.

Although this blog began as a course assignment at Franklin Pierce University, its ambitions pre-date the class and will continue on after this semester. This blog is part of much larger messaging campaign that has been underway for some time. Coming into this class, content was not an issue. I was looking for another resource to help me craft my message, present it and expand it. Mission accomplished.

This course helped me lay the ground work for my overall message about what college club sports are, how they have changed over the past 30 years, how they will probably look in the next 20 and my own reasons for interest in this niche topic. Having a classroom environment to work in has helped me see through the eyes of people who don’t follow this topic and consider the readability for people who may not be familiar with acronyms, trends and sports of the non-NCAA college sports. The segment about maximizing SEO was also especially poignant for me as digital marketing is not my strong suit. Knowledge and skills like this to help me get the message out to up-and-coming athletes, parents, high school coaches, academic advisors and high school athletics administrators is what I was looking for and I got it.

Moving forward I hope to begin to write more posts that are “sport-specific” about the trends that are happening sport-to-sport as well as about the link between trends in K-12 and higher education, youth sports and scholastic and collegiate sports. Sports like pickleball, e-sports and flag football have seen exponential growth at the youth levels and are finding their way onto college campuses in the form of more sophisticated programs. Sports that do have established footprints in the NCAA and NAIA ranks, but on a smaller scale, are another segment that I intend to continue to highlight as growth opportunity seems to be in non-NCAA form.

In sum, before turning loose to my own devices from the assistance and guidance of our class, I would like to thank our Professor Alan Schulte and my classmates from the Franklin Pierce spring term EVN 357 class for their feedback and support. This was exactly the type of structured assistance and regimented class I needed to get this project underway.

Much more to come!

-Bob DeGemmis

P.S.

AS THE 2024-25 ACADEMIC YEAR COMES TO A CLOSE, HERE ARE A FEW FAVORITE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS PAST YEAR.

University of Texas Takes National Collegiate Pickleball Championships