TAYLOR MADE: CELEBRATING YEAR 1 (2019-08-16)

Happy Anniversary Tioga County Sports Report! We made it through the first year. 

It took a lot of hard work and dedication, as well as wonderful cooperation from athletes, coaches, athletic directors and athletic secretaries — and the support of numerous fans to make it a success.

We brought consistent sports coverage to varsity teams which previously received very minimal publicity or were only covered when they're doing well. We even gave readers a little youth coverage, which overall is difficult to accomplish due to being a one-man staff and so many conflicting schedules.

The site reached close to 200,000 page views per month in its first year, which is truly awesome — and a tribute to the loyalty of our readers and the cooperation of the coaches.

If I had to grade myself on my performance this past year, I would have to give myself a "B" — which to me isn't bad considering the grades I took home in high school and college. 

There are areas where the site can improve.

During this next year, I hope to provide more coverage of JV, modified, junior high and other youth sports. I may not be able to get out to the games, but I will certainly accept inputs from the teams. Coaches (or a coach's designee) can email or text me scorebook photos. I'll even accept a final score with the names and stats of a few of your key contributors if that's all I can get — anything to start giving some of the athletes outside of varsity sports some well-deserved publicity.

Fans are invited to send action photos from youth events as well.

I also have my sights set on providing more consistent coverage of our college athletes. Currently, the site is following 54 Candor, Newark valley, Owego and S-VE grads who are competing at the collegiate level, but I'm sure there are more. Coaches, ADs, parents, etc. — if you know of an athlete missing from the list (found on the TCSR College page) let me know.

As we look to improve our coverage, there is one other area that definitely needs improvement — advertising sales. With TCSR being a free-access website, the only way it can continue another year is through advertising sales. At this point, I need to sell a whole lot of ads soon and, to be honest with you, I am not knocking anyone over with my marketing skills.

With that said, if you are a business owner or know of a business owner who would like to support our local athletes, please contact me.

The contact information for advertising, and submission of game results and photos is:
• timtaylor@tiogacountysportsreport.com
• timtaylor2661@gmail.com
• Text or call 570-867-2767
• Send a message through the Facebook page

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All that aside, let's look back at year one.  In my previous editorial, I noted all the teams who finished the season in the state rankings. That meant they had pretty good seasons. Most finished high in Section IV competition and / or in their leagues and several went on to compete at the state level.

Tioga County Sports Report picked several All-Tioga County teams in each varsity sport which had at least four teams competing from Candor, Newark Valley, Owego, S-VE, Tioga and Waverly high schools.

Selecting these all-star teams was not easy and naming the top athlete in each sport was, in most cases, a very unenviable task. This group is special, because they signify the first-ever top athletes in Tioga County Sports Report history.

Cross Country (Boys) — Nate Bowers, Owego

Cross Country (Girs) — Marissa Silba, Newark Valley

Football — John Worthing, Tioga

Soccer (Boys) — Dan Cowulich, Newark Valley

Soccer (Girls) — Gabby Picco, Waverly

Volleyball — Grace Thomas, Owego

Basketball (Boys) — Kobe Bogart, Owego

Bowling (Boys) — Kyle Pratt, Newark Valley

Bowling (Girls) — Mackenzie Plouse, Waverly

Wrestling — Brady & John Worthing, Tioga

Baseball — Pierce Hendershot, Tioga

Golf (Boys) — Sam Taylor, Tioga

Softball — Wendi Hammond, Waverly

Track & Field (Boys) — Isaac Chandler, Waverly

Track & Field (Girls) — Cora Smith, Waverly

Of course, there were some sports which did not have All-Tioga County teams, but I feel a top athlete should be recognized in those sports as well, so here they are.

Golf (Girls) — Alex Tomasso, Waverly

Indoor Track & Field (Boys) — Isaac Chandler, Waverly

Indoor Track & Field (Girls) — Sheridan Talada, Waverly

Lacrosse (Boys) — Connor Kinney, Owego

Lacrosse (Girls) — Zoe Mahon, Owego

Swimming (Boys) — Mike Atanasoff, Waverly

Swimming (Girls) — Summer Pierce, Owego

Tennis (Boys) — Seth Lloyd, Waverly

Tennis (Girls) — Lauren Angelone & Kayla Hankey (doubles), Owego