A new era for the Wisconsin high school swim blog

To all readers of the Wisconsin high school swim blog:

After considerable deliberation during the spring and summer, I've decided to move this blog to the website run by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Swim Coaches Assocation website -- http://www.wisca.net/. The reasons for the move are several:

-- The WISCA website and the high school swim blog are the only two websites fully and exclusively devoted to the sport of Wisconsin high school swimming. My sense is that fans and supporters of high school swimming in the state seek out these two websites for information, and it made sense in many regards to merge the blog with the WISCA website.

-- Hosting the blog at the WISCA website will provide ease of access and a "one-stop shopping" website for high school swim information -- whether it be the popular top-30 times of the WISCA website, or the commentary and analysis provided by the blog.

-- I, along with WISCA's administrators, see great potential for making both the blog and the WISCA website better, with expanded and more in-depth coverage -- for instance, a possible "meet results" section, expanding on the meet results posted on the blog during the 2009-10 boys season; live blogging of state swim meets; and perhaps even video-casting of meets.

One significant change will be that blog readers will have to be registered members of the WISCA website. It does involve a cost, but we (myself and WISCA's administrators) feel the cost of a public membership to WISCA ($10 annually) will be well worth it in terms of expanded and better coverage of Wisconsin high school swimming. Registration details for the WISCA website are available here:
http://www.wisca.net/register.php

Finally, I'd like to say that the move to the WISCA website will in no way change the editorial independence of the blog. I would not have agreed to the move if that was not the case. I plan to keep the tone and direction of the blog as has it has been for the past two years -- focusing on the accomplishments of swimmers, supportive of swimming generally, and a positive source of information about high school swimming. We may examine important issues in the high school swim community from time to time, but the blog will first and foremost focus on the accomplishments and efforts of high school sports' hardest-working athletes.

I hope you'll join me at our new home; look for this year's season previews soon. Your enthusiastic support of the blog has made all of this possible, and motivated me to keep trying to improve it. As always, I welcome your ideas and thoughts, and please feel free to send them (supportive, critical, or just plain old informative) to:

wimcdade@tds.net

Thanks for your support of Wisconsin high school swimming, and this blog.

Sincerely,

Phil McDade