The first issue of a new sports weekly will come out in the beginning of Fall term.
"The Sports Weekly," run by Brad Parks '96, was recently recognized as a College publication by the Committee on Student Organizations.
Parks said he hopes to have the first issue out on Monday, Sept. 26 and publish every Monday through the rest of the term. He also plans to publish in Winter and Spring terms.
He said he decided to form the weekly because he said there is no other way for students to get information about all of Dartmouth's sports teams.
"I guess there is really no vehicle out there right now that does justice to all of Dartmouth sports," he said. "No one is really doing an adequate job of sports coverage."
Parks said because he is recognized by the College he has access to things like a billing account and mailing labels. He said it makes it a more legitimate publication, and also gives it more staying power.
He has been thinking about starting the paper since Winter term, and said actually getting COSO recognition was "the easy part."
He presented a constitution and a statement of purpose to COSO in early July.
Park said his weekly will be four pages long and will be printed at the Claremont Eagle at Claremont, N.H. He said it will be left in piles at dormitories, at the Hinman Boxes, at the Collis Center and at locations in town.
Parks said he hopes to cover every varsity sport at the College &emdash; "not just the spectator sports but the lesser sports that don't get the big crowds."
He said he plans to have "more in-depth coverage of the bigger sports and at least a paragraph or two, standings or schedules about the smaller sports."
Sports Publicity Director Kathy Slattery will be Parks' faculty advisor. Parks currently works for sports publicity and Dartmouth Life and Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, two publications sent to alumni.
He said he will not stop working at the other publications, but added that he probably will not have time during the term to do much more than "The Sports Weekly."
He said he hopes his publication will be read by more than just Dartmouth students.
"This paper is as much for the Dartmouth community as a whole as it is for the Dartmouth student," he said. "There are a lot of community members who are interested in Dartmouth sports."
All alumni get information from sports publicity every month, but Parks said alumni "want something timely."
But he said his primary target will be Dartmouth students.
He cited a poll he is doing for a class that shows more than 80 percent of Dartmouth students are athletically inclined to support the demand for his publication.
"As long as Dartmouth is the way it is, that is a very athletically-minded campus, there will always be a place for it," Parks said.
Dartmouth has a large "wasted-up-gym-rat element" of people who are very into sports but do not have enough ability to play at a Division I level, Parks said.
In his weekly, he said he hopes to have complete coverage of the weekend events, along with statistics and schedules. He said he may have intramural coverage and more in-depth, feature stories.
Parks said he is still working on how the weekly will be funded.
COSO "hasn't given me any money yet," he said. "I'm looking into it from all different angles. Obviously I'm looking at alumni, parents and advertising."
Although he still will be on campus for the next two years, Parks said he hopes "The Sports Weekly" will be around for a long time.
"That's the way I've set it up," he said. "Looking at the structure of the thing &emdash; I'd really like this to keep going. It's something that's really needed on campus."
