D3Soccer.com

[SimpleCoach]

Just curious, is there a status with D3Soccer.com?  Or what we see is what we will get for this year?

SC.

[Ron Boerger]

Just curious, is there a status with D3Soccer.com?  Or what we see is what we will get for this year?

SC.

You might try mailing them via their official email address, d3soccer.com@gmail.com; Christian Shirk has been the most active in the past (d3soccer.shirk@gmail.com) but his site bio says "Chris has served as lead columnist, Deputy Managing Editor and Managing Editor prior to transitioning into his current role as a Special Consultant and Advisor."   The guy who helped with last year's Pool C analysis, Jim Hutchinson, has "in early 2022, Jim "retired" and now assists as available" on his bio but you can try  d3soccer.hutchinson@gmail.com.  Jim Matson (d3soccer.matson@gmail.com) is listed as publisher but I haven't seen anything under his byline in years.  Duane Cole (d3soccer@gmail.com) is listed as a contributor on the women's side, but there's been virtually no coverage of the women for years, either.

tl/dr basically, it's dead, Jim.   

[NEPAFAN]

Someone is running their twitter account..

[Ron Boerger]

Someone is running their twitter account..

I was just going to say this as they posted something (pretty generic, but still a post) this morning.

https://twitter.com/D3soc/status/1564614869604880386

So maybe it's on life support, at least. 

[Christan Shirk]

Sorry, everyone.  I've been wanting to provide an update on the website all summer, but it wasn't clear what the status was or would be for the 2022 season.  About 2 weeks ago an approach to the 2022 season was agreed upon by those involved.  A message will be posted to the website homepage in the next day or two (was meant to be written and posted over the weekend, but family life kept getting in the way).

I'll try to give an overview and then later will provide a link to whatever we post on the website.  Jim Hutchinson has now retired from running the website as I did a few years earlier.  We both want to see the website continue and are willing and interested in remaining involved on a limited basis.  We have not found new leadership to take over the huge task of running the website on a volunteer, unpaid basis.  Consequently, it appeared that the website would be discontinued. 

However, there is one party interested in helping to keep the website up and running in a Board of Directors kind of way (which would crucially involve pursuing financing), but there was not enough time prior to the current 2022 season to explore financing options and determine if there is a way to make this work in the absence of an unpaid, volunteer managing editor. Therefore, this interested party will use the next 9 or so months to see if a re-launch of the website for the 2023 season is feasible. 

Given this possibility, Jim Hutchinson and I have decided to maintain the website for the 2022 season on a very limited, but hopefully still useful/beneficial basis. Consider this a bridge year to a potential re-launch in 2023. Along with the help of some other behind the scenes volunteers, we will keep the schedules, results and standings up-to-date throughout the season. Besides those items, the website will largely be on hiatus.  That means no weekly Top 25, no columns, no posting the Regional Rankings, etc. throughout the season. Similarly, we are not committing to any post-season coverage either, so do not expect any Conference Championship Central, at-large berth predications, NCAA Tournament Central, or All-America teams this year.

This is sad, especially for those of us who have personally invested so much into the website over the years, but Jim and I have had to say "no" to continuing to over-extend ourselves to the detriment of our families and personal well-being. We had considered discontinuing the Top 25 and All-America teams already in 2021, but continued them as a bridge to 2022 when we hoped something would come together to keep the website up and running under new leadership. That hasn't transpired, unfortunately.

For the most part, the website is ready for the 2022 season on the limited basis upon which it will operate.  The team pages and the conference pages (standings and schedules) have been created.  Schedules are nearly complete.  There are a few other odds and ends that we'll update yet, but we are largely ready for the opening of the season on Thursday.

[Ron Boerger]

Thanks for all you (and the others who have since moved on) have done to keep things running over the years, Christian.   It's great to hear that there's at least some kind of hope/plan to keep it moving forward next year.   At the same time, doing the kinds of things you all have been doing without any kind of remuneration gets old fast, and I wish you and Jim well as you move on to other pursuits.

One thing for sure I do know - your party should reach out to SimpleCoach who has done an excellent job the last year of covering all sorts of teams and providing his thoughts on the national scene.   He would make a great lead columnist if he's interested. 

[Christan Shirk]

Well, I want to be careful not to discuss publicly what should be private conversations.  But I will say this.

I think what SimpleCoach has been doing is awesome.  It's been a tremendous new resource for D-III soccer fans.  We are glad to see his success and that coaches have been willing to have these long, in-depth conversations with him for "publication".

