Archive for General

John Miller | February 16, 2013
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PARDON OUR PROGRESS: Site Moving/Upgrading

I just want to give you guys a quick update on the site. In the next 2 weeks or so, there won’t be many articles posted since I am hard at work moving the site to a new location. It will be completely redesigned, have TONS of new features, and I’m even bringing on a couple of new writers. The new site will basically be a completely new entity and will even have a new name.

So please bear with me during this transition period and thanks again for your support!

(In other news: Did you see what our amazing baseball team did last night?)

Category: Baseball, General | Tags: , , , , ,
John Miller | February 5, 2013
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FACILITY UPGRADES: App State Announces Strategic Plan

appstatestadiumenhancements

Appalachian State announced its new strategic plan today. You can view the full plan HERE.

In case you’re too lazy to read it, here are some of the highlights:

*Planned Facility Enhancements (Just the highlights)

  • Football – Add premium seating and general seating
  • Track & Field/Field Hockey – Permanent facilities
  • Basketball – Establish an alternate practice location for basketball
  • Basketball – Construct a weight room in the Holmes Center
  • Baseball - Expand stadium seating to include all chair-back seating
  • Baseball - On-site weight room
  • Softball - Construct an indoor hitting facility
  • Tennis - Develop indoor facility
  • Soccer – Possibly build new on-campus facility
  • Golf - Develop a driving range/short game practice area

Does this mean we are finally getting rid of the track around the football stadium? It didn’t spell that out, but it did say we were finding a new home for the track. If so, this is the facility enhancement I’m most looking forward to.

*Secondary reference is now “App State” not “ASU”

Thank goodness. As much as we would like to think we own “ASU” everyone immediately thinks of Arizona State. App State is our brand and personally I like it better anyway.

*Change the official website from GoASU.com to AppStateSports.com

I never did like GoASU as a name. Definitely an improvement.

*Cheerleading & Band Travel No Longer Funded with “Athletics” Money

I don’t really care how they’re funded, as long as they’re funded. If it means that more money is available for other athletics stuff, and cheerleading & band travel still get their money from somewhere, it sounds good to me.

*The slogan “No Equal” is no more.

It was getting old anyway. “Always Attack” anyone?

Overall, I think it’s an excellent plan. But I would make building a new track, and removing/covering up the old one, priority #1.

Category: Football, General | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | January 29, 2013
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VIDEO: Appalachian State’s Austin Trotman on the Rise

Austin Trotman is definitely one of my favorite all-time App State athletes. He’s still training at App and also with Team USA. He slipped at the World Cup trials but he’s working hard in preparation for the Olympic trials.

Category: General | Tags: , , , , , , ,
John Miller | January 27, 2013
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GRAPHICS: App State Mobile & Desktop Wallpaper Gallery

Twitter user @WelcomeToApp has made a ton of really cool App State wallpapers. He graciously offered to let me put them on the site for you to enjoy. Just click the image to preview it, then if you like it, click “view full-size” on the bottom right corner, and save it.

Make sure you thank @WelcomeToApp by following him on Twitter!

How to make the image your wallpaper:
iPhone/iOS: Click HERE for instructions.

Android: Click HERE for instructions.

Windows: Right click the image and select “Set as background”

Mac: In your browser, click on image and drag to your desktop. Hold down the Control button on your keyboard while clicking on an empty area of your desktop. Choose “Change Desktop Background.” Navigate to the photo that you have chosen and click on it

Category: Football, General | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | January 24, 2013
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Movies Shot in the High Country: Goodbye Solo

Some of you may not know this, but before I started this App State site I had a movie review site. I thought it might be fun to occasionally take a look at movies that were shot in the high country.

To start it off, this is 2008′s “Goodbye Solo”. The trailer doesn’t do it justice, it’s an uncomfortable, but worthwhile look at two unlikely friends; a Senegalese cab driver and an old Southern man filled with regret. Currently it’s sitting at a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t say it’s a great date movie, but if you’re in the mood for something like this, you won’t soon forget it.

The movie is primarily shot in Winston-Salem and Blowing Rock. Among other things you’ll see the actual Blowing Rock and the Linville Viaduct. The fact that you’ve actually been to these places adds an interesting element to the movie.

Director Ramin Bahrani was born in Winston-Salem and is highly acclaimed. This particular movie was an official selection at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. It even won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at Venice.

So if you’re into artsy films about serious subjects, and you wouldn’t mind seeing some of the high country on film, check out “Goodbye Solo”.

Category: General | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | January 8, 2013
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FCS BRACKET CHALLENGE: Final Leaderboards

Sorry for the delay! I’m sure by now you know that NDSU won the FCS National Championship. Congrats to Hapapp on winning the whole thing! Thanks to everyone who participated!

North Dakota St 39 / Sam Houston St 13

To review the bracket you submitted click HERE.

Here are the final leaderboard results: …READ MORE

Category: Football, General | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | January 1, 2013
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AppStateNation: Now Optimized for Windows 8

appstatenationwindows8

If you’ve made the switch to Windows 8, here’s a tip on how to add AppStateNation as a live tile on your metro page. Technically you can do this with any website, but now you’ll get custom graphics when doing it on this site.

FIRST: Make sure Internet Explorer is your default browser. Then open up AppStateNation.com up in Internet Explorer from your metro page.

swipeup

 

pinit

And you should get something like the picture at the top. (Click and hold the live tile to move it around)

Category: General |
John Miller | December 30, 2012
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AppStateNation: Top-10 Posts of 2012

appstatenation

It’s been a great year! I want to thank everyone who read the site, commented, chatted with me on Twitter, and made this a fun site to run!

