New Albany Gazette's 'Player of the Week'

Beginning in October, there will be a new feature to the sports section that will not only bring more videos to the Gazette website, but also recognize some of our great athletes in Union County.
I’m been playing around with the idea of having a Player of the Week, sponsored by the Gazette, but never got around to the logistics. After racking my brain, coming up with ideas to add to the sports section, I think I’ve come up with something that should please everyone.
Beginning with next week’s games, coaches and parents can submit nominees for the Player of the Week, providing statistics with the nomination. Ultimately, this will be chosen by me, so whatever games I attend throughout the week, I’ll keep my eye out for possible nominees. Of course, I cannot be at every game, which is where the coaches and parents come in.
Now, what the player of the week will get. I’ll have a short piece put together to run in the Friday paper. In this, it will have that player’s stats for the week, a picture and a little bit from the coach on that player. Also, a video feature will be put together and viewed on the Gazette website. The video is where you’ll hear from the athlete and get to know a little more about them.
I’ve opted to go with the video because I’m trying to find ways to expand that portion of the website. I’ve been very consistent in putting together videos throughout football season, because that’s the easiest sport for me to do so. It’s a lot tougher to do this for the other sports, because I’m also keeping stats, among other things. I want to have more videos offered on the website, and this is one way to do so.
There are rules to this. An athlete can only be named Player of the Week once for each sport they play. This is where I’ve had logistical problems in planning. Most of our athletes play multiple sports, so in an attempt to keep this from constantly going to one athlete, this rule is in place. So, if your athlete runs cross country and plays basketball and fast pitch, they can be Player of the Week for each of those sports, but can only be named for that sport once in a school year.
To submit nominations for the Player of the Week, you can email me at sports@newalbanygazette.com, call the Sports Desk at 534-6321 (ext. 415) or hit me up on Twitter, @ezaremba1618. The time period for judging will be Monday through Saturday each week, and the deadline for submissions will be each Sunday. So, the first deadline will be Sept. 30, and the first Player of Week will run on Friday, Oct. 5.

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