If Jim Hutchinson and I were not retired and still intended to run the website day-to-day, then we most certainly would be looking to collaborate with SimpleCoach in some way.  SimpleCoach came along at an odd time with me already retired and Jim Hutchinson in his last year running the website. We had some introductory conversations with him, but it hasn't been clear if there would even be a D3soccer.com website anymore after the 2021 season.  We will keep lines of communications open with SimpleCoach and if he can play any role in helping keep D3soccer.com up and running, we welcome that.

[Christan Shirk]

Someone is running their twitter account..

We have had a volunteer who for several years now has, largely autonomously, been doing social media posting on behalf of the website.  In the off-season this primarily involves posting coaching changes.  Our social media presence has been lacking, to say the least, but besides me posting links to the Top 25, columns, etc. on our Facebook page for a few years, this volunteer has given us what social media presence we have.  The tweet that Ron Boerger referenced could give the impression that it is business as usual at D3soccer.com for the new season.  If this is misleading, that's a consequence of this autonomous relationship.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks for the update, Christan. I hope that the retooling works out, because d3soccer.com is a great resource. And I think that I speak for a lot of us when I say that the d3soccer.com All-American team is the gold standard. It puts the USC All-American team to shame.

I had a lengthy phone call with Jim Hutchinson last spring, and I told him how much I appreciate everything that the two of you have put into running that site over the years ... and I'd like to repeat that thank-you right here.

[PaulNewman]

Despite several years of warnings, reading Christan's post (for me at least) is simultaneously totally understandable and jarring.  I've been here for over a decade and still I can take so much for granted.  I realized this again 10-11 days ago when I wanted to post "games to watch" for the first couple of weeks of the season.  The schedules weren't up and I couldn't search by the day to quickly scan through which games stood out.  Took me hours instead of a half-hour.  It's the deep infrastructure stuff that I think we most take for granted while lamenting the potential loss of the most popular, "big ticket" features like the top 25, Conference and NCAA Tourney Centrals, AA teams, feature columns, coach interviews at the Final Four, etc.  And so of course if anyone or any group of folks takes the reins they'll need to have a plan for how the nitty-gritty infrastructure work and data-entry will get done. 

[jknezek]

I sent Christian a message offering to take over the Top 25 but I don't know how feasible that is. I don't have the contacts or a site to publish the results on, so I could mainly provide a way to easily amalgamate the ballots and the time to do it. I also don't have the contacts, so I suspect it's a pipe dream. But I will miss it. Like the All America teams, D3Soccer.com just did it better than the alternatives.

[Mr.Right]

I think the situation is fine. 2021 I used the site for Scores, Schedules and Records.  The Links to Games, Teams and Conference Websites are also huge time savers when writing. That's it and it still worked fine as I did not need much else. The links I used for navigation to get the info I needed but allowed me to start in one central place. If people used the site differently in the past then they will have to adjust. New ownership could possibly bring a fresh approach or it could sputter the thing into oblivion. Its a toss up so I say stay with what you know until they can absolutely do it no longer. It sounds dire but also like they are trying to figure it out but need time and maybe money. New ownership could bring unwanted conflicts of interest as well. idk thinking out loud

[Christan Shirk]

Here's a link to the "official" release about the status of the website:  https://d3soccer.com/notables/2022/back-for-2022

I also threw together an Opening Day 2022 article where I summarize some of the changes for 2022 (conference moves, rules changes, etc.): https://d3soccer.com/notables/2022/opening-day-2022   

[Pat Coleman]

Despite several years of warnings, reading Christan's post (for me at least) is simultaneously totally understandable and jarring.  I've been here for over a decade and still I can take so much for granted.  I realized this again 10-11 days ago when I wanted to post "games to watch" for the first couple of weeks of the season.  The schedules weren't up and I couldn't search by the day to quickly scan through which games stood out.  Took me hours instead of a half-hour.  It's the deep infrastructure stuff that I think we most take for granted while lamenting the potential loss of the most popular, "big ticket" features like the top 25, Conference and NCAA Tourney Centrals, AA teams, feature columns, coach interviews at the Final Four, etc.  And so of course if anyone or any group of folks takes the reins they'll need to have a plan for how the nitty-gritty infrastructure work and data-entry will get done.

You can find Division III soccer scores on D3sports.com -- I can't say it will be complete, but it will have something, anyway.

[PaulNewman]

Christan, in simplistic terms, how DOES the scoreboard work?  And how do some games have links to V and LS and/or some have scores in progress with time remaining?  Some teams seem to have automatic links to the RCs too in the scoreboard?  And then I assume there is some automatic system with results getting plugged into the team schedules.