About The Blog: The FCIAC Football Blog was created as an experiment in social networking by freelance sportswriter Tim Parry. After attending BlogOn 05 for his day job in September 2005 and hearing author Seth Godin speak about what does and doesn’t attract page views in the blogosphere, the lamp was lit. He decided to build a blog about his own personal passion, FCIAC Football, use the SEO skills he learned as a web editor, and see if anyone would come.
The idea was to just drop quick hits of information about what was going on in the FCIAC, interject some commentary, and provide links to help guide the reader. Midway through the third quarter of the SWC championship game, just six weeks later, Connecticut Post sportswriter Sean Patrick Bowley, randomly tells Parry, “You wouldn’t believe how many @#$%^&* people tell me they read your blog. Why the hell aren’t you telling anyone about it?”
So Parry decided to take it more serious during the 2006 FCIAC football season, and got to see all 19 teams play at least one half of football, while juggling freelance work, a full-time job, and family life. In June of 2006, he got out to spring games at Fairfield Ludlowe, New Canaan, Trinity Catholic, and Stamford to try to keep the interest in the blog up. In July, he followed the Fairfield County team in the Hall of Fame Classic, and openly criticized FCIAC coaches for their lack of support for the summer showcase. It was then that he started hearing via e-mail from some coaches and boosters, which helped legitimize the media… well, that and the promotional t-shirts he made by hand (the logo application, he doesn’t own a loom) and handed out during Hell Weeks and early season games.
Parry launched the FCIAC Football Five, a weekly poll conducted by the news people who cover the teams of the FCIAC. It includes writers from weekly and daily newspapers, the radio media, and television personalities.
The blog moved to its new home, fciacfootballblog.com, in December 2007. Plans for the future include video and audio blogging, and other features being contemplated. The FCIAC Football Blog is also considering paid sponsorships. In November 2006, The FCIAC Football Blog had more than 25,000 page views by Thanksgiving Day, On Thanksgiving Day itself, there were more than 400 unique visitors.
About the Blogger: Tim Parry has a passion for FCIAC football. He grew up in a house with a former New Canaan assistant football coach (Ray Parry) and had a brother who was as assistant coach at Roger Ludlowe (Jim Parry), and that inspired him to get involved in the game. While attending Tomlinson Jr. High in Fairifled, he became Lou Marinelli’s first waterboy at New Canaan. The next year, when he transferred to Saxe Jr. High School, he helped his father in the equipment room and became a manager for the Class L2 State Champions. He then played four seasons with the Rams, though his career was clouded by injuries, illness, and a false sense of athletic ability and dedication. He later walked on twice as a kicker and punter at Western Connecticut (1989 and 1992), but the reality of work and academics prevented him from seeing things through.
Parry’s professional journalism career began in 1990, three months before his 21st birthday, when he was named sports editor at New Canaan Advertiser. Upon seeing graduation announcements for many of his classmates in the production room the following summer, he returned to school full-time in August 1991. He freelanced for The News-Times starting that fall, and also worked as a sports writer and defacto sports editor for Fairpress, a Gannett-owned weekly which covered Fairfield, Westport, Weston, and Norwalk. He did a short stint as a high school sports writer with Connecticut Post in 1995 before burning out and getting married (in that order).
Parry joined Multichannel Merchant (covering catalog, web, and bricks and mortar retailers) as senior writer in January 2006. He is also editor of the Lists & Data Strategies e-newsletter and writes the monthly “List & Data Strategies” department in the print magazine. And in 2008, Parry was charged with heading up the publication’s annual awards program.
He has been with several publications within the Penton Media family since 2000, including Fleet Owner (trucking industry) and PROMO (brand marketing), and is also part of the team responsible for sister e-newsletter/Website Chief Marketer.
Though he has had the opportunity to cover Cleveland Indians spring training games, Jets, Giants and Patriots NFL games, The Arena Bowl, The U.S. Open (tennis), the Knicks, and several other high-profile sporting events, there is one lesson a salty old sportswriter once told him: The most important game is the one you are covering.
Parry has been married to the former Ursula Gleissner, a department manager with Macy’s, since May 1997. They reside childless with their basset hounds, Abbi and Diggy, in the North End of Bridgeport.
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