Footbag and David Clavens in The Express Times

david · Post by **david** » 05 Dec 2005 16:52

Friends,

Hi. Today I had an article published about me in the Express Times, a paper that reaches thousands in the Lehigh Valley where I live. The article is below but I'd first like to tell you a little bit about how this oppurtunity came about, so others might be as lucky as I was and give footbag a little bit of attention.

I got this written because I play footbag in gym class everyday. When a student writer for the times saw me play she thought it would be a great idea to write an article. She contacted me and asked me all these questions. She even watched worlds routines to learn more about the game. This has relevance because back in my earlier years of high school I rarely shredded in school, just hacked. I just started this year actually doing tricks in school, and although I got some weird looks, I also got this girl to write an article, something that wouldn't have happened if I kept footbag in my basement.

Overall, just get out there and play. Even if your not ridiculous, you'll still make an impact, and it only takes one person to find the amazement in footbag we have all found. I know I'll be heading out to play a lot more once winter ends.

So here's the article. I think she did a really good job. It's better then that other article from 2 weeks ago. Capturing the essence of shred is hard to do in text, but I think this would be enough to get someone to go to http://www.footbag.org and start on their journey in shred.

If the images are small and unreadable, just save them to your computer, open in a image viewer like paint, and zoom. They haven't added the article online since it just was printed today.

Peace,

David Clavens

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 05 Dec 2005 17:10

Good exposure Dave. Good article too, miles better than the last one. It would have been nice to see "footbag" in the captions and headlines instead of "hacky sack," but once you read the article it explains footbag very well.

I also second Dave's suggestion of playing in public to be seen. I wrote something similar in the Sponsorship topic. Even if footbag sponsors are looking for you, they won't find you unless you put yourself out there (playing in public, having a webpage, writing to newspapers, getting on tv, etc).

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 05 Dec 2005 17:15

Great article, Mr. Clavens. Definitely a good read.

Will Digges · Post by **Will Digges** » 05 Dec 2005 18:10

Wow dave, thats awesome man. Great article, really well written. I wish my school was bigger, and I could find people to write articles about footbag. Pat and I usually play in Gym a lot and after school inside, we have gotten reactions from soccer coaches and other teachers around the school but no propositions of promoting the sport yet.

jon · Post by **jon** » 06 Dec 2005 07:06

Fantastic article! One of the best I have read. It really gets the point across that this is an expanding SPORT and is a serious and competitive activity. Well done David!

BalinorNZ · Post by **BalinorNZ** » 06 Dec 2005 09:27

Good stuff Dave! That was a great article! I think this writer chick digs you man!

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 06 Dec 2005 13:52

Very nice article. Also nice to see your existance proven with a post.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 06 Dec 2005 19:40

Nicely done compared to the last one. It really does reflect on the sport of Footbag much more clearly this time around.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 08 Dec 2005 21:42

props dave, cool article!

on a somewhat related and slightly trippy note... on december 2nd some woman from one of our newspapers e-mailed me and said, "I heard about you from a friend of a friend" and asked if i would do an interview with her to talk about footbag. she looked my info up on footbag.org (woah that's pretty cool!) and fired me an e-mail.

could this be the begining of a rise in footbag popluarity and recognition in NA? only time will tell...