Main Street Connect is a family of online newspapers. They currently have 51 towns in their online newspaper footprint, some of which overlap with the Fairfield County Basketball League footprint.

The verbiage below was directed to the MSC process, but the Patch.com process is virtually identical, so just modify the instructions accordingy.

In those locales, MSC would like to publish the game stories and photos (and video links, if you have them) from your travel basketball games.

(See the list below, of MSC locales)


The MSC contacts in Fairfield County are (You can choose either one)
                                          Tom Renner       or
                                          Eric Gendron  

The MSC contacts in Westchester County are (You can choose either one)
                                          Dannny Lopriore
                                          Tony Pinciaro    

There are a couple of levels as to how you can submit your write-ups to these MSC reporters:
 
i. Sending them just the game story text
 
       Most of you are already sending your local hard copy newspaper an occasional game recap.  If you include one of the MSC reporters above in that submission email, you are well on your way.
      
        If say, a Stamford author sends in a Stamford vs. Greenwich game story that only talks about the Stamford kids, then the story will go into just TheDailyStamford.com/sports.  However, if the author includes names (out of the score book) from the Greenwich side, then the story will probably go up on TheDailyGreenwich.com/sports as well.    
 
ii. Sending them the story and photos
     One of the big differences in online vs. hard copy newspapers is the lack of space capacity constraints. And that translates into the online guys really loving your digital photos.
 
     MSC, in fact, requires that all of their stories have at least photo. If you can attach some photos to your game write-up, then you’d really be cooking.
 
Here’s an example:
 
http://www.thedailystamford.com/sports/football-club-u-14-premier-soccer-wins-two
 
     If you do not include a photo in MSC submission, then Tom/Eric will resort to a couple of different options
        a. They will go to your team’s FCBLhoops.org Pictures webpage. If you have posted photos there from games from earlier in the season, they will download those,
 
        b. If you have no photos, then they will go download a photo from someone else’s team (maybe one of your town’s other teams, or a photo from last year’s FCBLhoops.org  Season ) and just use it as a “file” photo, filling their need to have at least one photo with your story.
 

iii. Sending them the game story copy, photos and  a YouTube video link
 
The other very fun and extremely well received option that an online newspaper can give you is the embedding of video links.  This basically creates the ESPN Sports Center video highlights effect for your youth team.
 
Here’s  two versions of that:
 
A story with a video link to a stretch of game footage:
 
http://www.thedailydarien.com/sports/7th-grade-white-throttle-defending-champs
 
Or a story, with individual video links to highlight plays:
 
http://www.thedailywilton.com/sports/wilton-4th-graders-win-it-all
 
 
Note to those who were just blown away by that video linking in that story:  Those YouTube.com video links in that story were produced by a nine year old, little brother of a player on that team. I would guess that a large percentage of the YouTube.com that MSC gets is, in fact, produced by the very fast and eager youth producers, as opposed to their not so fast, and not so eager parents and coaches.
 
 
Getting the story weblink around to those who would like to see it
 
Another difference with online media, there’s no need to cut out a clipping and mail it to Grandma.  Once a game story is published, you can just forward the story weblink to your team email group (They, in turn,  will forward to far away places).
 
If you have your roster emails set up on FCBLhoops.org, or your local travel basketball site, you can use the Team Bulletin function for this. It allows you to both blast the email, and, if you choose, retain a copy of the link right there for keepsake purposes.
 
Here below, I’m showing you my varsity team’s Bulletin page where we did that last season in this example below.
 
(To me the most surprising fans of this chronology of stories on my team where actually the college recruiters that are pursuing my players. They loved to come to this page,  and get caught up on my guys recent exploits)
 
http://gfabasketball.org/Bulletins.asp?org=gfabasketball.org


Have fun with this… your players ..and their Grandparents… sure  will
 
Doug Scott

 
TheDailyBedford.com, TheDailyChappaqua.com, TheDailyDarien.com, TheDailyEaston.com, TheDailyFairfield.com, TheDailyGreenwich.com, TheDailyMountVernon.com, TheDailyNewCanaan.com, TheDailyNorwalk.com, TheDailyPoundRidge.com, TheDailyRye.com,TheDailyScarsdale.com, TheDailyStamford.com, TheDailyWeston.com, TheDailyWestport.com and TheDailyWilton.com