Last week I was having lunch with a group of national journalists while on a trip to Wahington, when one of them wondered out loud why I didn't do a blog entry every day, especially, she said, since they were so great.
It was nice, of course, to have my blog praised by such a well-known and respected journalist, but more to the point: why don't I write a daily blog?
The answer, I told her, was that I actually do: I spend at least two hours in an average day responding to questions from MomsTeam readers, enough to probably fill three blog posts; but, because I send them via e-mail, they don't technically qualify as blogs (web-log).
When I explained to my journalistic colleague how I spent my day, she suggested that I put all that great advice up on the web, instead of just sharing my expertise in private with MomsTeam readers and with other journalists, mostly when they are on deadline writing their own articles or blogs!
It turned into an "Ah ha" moment.
After all, I wouldn't have spent the last twelve years living and breathing youth sports 24/7 - not to mention the thirteen years before that as a coach, community activist, and sports parent to triplet boys, and the years before that as an athlete - if I didn't think I had something worthwhile to say!
That MomsTeam has always been able to stay ahead of the curve, to be able to see where youth sports are headed, to spot and report on the next big trend, has made us the trusted source to which youth sports parents have turned for information and advice since the turn of the century (sounds funny just to write that!).
Perhaps it is because I have been at this for so long; perhaps it is because I approach youth sports from the perspective of a mother; maybe it is because of the hundreds of e-mails I get every day or what comes across my Twitter feed; or an ability to connect the dots sooner than many, or all of the above, but MomsTeam's track record in reporting on safety issues (concussions, overuse injuries, sexual abuse of boys in sports being just three) and the latest concerns of today's sports parents before - and in some cases, as with concussions, long before they hit the radar of the rest of the media - is something about which I am very proud.
So here's my New Year's Resolution: I am going to try my best to post a blog every day. I'll select some of the best questions I get via e-mail and my responses - often based on input from our wonderful team of experts, researchers, and writers - and post them (with confidential, identifying information stripped out, of course). I hope you will share them with other parents, coaches and administrators.
And, in return, I ask all the journalists who read my blog and who send me e-mails to make a New Year's resolution as well: a promise to at least consider giving me or MomsTeam credit when you learn something from my blogs and use it in your own articles or blogs.
