In late December of 2007, I discovered the Buffalo News blog, Prep Talk, a blog devoted to high school sports in WNY. At first, I would just check it out periodically by following a link that promoted it after reading a high school sports article online. It wasn't long before I was leaving the page up and clicking the refresh button to see if a new comment was left.
During the first week of January, I decided to chime in on the discussion. I wanted to use a catchy basketball moniker, so I went with "centercourt". While I consistently look for a good seat in the middle of the gym, I chose centercourt because during Buffalo State week I'm always in the same front row seat, right where the center court line ends.
Not long after leaving my first Prep Talk comment, some guy calling himself "hoopster" responded to me. From that point on, I was hooked. Prep Talk stays on all day, the refresh button gets a workout, and after games, I head to the computer to see what the rest of the Prep Talk Nation is talking about.
Keith McShea is the best in the business and because of him, Prep Talk developed a serious following. Over time, McShea has added features to his blog such as online polls, iphone video from key moments, live chats, live chat coverage of championship games, and PrepTalkTV. Because of all these features, coupled with his journalistic pedigree, Prep Talk will and should always be the king of online high school sports coverage in WNY.
Unfortunately, because of inappropriate and offensive comments left anonymously, the Buffalo News changed its web site policy to require all who comment to register in advance of commenting. Even more unfortunate is that Prep Talk is by and large a victim of comments left outside of the Prep Talk Nation. "I'm proud to say that while we've had hiccups here and there, the majority of commenting by Prep Talk Nation has been productive as we've tried to cultivate a responsible online high school sports community here" McShea wrote on his blog in August. The resulting change has been a noticeable decline in reader comments, analysis, debates, banter, and general participation that helped Prep Talk to surpass three million hits.
So now with basketball season quickly approaching, I felt the time was right to re-establish a forum of reader comments similar to the one fans, parents, players, coaches, etc., had grown accustomed to. Here, you will see recent comments and be taken directly to them by clicking on them. You can post a comment using your real name or a moniker, simply by leaving an email address. Comments will be posted immediately, without being screened first. However, any comment I deem inappropriate, vulgar, or offensive will be removed.
I encourage all of you to continue visiting the Prep Talk blog and if you haven't already done so, registering and leaving comments. I look forward to a winter full of high school hoops talk and hope everyone feels compelled to participate on some level. I'll see you at the games, where I'll be sitting…
– centercourt
Leave a Reply to Peter CalieriCancel reply