So this is it. After eight months of planning, my labor of love, the NESCAC Notebook, has finally debuted. Every Friday, we’ll bring you exciting new content, ranging from athlete and staff profiles to random factoids few others know and even fewer people care about. Depending on the volume of hate mail that pours in, we may even be able to run a semi-regular “Letters to the Editor” section! But enough of my attempts at humor. I wanted to use this space to highlight some of the changes coming to the sports section this fall:

-This notebook. I expect to have a rotating array of content, including columns on issues affecting Wesleyan, the NESCAC, and the NCAA as a whole; profiles of athletes and athletic department staffers alike; and relevant news and notes from around Wesleyan athletics, including playoff scenarios. Lastly, we will begin running the NESCAC standings each week, and By the Numbers, which appeared annoying intermittently last spring as our staffing numbers kept falling but which I will make a permanent weekly feature this fall.

-Increased coverage of other NESCAC action. Given the uniformity of football—each team plays an eight-game NESCAC-only schedule, with all of the games occurring at roughly the same time on the same eight Saturdays—I plan to add to each Tuesday football article a summary of the other four NESCAC games taking place the prior Saturday.

-Increased use of photos. We had a full-page photo tableau of men’s soccer action last fall, and though it was quite well received, it mysteriously never appeared again. So this year, at the end of every month, we’ll run a photo spread highlighting the previous month’s action.

-More “sports news” pieces. There’s a lot that goes on around here in the athletic department, most of which has been scarcely covered, if at all, in the past. Astute readers likely noticed a proliferation of athletics news articles last fall (written by yours truly), including a two-part series on the effect of rising fuel costs on the department’s travel budget, the expansion of the fitness center morning hours, and the expansion of a number of NESCAC Championships. I hope to make them a more regular feature this year. Look for more in-depth stories, including reflections on the recruiting process from current freshmen, stories from alumni on their days in Middletown, a continuation of the historical team series that we started last fall, and a look at the role of Wesleyan athletics in the greater Middletown community.

-Coverage of all sports. I’ve been writing for the sports section since January of my freshman year, and one unfortunate constant I’ve noticed is a tendency to neglect some sports. My observation has been that every so often, a field hockey game, golf match, or track meet would slip through the cracks and not have a mention anywhere in our pages. My promise to you, the reader—as well as to the athletes and coaches who give us sports to write about—is that we will cover every intercollegiate contest, in every sport, and do so in a timely manner. If cross country hosts the Wesleyan Invitational on Saturday, it will be covered in the following Tuesday’s issue—not tucked in the corner of a Friday issue two weeks later.

So that’s that. Regardless of your status—whether you’re an athlete, coach, staffer, alum, passionate observer, prospective student, or my mom—I encourage you to send us feedback. What are we doing right? What have we completely screwed up? What would you like to see? Every little bit helps.

President Roth has implemented a series of initiatives aimed at making Wesleyan’s athletics programs the best in the NESCAC. There’s no excuse for the sports section of the campus newspaper to not shoot for the same goal.