started, I said that a good day was one where 5 different people shared thier thoughts on the board.  Well, that happened more than once, and I would love to see that number increase next year. 

Look for new pages to continue to pop up as this site grows.  I also hope to continue to build my network of sources so I can bring the fans more news quicker.  I hope to see some involvement from the atheletes as well.  This could be a site for them to advertise thier games, and talk about thier teams with the other fans.  An interview might be nice as well!  So, I hope you have enjoyed this site and continue to visit it in the future.  Remember, pass it along to your friends! 

                          Red Raider PRIDE!

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