Change, as they say, is good.

   Change is inevitable.

   I’m not quite sure that’s always the case, but in this instance it is – big changes are coming to Hudson Valley Sports Report for the upcoming high school and college season.

   Simply put, I have been amazed, overwhelmed and gratified by the community response to starting HVSR around this time last year. As with any new venture, there’s always hesitation and trepidation. As much as my wife and I dove headfirst into what we thought was an important niche in our area – starting an online daily sports newspaper that would pick up the slack left by shrinking coverage at the local print newspapers – we didn’t exactly dive into the deep end.

   We hardly did any advertising of our own, save for a few appearances on radio and a couple of appearances on Cablevision’s now-defunct SportsScene show, and depended largely on word-of-mouth. We committed ourselves to doing it for a full year, but we were careful about what to spend, not knowing whether HVSR would be back for a second year.

   Frankly, there was a fundamental, important question that needed to be answered as the year played out – was there a market for this?

   You answered that with traffic numbers that far exceeded our expectations.

   So, now, welcome to Year II of HVSR !

   Allow me to briefly talk about the changes and additions, particularly to our high school coverage, which we hope you will find exciting.

• A new and improved Monday high school page. Remember, unless it’s during state championship time, there are few, if any, high school events on Sundays. That gives us a chance to blow out the “Athlete of the Week” feature into a whole package. Every Monday, HVSR will feature the AOTW; a column by yours truly; a notebook of interesting items you might have missed during the week; a look ahead to the big games of the upcoming week; and a feature we’re going to call “30-Second Timeout With ….” in which we get to know our area athletes a little better.

• The Daily Honor Roll. This feature will highlight the top performances of our local players, with a few interesting tidbits and quotes thrown in.

• More video. Our goal all along was to make HVSR a multi-media site, and this year we’ll be including more video highlights of games and video previews certain games or seasons. To that end, we’ll be introducing …

• The Morning Sportscast. Don’t have time first thing in the a.m. to read everything on the site? Well, then you get to look at the ugly mug of yours truly for 60 seconds. When warranted, I’ll be doing a quick video sportscast that briefly runs down the highlights and scores from the previous night. Trust me, it’ll be quick – I have a face for radio J

• The student’s voice. Who knows better about the high school athlete than the high school athlete? We’ll have some players from the Arlington High School football team rotating a weekly column in the fall, and Spackenkill girls’ basketball star Cat Thompson will be back writing in the winter. If any coaches out there have a player they think would be perfect for writing the high school column, please reach out to rich@hudsonvalleysportsreport.com

• More Breaking News. One of the things that absolutely thrilled me, personally, was re-ingratiating myself back into the community some 13 years after I left the Poughkeepsie Journal. Some of the same coaches from years ago are still at the helm, and some of the athletes I covered back in the day are now coaching in the area. They not only accepted the introduction of Hudson Valley Sports Report, but were instrumental with their help and tips on big breaking news stories throughout the year. We’re proud to say we had at least 15 of those types of stories – coaching changes, league alignment issues, etc. – before any other area media outlet did. And that will continue this year.

• More interactive features. Our polls will be back, and we’re incorporating them into something new and fun called The Bracket Game. Nothing is more popular than filling out your bracket for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, right? Well, we’re going to have our own brackets during the season. Could be best high school program. Could be best high school colors. Could be best snack foods. Who knows? Bottom line is, you’ll get to vote on it and watch as the bracket progresses to a champion.

• New and improved coverage of Marist College. The only Division I school in Dutchess and Ulster counties deserves your attention, so HVSR is proud to announce that Marist students Philip Terrigno and Joseph Brosnan will be working with us to provide you more game coverage and features on the Red Foxes.

• Surprise, surprise. Now and then, we’ll throw you a curveball and have a few surprises for you. Like, um, check out next Monday’s edition of HVSR and see an old friend of ours taking care of a football video preview.

   As always, if you have any thoughts, suggestions or criticisms, drop us an email or just pick up a phone. Everything is on the Contact page.

   Thank you, again, for all that you’ve done in embracing Hudson Valley Sports Report