To put it in terms a Southwest NBer can relate to, Swnbsports.life wants to become the digital equivalent of the St. Croix Courier Sports Page from the 1990s.

As a sports fanatic, I stayed in touch with my youth local sports scene when I lived in Fredericton, Halifax and Saint John via the Courier Sports Page. I loved reading about the successes of Verne Cunningham’s various up and coming cross country stars or about the incredible wrestlers that Pat Zwicker was producing in St. Stephen. Over the years, I have seen the names of many young athletes in the pages of the Courier

In doing some research before venturing into this operation, I realized there is a gap in the modern digital age. I have not read any stories about local runners or wrestlers for years. Sure, I can go to Athletics NB website and do a search and find the NBIAA cross country meet results and surf through listings that are dominated by kids not from the area to find how the local kids did. But, that’s a lot of work.!!

Our articles will document and celebrate the accomplishments of local athletes, officials and coaches.

We cover and report results for varsity high school sports, exceptional individual athletes, junior hockey and and local post-secondary athletic accomplishments. We support the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and think athletes in younger ages groups should be focused on the basics and not be concerned about headlines. We will happily use our platform to promote an upcoming minor tournament but will not post stats or write a game report for sporting levels younger than varsity high school.

We will NEVER write anything that criticizes an officials call, an athlete’s play selection/performance or a coaches decision. We will NEVER play the roll of the Monday morning armchair quarterback. Our local coaches are sacred to our sporting scene.

We are committed to making sure are articles are known public facts gleaned off the NBIAA , provincial sporting bodies and various school’s public websites. We will also use factual postings (team lineups, scores, schedule info) from team’s various public social media feeds. If we can not verify a fact back a public data source, a reporter’s direct observation or a coach’s/parent’s word, we will NOT report on it.

We strive to be more than a sports site that robotically presents the scoring stats. We hope to provide colour and write stories with game events, insights and quotes from our local coaches and athletes.

Our philosophy is probably best explained in an example (fictitious names).

Let’s say the stat sheet shows Shane Smith-Jones scores a goal at the 85 minute to win the game for the Fundy Mariners.

Factual Reporting Sample.

Shane Smith-Jones scored the winner for Fundy at the 85th minute in the game. The Mariners held the lead to win the game 2-1.

Colourful swnbsports.life Reporting Goal Sample

Shane Smith-Jones headed home the winning goal with 5 minutes left in the game for the Mariners. Connor Smith-Jones, Shane’s younger brother, got an assist on the goal with a beautiful cross from the right wing. The game ended with Fundy defending their goal for the last 5 minutes. Fundy central defender, Frank Spencer made a miraculous clearance off his goal line with two minutes left in the game that allowed the Mariners to hold on for a 2-1 win.

Obviously, the second example memorializes the events of the game in a much more meaningful way for all participants in the game. In order for swnbsports.life to write our stories to meet this standard, one of two scenarios must happen. Either a swnbsports.life reporter is sitting in the stands watching the game or our reporter has reached out the coach for an interview to get some of the details of the game. To the coaches who give us a few minutes, we say THANK YOU for your commitment to our local athletes.