| O.K. |
| November 22, 2002 FCSudwerk.com: Anyone who has stumbled onto this site and, in fact, some of the players on the club, must think you're nuts. Why do you do all this for an adult rec team? LaMar: Well, it sort of got out of control. First off, in my day job, I'm a journalist, and journalists have a need to tell the world about everything -- it's the character trait, or maybe I should say flaw, that makes us journalists. Plus, of course, I enjoy writing and designing things. So this website became the perfect place to combine many things I like doing with a topic I love. FCSudwerk.com: This must take an incredible amount of time, doesn't it? LaMar: Not really. Actually, running the team -- trying to get enough players to each game -- takes far more time and energy. Launching the site took some time because, of course, I had to do all the base pages, and this isn't something I'd ever done before. Geocities makes building a website easy, but still, you have to learn how to use the tools. As you can tell, I've stuck with pretty simple designs. Getting the framework up took about a week. It's been fun and easy to maintain ever since. I can add or change something in a couple of minutes. I do like to tinker with it; It has become an obsession of mine. FCSudwerk.com: What is your proudest achievement on this site? LaMar: Two pages: the index page that you see when you first arrive at the site, and the club news page. For me, the index page just works. It's basic but all the elements are there. It's functional yet engaging. A player can dial that up and know instantly what's going on with the club. I'm disappointed that the guest book is rarely used. I originally envisioned that as a place where players would air their gripes after every game and give teammates some good-natured teasing, but that has not happened. Lastly, the menu bar is very effective. A player that gets to the page can instantly see where to go to check the schedule or club results. As for the club news page, the sheer volume of information that's there is impressive. Anyone who looks closely at that page will begin to question my sanity. But you have to keep in mind that I'm a reporter, and I've spent 20 years cracking out news stories like those. For non-writers, it might be surprising to learn that I spent no more than 15 or 20 minutes on most game reports. |
| An Interview with Andrew LaMar Website "sort of got out of control" |
| FCSudwerk.com: Is there anything more you plan to do with the site, or wish you could do? LaMar: Ideally, it would be nice to have a site that doesn't have pop-up ads. I'm not willing to pay for that, however. There are only two other things I'd like to do: better incorporate photos and include more humor. FCSudwerk.com: Keeping this club going has taken a lot of time, and you're still recovering from a major injury. Is it possible, say, if you don't get healthy enough to play and or have a busy work schedule next spring, that you'll quit running the team? LaMar: Oh yeah, that's definitely a possibility. We'll have to see how the winter goes. If I can't play, then of course I'm not going to continue doing this. If I feel strong and healthy and want to play, then I'll probably keep up the team. The core of this club has been great to socialize and play soccer with. I look forward to being back on the soccer field with teammates I know and respect. Managing the club, though, is not nearly as much fun when you're not playing. FCSudwerk.com: What will happen to this website should the team fold? LaMar: I'm pretty addicted to the website. So, I don't know, maybe I'd turn it into a general interest soccer site. However, I must say, the best thing about this site is having something unique to report on. Having real players and a real team all its own give FCSudwerk.com the luster that it has, in my opinion. FCSudwerk.com: If you were forced to shut down the club and its website tomorrow, after all the time and effort you've devoted to them, would you have any regrets? LaMar: No, not at all. First of all, I've met lots of terrific people who have played for this club and forged great friendships with many of them. I expect those relationships to endure, regardless of what happens to the club. My life is richer because of them. Also, of course, I've learned a lot from both managing the team and putting together the website. This has been a labor of love from the beginning. The club has been a great escape -- a nice stress reliever -- from my busy daily life. And most importantly, the team and the people on it have served as an inspiration to get in shape, stay in shape and most recently, recover from a discouraging knee injury. I owe everyone a big "thank you" for that. ## |