A New Challenge Awaits...

Posted by Dave Nichols | Monday, October 03, 2011 | | 0 comments »

I started blogging March 14, 2007.  My blog was originally titled Bottomfeeder Baseball Blog, and I attempted to write about the Nats, Orioles, fantasy baseball, Capitals and other stuff.   It was not very good and nobody read it.  About that time, I also started writing about the Caps and the Nats at DC Sports Box, and I want to express my thanks to Al Santos for allowing me that great opportunity.

Since it was weird to write about hockey on a site with baseball in the name -- and I wanted to do things my way -- I started a second blog, what is now Caps News Network, on Oct. 13, 2008.  Since I'd been credentialed with DC Sports Box, the team credentialed my new blog soon after I qualified, and that's where we stand today, on the precipice of my fourth season as a member of the credentialed media covering the Washington Capitals. 

I will be eternally grateful to Ted Leonsis for his vision and Nate Ewell for his passion promoting independent media coverage of the Caps.  I'd also like to thank the Caps current Media Relations staff -- Sergey Kocharov, Kelly Murray and Ben Guerrero -- for continuing to put up with me.

Anyway, fter five years and 584 posts, I will be retiring Caps News Network. I've decided to combine my two blogs, pick up coverage of the other sports in town, and start an on-line sports page covering all of D.C. sports. You can find the new site at http://www.districtsportspage.com/. It's a monumental challenge for me, but I won't be alone.

I have recruited some of the finest local independent journalists to help me with the project.  Each sport/team will have a page editor who will guide content for those teams. Abram Fox, who used to cover the Caps for DC Sports Box, will be our Caps page editor.  I won't be writing as many game stories, but that will give me more time to concentrate on writing analysis and opinion, which I think suffered with all my daily responsibilities running my two pages.

We have several staff writers who will write game stories and analysis. We'll have contributors; folks that have their own blog but will occasionally post for us too. We'll continue to have fantastic photography from not only staff photographer Cheryl Nichols, but our good friends Brian Murphy and Anthony Amobi too.

Also, Cheryl's Off the Ice column will be coming with us, so if you're looking for the latest player appearance in the community, player birthday or photo gallery, it'll all be on the new site.

Hopefully, we'll continue to have you as well, reading and commenting on our material.

Please visit our new site. Tell us what you like, what could be better, and what you might like to see. It's still a work in progress, but we're excited to get it out there and give folks in the DMV another outlet to get sports news, analysis and opinion.

Thanks for making Caps News Network what it was. What started as a vanity project became something so much bigger, bigger really than I or anyone could have expected and it's all because of you. Thanks, as always, for reading.