Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: D3Running.com Webmaster

D3Running.com was officially launched on August 31, 2007.  It was designed as a one stop source of information for fans of Division III cross country and track and field.  The main behind the site is webmaster Jon Newberry.  Jon ran cross country and track at Emory all four years, qualifying to run with Emory’s team all four years at the Cross Country National Championships and recording personal bests of 15:23 indoors in the 5000 and 9:30 in the steeplechase.  In addition, he played basketball at Oxford College of Emory for two years.  He now works for the Atlanta Spirit, the ownership group of the Hawks (NBA) and Thrashers (NHL).  He was first introduced to developing sports-themed web-sites while working for a minor league baseball team in Indiana and a Division II school in Florida during his first year following graduation.  Jon earned his MS in Sports Administration from Georgia State University in 2006 and worked as an assistant coach at his alma mater for one year while he finished his Master’s degree.  Despite his already busy schedule with work and as webmaster, Jon was generous enough to lend some time for an interview.

What made you start D3Running.com?  Bring us through the full genesis of the site, from the initial idea to its launch last month.

As mentioned above, I played basketball my first two years of college and was very familiar with the D3Hoops.com  site.  I always thought that a similar site for running made sense since there is a bigger pool of athletes and (from what I could tell) a fairly loyal following.  The year that I was coaching, I was constantly following high school stories and results on DyeStat. I used a hypothetical D3Running.com for a class in graduate school (MS in Sports Administration) where I was pitching the site to a shoe/apparel company, and later expanded on the idea for a marketing project. My professors always urged me to move forward with developing the actual site, but I never seemed to have the time or resources to get it started.  This past year I began working on web-sites/e-marketing for professional sports teams and part of my job was surfing the internet to find new and innovative sports sites.  Last April, as things were slowing down at my real job, I decided that it was good time to give D3Running a try.

Why the focus on and interest in Division III?

I have worked in athletic departments that participate in all three divisions of NCAA athletics. I can tell you first-hand that the top athletes in Division III work just as hard as D-1 or D-2 athletes, but garner less attention.  There is something pure about Division III athletics that I find appealing.  The average college student doesn't understand why someone would give up their weekends to drive in a 15 passenger van to run around a golf course, or play a game in a half-empty gym or stadium.  There is no monetary gain to being a Division III student-athlete, and there are rarely any perks that outsiders would notice.  Most D-3 athletes participate because they love the sport, love working hard and love the camaraderie that comes with being on a team.
 

What were the influences—everything from specific practicalities to the overall vision—that went into D3Running.com?  Did you draw a lot from past/current websites, and if so, which ones?

It is probably obvious that the D3sports network had an influence on the site, and I mentioned earlier that I used DyeStat a lot when I was coaching. Additionally, some former runners ran a site called SouthRegionRunning.com when I was in school, and I always thought that it was a good idea.  Other than that, I visit multiple sports web-sites every day, and I am constantly looking for new and innovative features.

Did you feel there was a gap in DIII coverage of cross country and track?  What does D3Running.com offer that other sites out there currently do not?

There are a handful of sites out there that offer limited coverage of Division III running. The USTFCCCA has a D-3 section.  NCAAsports.com  also has a cross country section. Just about every site that is out there has D-3 on there as an "extra" or seems to do a half-hearted job of coverage. A majority of the information on D3Running.com can be found on other sites, but it is my goal to make it so that visitors can find everything they need at D3R rather than surfing 20-30 different sites. 

Eventually I hope to have weekly features, spotlights, etc. that are submitted by student-journalists that are interested in getting their stories posted through new outlets.  At this point I have not gotten around to searching for, and contacting school papers to find those who might be interested.

How many people are there maintaining the site currently?

I am currently the only one maintaining the site, but I do have a team of "creative consultants".

Looking into the future, what sort of expansion do you foresee for D3Running.com?  What do you see the site looking like one month, six months, and one year (and beyond) down the road?

I am hoping to expand the range of content featured on the site.  The "Master Schedule", "Team Index", "Rankings" and "Results" will always be the anchors that will attract the most page views, but I plan on having weekly "Regional Reports" and other weekly features fairly soon.  I am not really sure how the site will be run over the summer.  I am expecting visits to dip during that time, so I doubt there will be as much new content from week to week. 

I am already working on updating the look of the site and incorporating a rotating FLASH header to eliminate any scrolling on the front page.

One part of the site that I anticipate growing in the future is the message boards.  I have been surprised that there has not been more activity on them to this point, although they do get a large number of visits each day.

The National Championships are being held at the St. Olaf course this year.  The last time St. Olaf hosted nationals was 2002, and you were on hand that day running in the race.  What does it take to run well at that course?

I actually have run on the St. Olaf course twice as our team ran at the pre-national race that year as well.  It is a pretty standard midwest course.  It reminded me of a lot of the courses I ran as a high school runner in Ohio.  If I remember correctly, some of the hills are man-made for the purpose of draining water from the athletic fields, so the valleys can get a little sloppy if it rains in the days leading up to the race. 

There is a back section where fewer fans are around where you can drop or pick up a lot of places depending on if you lose your focus.  I ran probably 4-6 races in Minnesota/Wisconsin (which is a lot for a runner going to school in Georgia) so I hope I am not getting the courses confused.  I do remember that there is a fairly steep hill less than 400 meters before the finish line that can be intimidating as you near the finish of the race.  

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?

The site is a work in progress, and the goal is for it to constantly be evolving.  I am counting on visitors to offer feedback and suggestions so that I can keep improving the site and making it a more useful source of information.

Thanks to Jon for a fantastic interview.