Big Loss For SoCon - The Citadel

[SU DOG]

If it's true that Jeff Hartsell is moving from Sports to News at the Charleston Post - Courier. He did a wonderful job of covering(in particular) SoCon football. I remember him coming to Samford the first year we were in the conference. He will definitely be missed, but here's wishing him the BEST at whatever endeavor he pursues.

[Sandlapper Spike]

It appears there will not be a fulltime sports staffer assigned to The Citadel at The Post and Courier. For some time, its sports section has concentrated mostly on Clemson and South Carolina. This move just finalizes the transition away from covering local schools on a regular basis.

[catamount man]

This sucks. Always loved reading Hartsell's stuff. Man, the bigger schools win again. GO CATS!

[walliver]

One of the few sports writers who has much understanding of all the teams in the conference.

[dungeonjoe]

I am sorry to hear this. I suspect it was either move to news or lose his job. This is more about the death of newspapers.

[superman7515]

I am sorry to hear this. I suspect it was either move to news or lose his job. This is more about the death of newspapers.

Agreed, my mother is a retired reporter for Gannett and things have been going downhill for newspapers for some time as the internet gained market share. The News Journal, local paper in upstate Delaware with the largest circulation in the state, has about 1/2 the staff they did in 2007, as circulation is down about 30% over the last few years.

[chattanoogamocs]

The Chattanooga Times-Free Press does a great job of coverage the Mocs and SoCon (with 5 beat writers covering 5 sports regularly...Football (Stephen Hargis), Men's (David Uchiyama)/Women's basketball (Gene Henley), Wrestling (Ward Gossett) and Softball (Jim Tanner)

But between the TFP losing John Frierson last year and now Hartsell, it is a big blow to the reporter knowledge base of SoCon football.

Ironically, many UTC fans complain about coverage...they have absolutely no clue how good they have it. The TFP ran over 400 stories pertaining to the Mocs last year.

I really hated hearing the Hartsell was moving over to News. He was about the only sports reporter I read in the conference outside of the TFP.

[walliver]

Each market is different, and the Charleston Newsless Courier has the added burden of covering three mid-major D-I programs (The Citadel, CSU, and "The College") all operating in the shadows of South Carolina and Clemson. The paper also has a very strong bias towards the College of Charleston.

It is sad because local paper coverage is about the only press that FCS programs receive these days, as in all but a few areas, FCS programs operate in the shadows of P5 programs who get most of the airtime.

[kdinva]

One of the few sports writers who has much understanding of all the teams in the conference.

totally agree, very good at his profession.....

[Sandlapper Spike]

I am sorry to hear this. I suspect it was either move to news or lose his job. This is more about the death of newspapers.

That's true, though I have to wonder if further narrowing the scope of the paper's coverage is going to be helpful to the P+C in the long run.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Hartsell was one of the good ones. He'll be missed.

[CID1990]

The P&C has been an asswiper for years. This just firms it up


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[dgtw]

The Birmingham News used to have a guy with a designated FCS/DII beat. He would cover one and sometimes two games a weekend. He wrote articles every week highlighting a player or coach. He even had a weekly column dedicated to some issue relating to the smaller schools.

That, of course, is long gone along with my subscription to the paper. I did not drop it just because of that, but losing that was a sign of the overall decline of the paper as a whole. It now only publishes three days a week.

[ngineer]

It appears there will not be a fulltime sports staffer assigned to The Citadel at The Post and Courier.For some time, its sports section has concentrated mostly on Clemson and South Carolina. This move just finalizes the transition away from covering local schools on a regular basis.

Hasn't The Citadel's coverage been on the obituary page this past year? (;-) [that's for ol' Citdog]...

[citdog]

Hasn't The Citadel's coverage been on the obituary page this past year? (;-) [that's for ol' Citdog]...

Won more games than le high did in a league that doesn't feature powerhouses like georgetown

[Engineer86]

Won more games than le high did in a league that doesn't feature powerhouses like georgetown

Yep we play in a league that does not feature VMI or Citadel or Mercer. Tell us how strong the league is. I know how much you love reminiscing about the good old days.xrolleyesx

[catamount man]

I will say that Keith Jarrett from the Asheville Citizen-Times actually gave good coverage to WCU this past season. While he has always harped on the overall losing record, coaching turnovers, etc, etc, I thought he gave a respectable amount of columns for each home game with a couple of mid-week stories as well. Road game recaps were mainly AP, but KJ still managed to throw in a mid-week perspective.

