Team Rhino
HOW PITCH TO THE RHINO WAS CONCEIVED
By Jose Boza aka Rhino Blast @joseboza.
Last year, I was noticing an increase of how athletes, sports teams, sports reporters and executives and even team mascots were utilizing social media to promote their brands, news, games, etc. Like many, I followed my favorite teams, sports reporters, news outlets and players through the various social media outlets, such as Twitter to get my news fix. During that time, I thought it would be interesting if there was a news outlet/website that reported all of the exciting things occurring in the world of sports through social media.
Life continued, and it didn’t truly cross my mind until a year later. It’s now 2010, Social Media is here to stay, and who knows what will be the next Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Four Square, etc., but I did realize that its connection to sports was growing with great popularity and no particular outlet was reporting on it. I searched everywhere and I didn’t find one news outlet that focused on the niche of sports through social media. With the idea fresh on my mind, I thought of the one person who would be perfect to work with on this project. That person was fellow South Florida public relations professional, Toby Scott Srebnik. We hit it off from the beginning when we met last year. We both had a lot in common from sports, public relations and our love for social media. Overall it was a natural fit.
I had meant to call Toby, but had not found the right opportunity to propose the new venture. By chance, one Saturday, Toby called me to discuss a friend we both have in common on Facebook, who worked with him in college at the FSU newspaper and went to high school with me. We went on a tangent about the old Montreal Expos, Tim Raines aka the Rock, Gary Carter at the plate and Andre Dawson the Hawk. In the middle of the conversation, I shared this idea about a website reporting on the mesh of social media and sports.
All I heard was silence at the beginning, but it was Toby consuming the information and his brain rolling with ideas. I am a true believer of things happening for a reason and timing. The idea of social media and sports crossed my mind a year before, but the timing wasn’t right. Now a year later, the timing is perfect with the inclusion of Toby, it’s like Magic and Kareem with the Lakers or the Chicago Bulls’ duo of Jordan and Pippen, ok, sorry for the sports analogies, but you get the drift.
A couple of days after, Toby suggested an old friend, Jarret Streiner, to be our webmaster, and also a sports nut to join our team. He was another solid fit for our team, bringing his website design expertise and a variety of creative ideas to the table. He was the person who suggested the name “Pitch to the Rhino” after a grueling brainstorming session of names for the site.
We don’t know where the ‘Pitch to the Rhino’ venture will take us, but we know that it is something we will love producing and our passion of sports and social media will translate to our readers. From football, baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, tennis to cricket, rugby, Jai-Alai, lacrosse, if it’s a sport and it has a social media element, we will cover it.
Rhino Photo Courtesy of Lion Country Safari.
