Sports Overtime Philosophy 2009

Sports Overtime is back for a second season at a new time on Mondays at 6 p.m. We'll still be on ESPN Radio 1560 AM KZQQ, and we'll make every effort to stream it on the Internet live, and we're going to try and archive each week so you can listen on demand. If you missed the official release on the athletics web site yesterday, here it is.

And, please take the time to listen to the commercial that will be running on the Radio Abilene stations soon!

However, once again using the less formal outlet here on the blog, I wanted to share my thoughts on Sports Overtime. I was in Abilene last year; I was a guest host a couple of times, but other than that I wasn't able to listen because of my grad school class last year. I'm not sure the format of the show in the past, but I wanted to let the McMurry fans know what to expect this year.

The radio show was actually in the works while I was still the SID at McMurry the first time through (Jan. 2006 - June 2008). It was something I really wanted to do and had wanted to do for a long time. I've wanted to do a radio show in Abilene that really covered local sports.

For the 2007-2008 school year, we tried the Abilene Universities Sports Report. Al Pickett hosted on Wednesdays following his show, and ACU, Hardin-Simmons and McMurry all got 20-minute segments. Other than the fact that it wasn't really advertised by the station itself, I thought it was a pretty good show throughout the year. However, without ratings and a way to stream it on the Internet, we were never sure if we reaching an audience at all.

Along the same lines, McMurry's Sports Overtime this year will be a show that covers local college sports. That doesn't mean that we won't stray sometimes and cover a big issue in sports, but likely it would have to be a story that directly affects the local colleges in some way, or someone closely connected with one of Abilene's three universities.

Our local television stations, newspaper and local radio shows do a good job of covering local sports. But also, they cover regional and national news. Sports Overtime will make every attempt to be exclusively local. There will be times during holidays and during the summer where there won't be much college news to talk about, so we'll be flexible then. But, for the school year, there are plenty of stories to go around.

So enough rambling, here's how I envision what's going to take place on the show this year. It is a McMurry sponsored show, I happen to be the McMurry Sports Information Director, so if all else fails, McMurry athletics will get focus.

However, every week I plan to touch base with the American Southwest Conference (the conference that includes Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, McMurry, etc.) and get stories from around the conference that are pertinent to local fans. I also plan on touching base with the Lone Star Conference (the conference that includes Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, Angelo State, etc.) for any pressing stories as well.

Then, I want to do a segment involving HSU and ACU. My initial thoughts are to include a "Getting to know the Athletes" where weekly I interview a selected athlete from each school and their head coach; sort of like a mini-feature on those players.

From there, we'll cover McMurry with interviews and insight from the weekly happenings at the university. Then if we have time, we'll open phone lines for comments and answer emailers questions or twitter questions.

I think it will be a different and exciting show and hope that McMurry fans, and really Abilene sports fans to engage in the show and support it. Hopefully we can build an audience that is interested in the local colleges' sports news each week.

That being said, the first show is Aug. 17 and we're going to do it live from the press box at Wilford Moore Stadium. At 8 p.m. that Monday night, McMurry will be having its first full-pads practice in preparation for the 2009 football season. It will be an exclusive football show, we won't allow callers and head coach Hal Mumme along with defensive coordniator Joe Lee Dunn will be guests. We will mix in a few players during the show too. It should be a good way to kickoff the second season.

Please stay tuned with the McMurry web site for more information, and remember that the show airs locally on the home of McMurry sports: ESPN Radio 1560 AM KZQQ.