Local d2 teams Mars Hill and Brevard are mainly in the "scores" section although MH will get the occasional story whereas BC gets NADA. One amazing thing is that the ACT has all but forgotten App State and did not, to my knowledge, write ONE article on App in their first FBS season. If they did, I missed it. (Although App gets GREAT coverage from the Winston-Salem Journal) As you have spoken of the downward trend of the newspaper industry, I do need to mention that both the ACT and the Greenville News(SC) are now owned by the same company with both papers being printed somewhere near Charlotte. Sad.

[ngineer]

Won more games than le high did in a league that doesn't feature powerhouses like georgetown

Pot, meet Kettle.

[CID1990]

Won more games than le high did in a league that doesn't feature powerhouses like georgetown

hah hah spot on

struck a couple nerves too i see

[Engineer86]

hah hah spot on

struck a couple nerves too i see

Glad you feel good about being in the bottom third of a week league. Beating VMI and Mercer annually is a great thing.

[FUBeAR]

Glad you feel good about being in the bottom third of a week league. Beating VMI and Mercer annually is a great thing.

Hey 86 - I can certainly appreciate you returning fire at the BaggageHandlers from Chucktown, SC, but do not much cotton to you trying to inflict collateral damage with your 2 shots fired at the Mercer Bears. Having lived in the Philly area for 6 years a while back, I know news doesn't travel well into the hinterlands of PA, so I thought you should know a couple of facts about Mercer, beyond their disappointing SoCon record and finish in the SoCon standings this year.

* Mercer took the #8 seed in the FCS Playoffs to the wire this year; only missing a tie in regulation by inches on 2 passes into the end zone in the final minutes.

* "...beating...annually" ??? - Mercer has played ElCid exactly once (this year) since 1931 and missed a tie in regulation of that game on a failed 2 point conversion attempt

* Mercer lost 4 SoCon games in 2014 by 1 score (-5 to FU, -3 to Samford, -7 to Chatt, -2 to The Citadel).

* Mercer is a 2nd year program, has had 1 class of scholarship recruits, and played this season with 1 SR, 9 JR's, 58 SO's, and 35 FR in the program (90% 1st and 2nd year players)

* Mercer played this season with just over 1/2 as many scholarship players as other SoCon teams

* Mercer had 7 players (4 FR, all 7 returning in 2015) named to All-SoCon teams, 1 fewer than last year's SoCon Champ (Furman) - VMI had 3 (2 returning) and ElCid had 5.

Yeah - the W/L record in the SoCon this year, Mercer's 1st in the SoCon, was not good...not good at all, but to 'present' the Bears as an annual league 'patsy' (as Georgetown and VMI have been) is just inaccurate and, though I hate to use the word, 'unfair' to the Players, Coaches, and Mercer Administration that are very early in the process of building an outstanding FCS program.

[CID1990]

Glad you feel good about being in the bottom third of a week league. Beating VMI and Mercer annually is a great thing.

I'd rather be in the bottom third of a week league than the bottom third of a weak league like the Patriot.

BTW your spelling is as bad as your math. We were in the bottom HALF, not the bottom third, which is where the #1 PL team would have been.

BTW congrats on trolling up War and Peace out of our resident Mercer inferiority complex.

[Engineer86]

I'd rather be in the bottom third of a week league than the bottom third of a weak league like the Patriot.

BTW your spelling is as bad as your math. We were in the bottom HALF, not the bottom third, which is where the #1 PL team would have been.

BTW congrats on trolling up War and Peace out of our resident Mercer inferiority complex.

Ok, lets make it all more accurate. I would rather be consistently in the top third of a weak league with one bad year, than consistently in the bottom half of a weak league hoping for a good year.

Sorry, I try to keep the resident "le high" troll occupied. Nothing really against Mercer, The Citadel, except that the facts show the SoCon is a shell of its old self, as is my team.

[citdog]

Ok, lets make it all more accurate. I would rather be consistently in the top third of a weak league with one bad year, than consistently in the bottom half of a weak league hoping for a good year.

Sorry, I try to keep the resident "le high" troll occupied. Nothing really against Mercer, The Citadel, except that the facts show the SoCon is a shell of its old self, as is my team.

You are not smart enough to know that this has happened in The Southern Conference many many times. Yet here we are still. The Southern WILL RISE AGAIN!