Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Social media is the key for us to stay connected
3/31/2020 10:19:00 AM | General, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Word on the Herd, Ticketing & Promotions
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By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it's been.
Those lyrics by The Grateful Dead are partially correct. While the past three weeks have been a strange sports-less world, social distancing and self-isolation represent a relatively new normal. You might feel like March has been a particularly long year, but we are only 20 days removed from the Marshall men's and women's basketball teams sweeping a pair of games in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament.
The days since have been a blur, and as the sports world came to a screeching halt, adjustments had to be made in the world of collegiate athletics. The welfare of our student-athletes came first, of course, but as our Director of Athletics, Mike Hamrick, and my fellow administrators worked tirelessly to take care of them, our external team huddled – virtually, of course – and thought of our loyal, passionate fan base.
How could we help you? How could we keep you engaged and entertained and, perhaps, offer respite from the worries of the world?
We know you, like all of us, are bummed about how the end of the 2019-20 sports calendar ended. Tomorrow, we'd be getting ready for the fourth football practice of spring drills. This week, our brackets would be in shambles, but we would be eagerly anticipating the Final Four in men's and women's hoops. Last Wednesday would have been the Marshall-WVU baseball game in Charleston. I figure the Herd softball team would be leading the nation in home runs by now.
Alas, we wait. Until it's safe to high-five each other and celebrate all that we love about Marshall Athletics, it is important for us to stay connected … at a distance. The best way we can do that is through our various social media platforms.
Check us out on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok. In the past couple of weeks, we have been posting videos and other content for you every day. We're in the middle of March Madness-inspired bracket competition to determine the best football play from the 2019 season. Every day, we take two highlights and let the fans vote in an online poll to determine the winner. It's survive-and-advance, football style. The competition is occurring over 15 days, which we hope will help fill the void of the 15 spring football practices we all missed out on.
Our student-athletes have been incredible. They're spread all over the country, unsure of what is to come, but have been sending us videos to share with you. We've received daily workout videos from football players, volleyball players, men's and women's soccer players and swimmers. Offensive lineman Will Ulmer, who wowed the beachgoers with his guitar and singing voice at the Gasparilla Bowl talent show in December, took the time to record a video reading a children's book.
Our talented external team, including Tyler Able (Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing) and Jake Griffith (Director of Multimedia), have more content in the works for the days and weeks ahead. We must give our basketball programs a proper, end-of-season tribute. We must operate with an eye toward the football season, volleyball season and soccer seasons because the fall is what is next on our calendar. We have the best non-conference and home football schedule in school history. We are in Year 2 of the Ari Aganus era for the volleyball program, and we cannot wait to see how she builds her program after a remarkable inaugural campaign. The men's soccer team is coming off the greatest season in school history, and the women's soccer is starting a new era with first-year coach Michael Swan.
There's so much to look forward to, but for now, turn your eyes to our social media accounts. We must stay connected.
We're forced to stay at home a little longer, but like a good Herd would do, let's stick together.
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and an eight-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
