Koach's Korner on eLynah

Anyone ever ask Mike Schafer if he'd respond to, say, a half-dozen questions a week from this motley crew here? I'd love to know if it's true that Scott has to wear a one-size fits all jersey, what Schafer personally thinks about fish on the ice, if once he's seen the replay of Gleed's hit what he thinks of the player and the call, etcetera.

(Yeah, I can't stand made-up K-word alliterations, either. Couldn't help myself here.)

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

I'd love to know if it's true that Scott has to wear a one-size fits all jersey[/q]
I already answered that and I, unlike some people, don't talk out of my ass.

As for getting Schafer to answer questions, athletics would probably have to acknowledge ELynah.com exists. I wouldn't hold your breath over that.

somebody on athletics is certainly skimming these posts; after an innocent comment that i would like to stand in O if it were possible, we had 3 different officials come over to us during harvard warmups to "remind" us that it was not a student section and we had to sit once the game started...in 30 minutes.

-mike

I don't doubt that. I meant officially acknowledge.

so sad, my ISP is harvard.edu now

[Q]A-19 Wrote:
so sad, my ISP is harvard.edu now[/q]Hmm... hey Age, you created a filter that changed B-a-b-y to Bâby and another that blahblah-ed all of Facetimer's posts, any chance you could make one that changes harvard.edu in Mike's ISP line into sucks.edu?

Lines are blurrier now than a generation ago ago as to what "accredited media" means if one wants to go to a press conference and pose questions. For national events, the accreditation process often excludes hobbyist or enthusiast sites (welovebritney.com won't get reviewer passes for her concert), but nobody is kicking uscho.com out of the press box.

Sounds as if the athletics department knows about elynah but doesn't like its independence.

Yes, I can. However, it would, perhaps, not be the best use of my time

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:

Yes, I can. However, it would, perhaps, not be the best use of my time[/q]And when has that ever been an obstacle to you?

There's a long history of bad blood which certainly came to a head with the hockeycam thing. I guess athletics doesn't like it when ELynah does a better job covering things than they do.

Laura definitely had it out for me. When USACH Magazine was looking for a Cornell reporter, I volunteered to do it for free but she wouldn't stand for it, so they ended up with no one covering Cornell. Now that she's gone I was hoping to bury the hatchet and hopefully get on better terms. I guess time will tell on that front.

As an aside, I was shooting in the corner of the rink by the Zamboni door in the first period of the Harvard game and eventually got chased by Phil. The only other time I've ever been chased at a college hockey event was at an NCAA first round game when I actually had photo credentials, but that's a different story. Every other rink has pretty much let me shoot wherever I wanted. Apparently some hackles were raised over this, which I find hypocritical. If Lynah wants to keep the Zamboni end restricted, they should perhaps make some effort to define the restricted area and the restrictions. There is no signage, delineation, or consistency. There is certainly at least one person with the credentialed photographers who is not. I have no problem with that; I have a problem with double-standards. I'm going to look into getting photo credentials and I'm perfectly willing to make sure no one will see any Cornell apparel on me when I'm shooting in the corner. I can be professional about it. It remains to be seen if they can, too.

If there is any question about the legitimacy of ELynah, I'd like to point out that ELF is averaging 15,000-25,000 page loads per day. Thanks to everyone who posts, because a forum without content is about as useful as, well, yanndanis.com. In addition, I'd be happy to start providing USCHO with photos again if athletics can treat me with a modicum of civility.

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:
[A] forum without content is about as useful as, well, yanndanis.com.[/q]Which, by the way, is still alive and well.

I have heard from a CHA Board Member that Schafer reads every word that is posted here so he knows exactly what opposing coaches are seeing. Not sure if I buy it, but thought it was relevant to this thread anyways.

If you're the coach, I think you'd want to be aware of what's being said about you and your team.

If you're the coach, you might mention in passing to a candidate that not only is Lynah full-full-full for every game, but look at the support - the hockey boosters, the wanna-be-like-the-varsity intramurals being played by so many students, the vibrant web site.

And if you're the coach, you probably wince every time there's some stupid or assinine posting because it makes Cornell look bad. Maybe you're trying to recruit a kid whose family is close-knit and church-going; you have to think twice about mentioning eLynah knowing there's some sophomoric language. Not that posters here should censor themselves but they should be aware they're part of the Cornell image. In Schafer's heart of hearts, every time the TV camera pans the crowd at a Cornell-vs.-someone CSTV telecast, he hopes the people wearing Cornell hockey jerseys look like they stepped out of a J Crew ad, not like Danny DeVito's stocky niece and nephew. Which come to think of it would be one more reason for selling game-worn jerseys in sizes others than Large.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
In Schafer's heart of hearts, every time the TV camera pans the crowd at a Cornell-vs.-someone CSTV telecast, he hopes the people wearing Cornell hockey jerseys look like they stepped out of a J Crew ad, not like Danny DeVito's stocky niece and nephew. [/q]
Dude, have you seen some of the recruits' families?