I wouldn’t say these were neccessarily my best posts of the year, but these were the most popular. Obviously conference realignment was a huge topic this year, and you’ll see that reflected in the top-10. It’s kind of interesting to look back now at all of the rumors and to see now which ones of them actually came to pass.

10. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: Sun Belt Commissioner Talks Expansion, Mentions Georgia Southern

In this article, I quoted the Sun Belt Commissioner as saying he didn’t expect the Sun Belt to add anymore teams “this year”. Turns out he was right.

9. Football Recruiting: App State Lands 4-Star Oregon Transfer WR

Tacoi Sumler was a high-profile recruit for App State. He only saw playing time in 6 games this season for a total of 5 grabs for 47 yards. He also had 5 kickoff returns for 97yds. It’s still too early to tell for him, I’m hoping to see him have a breakout season next year.

8. CONTEST: AppStateNation’s 2013 NCAA Div-I FCS Bracket Challenge

I hope to make this a yearly event! Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

7. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT RUMOR: Davidson/Charleston/Furman/StonyBrook ALL to the CAA?!

This rumor ended up being mostly true. Stony Brook did join the CAA for football and Charleston joined in all sports but football (which they don’t play). Davidson was in fact offered, but they said no (for now). As for the Furman rumor, I’m thinking maybe that one was just talk.

6. SOURCE: Scott Satterfield to be Announced As Next Head Coach at App State

I definitely got lucky with this article, a decent source approached me with info that Scott Satterfield would be the next head coach. Obviously he was right, and because of him I was able to break the news here first.

5. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: MAC Commissioner Talks Expansion

Honestly, I’m surprised this wasn’t further up the list. I obsessively look for conference realignment news and I stumbled upon this unknown podcast interview with the MAC’s commissioner. I still don’t think the MAC will offer us anytime soon, but I do hope we are at least pursuing it as a backup plan to the Sun Belt.

4. TWITTER RUMORS: Georgia Southern & Appalachian State to be Added to Sun Belt?

This was a pretty recent post and the rumors have so far been wrong. I think that the Big East breakup is largely to blame, otherwise I think this would have actually happened. Now we are in wait and see mode until the Big East does something.

3. Fashion Police: Appalachian State’s New Throwback Jerseys

This one was popular because, for whatever reason, people really like to see cool jerseys. A lot of the people who read this post weren’t even App State fans. Since this post the jerseys have grown on me, but I’m still glad they were used just for one game.

2. App Alumni: Former ASU Dance Team Captain is a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader

Along with breaking the Scott Satterfield news, this was probably one of the best articles of the year. I follow a lot of people on Twitter and Facebook that go to App. I happened to see a post from one of her friends congratulating her on becoming an NFL cheerleader. I did some digging and found out she was the former ASU dance team captain and boom, you have this article. Later on I got to interview her and had a fun time with that.

1. REPORT: CAA Formally Invites Appalachian State, Davidson, & Charleston

I learned a little about which sources to trust with this article. Although it’s true these schools were contacted, “formally invited” may have been too strong in reference to Appalachian State. We might never know, but it doesn’t look like we seriously considered the CAA as an option. Charleston did end up going to the CAA and Davidson was offered but after consideration said no.

Thanks again and I hope you continue to check out the site in 2013! Don’t forget to follow AppStateNation on Twitter and Facebook!

Category: ConferenceRealignment, Football, General | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | December 26, 2012
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APP STATE BASEBALL: 2013 Schedule Released / RPI Analysis

baseball

Following the best season in Appalachian State baseball history, our boys have their work cut out for them. This year we’re sporting a new head coach, Billy Jones. But we lost a ton of players to the pros.

Here’s a look at the schedule released today, I added each team’s RPI from last season. App State finished #33, although with our coaching change and personnel losses that may be unrealistic this year.

____________________________

Feb 15 @ NC State #13

Feb 16 @ NC State #13

Feb 17 @ NC State #13

Feb 18 CANISIUS #192

Feb 23 BUTLER (DH) #275

Feb 24 BUTLER #275

Feb 26 @ High Point #122 …READ MORE

Category: Baseball, General | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
John Miller | December 26, 2012
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PETITION UPDATE: Jerry & Margaret Moore Express Their Thanks

JerryandMargaretMoore

Remember the petition to rename our stadium in honor of former head coach Jerry Moore? It’s currently at 640 signatures and was featured in an article by the school newspaper. It was sent to the Board of Trustees, and at least one of them openly expressed their support.

But I also wanted to make sure it reached Jerry Moore himself, so that he would know how much we appreciate what he did for our school. That is, afterall, the ultimate goal of renaming the stadium after him anyway. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a way to contact him. So I sent a few emails and was able to get a copy of the petition laid on his desk!

Very fittingly, Jerry Moore and his wife Margaret received it on Christmas! Mrs. Moore sent me a long thoughtful email in response that made my day. As much as I would like to post the whole thing here, it didn’t seem appropriate since it was a personal email.

But I will share with you this snippet as a special thanks for helping sign the petition!

Whether anything comes of it or not…just knowing he has the support of so many people, young and old, means so much to both of us…You are much appreciated.  We hope you and yours have had a Merry Christmas and we wish for you a blessed 2013.

Thanks again!

Category: Football, General | Tags: , , , , , ,
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