The Oregon Pit Crew’s blogging site was nominated for the 2013 eCollege Athletics blog of the year on Monday. Presented by eCollegeFinder, a website dedicated to online degrees and college application assistance, the award is given to the blog that best covers their respective university while also providing an element of school spirit.
Known as the Oregon Pit Crew, the student section for all Oregon varsity athletics, their website has become the voice behind the student organization. Run as a fan-oriented site, the blog’s focus is to provide a distinct angle on Oregon athletics and the overall experience as a fan.
“If you can get the same story from a local newspaper, we wouldn’t write it,” Bryan Kalbrosky, Oregon Pit Crew’s media director, said via their website. “Instead of trying to feign objectivity, we embrace our fandom to create our voice as the student section.”
Just over a year old now, the blog was initially created by Kalbrosky as a way to announce certain dress codes and student-section chants, but has developed into a staff of up to a dozen writers and photographers. Gravitating away from conventional and objective journalism, the fundamental approach of the blog is to essentially give the reader the fan experience.
“We do our best to capture the fan experience, that is definitely what we strive for,” Kalbrosky said. “What we are trying to do is to capture what it is like to be at the game so an incoming freshman can read one of our stories and think football is a really fun sport to attend or a sophomore who didn’t go to a basketball game last year, read one of our stories from a game and be like, ‘Wow I don’t know why I just go to football games, I should definitely go to basketball as well.’”
Kalbrosky notes that the opinionated, fan-oriented style of writing is something that lacks on this campus and that he and his staff try to emulate publications such as Grantland and Bleacher Report.
The award nomination is an indicator of the strides that this young website continues to make. With partnerships with Nike and Red Bull already, the Oregon Pit Crew will be teaming with KWVA, the campus radio station, at the start of winter term and will make weekly appearances on KWVA’s show, “Quack Smack.”
A blog that was only started in the fall term of 2012, The Oregon Pit Crew site will find out if it wins this award by Dec. 20.
“Getting recognized and rewarded for the things we have been able to do in our first (year) definitely gives us hope for things that we can do in the next two terms and beyond,” Kalbrosky said.
With over 6,000 followers on Twitter as well, the Oregon Pit Crew has a role in all facets of the media. However, its true goal remains to be a source for students to understand who this group is.
Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JWISE25