Beeeej

At the Everblades tournament, we sat next to the Carefoots and his girlfriend, and I think she's the kind of person who would have made a good TV impression wearing a Cornell jersey.

Far more so than me. Scott's jersey on me would be more like a nightshirt.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
At the Everblades tournament, we sat next to the Carefoots and his girlfriend, and I think she's the kind of person who would have made a good TV impression wearing a Cornell jersey. [/q]

Better, I hope (or at least different) than the one TBell's girlfriend made at Lake Placid. Unless we want the players' girlfriends to be collecting dollar bills for the program.

Beeeej

[Q]CowbellGuy Wrote:I'm going to look into getting photo credentials and I'm perfectly willing to make sure no one will see any Cornell apparel on me when I'm shooting in the corner. I can be professional about it. It remains to be seen if they can, too.

If there is any question about the legitimacy of ELynah, I'd like to point out that ELF is averaging 15,000-25,000 page loads per day. Thanks to everyone who posts, because a forum without content is about as useful as, well, yanndanis.com. In addition, I'd be happy to start providing USCHO with photos again if athletics can treat me with a modicum of civility.[/q]

In theorgy, media credentials would be easier to come by if there's a view (like, say, the home page) that is news- or analysis-related, to make it even more obvious that the site has a pretty solid aspect beyond the forums and the historical databases. OTOH you'd think that at one of the seminal universities for raising the visibility of the Internet (the generally well-known story about how Bill Gates heard of the intensive use of the Web at Cornell about a dozen years ago that had previously slipped Microsoft's mind and that got Microsoft to Webify everything it did), that it'd be obvious that online is every bit as legit as print, radio, and TV. You'd think.

It would also be pretty powerful if eLynah posted its own deadline-driven game story, since USCHO seems to be a no-show so far this year in terms of live coverage and the Sun and Journal don't post online until they've rolled the presses.

Of course, if I was Cornell athletics and thinking about enhancing the fans' media experience with hockey, I'd also be figuring out a way to stream a Webcast back from Munn Ice Arena. The game is already on TV, only the coverage by Comcast of Lansing is for Lansing Michigan, not Lansing NY.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

In theorgy, media credentials would be easier to come by [/q]
And I'd apply for one. Does this have anything to do with what Beeeej was talking about?

really i sit in O and never have seen that happen.. i do recall the problem when other teams fans came and stood all game and started quite a rucuss.,.

It's been a long while since I was in the Lynah press box so it's hard to say how readily you'd come by credentials. If someone is writing a game story or analysis that shows up in a timely fashion in an identifiable media outlet that's not a backwaters operation, then fine, you should get credentialed. (So I say.)

How amenable is Cornell athletics to new entrants onto the media scene? Cornell, remember, was the last of the Ivy League schools to admit women to the football press box, but that was 30 years ago (although Mike Teeter was a goal judge then, so it can't be that long ago). The SID at the time said with a straight face (to the annoyed woman from the Crimson trying to get in), "No women in the press box," even as a couple of athletic department spouses were sitting there inside keeping warm from the cold weather. (President Corson more or less single-handedly changed that rule the next Monday when the Crimson used that as its game story. It was not good PR for Cornell.)

If you're writing a legit game story -- and eLynah appears to be a legit site -- I don't see why you shouldn't be credentialed. It would help if it's a timely posting, meaning that night. (A period by period writeup / analysis would be even cooler.) I think I mentioned in a separate posting that the site might want to be recast so the homepage has some newsy aspects to it, but that's a choice the site has to make -- does it want to recast its look just to get one or two people in Lynah with press passes?

I don't think whether the athletic department likes your media outlet or not should enter into the equation. (Otherwise there'd be almost nobody from the media allowed into a Bush press conference.) At the press table, one tries not to cheer for the home team, although you can still say "Amazing shot!"

If you want a place with a table in Lynah just to take notes and then post something at midweek, you may have a tougher time getting credentialed.

If someone says you have no journalism training (if that's the case), ignore that argument. Journalism is nothing special other than trying to get your facts straight and make it interesting. My motto has always been: If journalism was tough, it wouldn't be journalists doing it.

Good luck.

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

billhoward Wrote:
In theorgy, media credentials would be easier to come by [/Q]
And I'd apply for one. Does this have anything to do with what Beeeej was talking about?[/q]
I was talking about something?

Seriously - huh?

Beeeej

 

___________________________
Beeeej, Esq.

"Cornell isn't an organization. It's a loose affiliation of independent fiefdoms united by a common hockey team."
- Steve Worona