Greetings everyone, I have some exciting announcements in regards to the future state of the Trojan Nation website. Things have been quiet since the remarkable run the Trojans' Boys' Basketball team made in the state playoffs, ultimately advancing to the title game in Hershey. Although we fell short to a far better team, there is no shame in the year the team had and they, as well as the community and alumni from all over the globe should be proud of them.

Summertime is here but make no mistake about it, football season will be here before you know it. There are a few exciting enhancements to the Trojan Nation website, some more noticeable than others, so I'll take the time to break each one down.

****NEW URL: the website can now be reached by simply typing www.trojannation.net (sorry, .com was taken, by who I'm not sure). Not only is there no more need to type that annoying "tripod" in the address bar, but you'll notice a nice upgrade to the site once you get there. NO MORE BANNER ADS OR POP-UPS! From a technical standpoint this is a great thing as there were certain pop-up ads that were interfering with some scripts and not letting the homepage fully load. Big problem that is now, hopefully, solved.

Also, the page just looks more crisp and professional without the ads. For one thing, Tripod takes keywords from the site to randomly decide what ads are displayed and I was getting a lot of ads for virus protection because of the Trojan Horse viruses. Well, no more of that.

And with the dedicated domain name I have a dedicated email address. Although I will still keep the trojannation@yahoo.com account open, all future writing done will feature the new address: doug.keklak@trojannation.net. Again, another small enhancement but big on professionalism and perception.

****CONTENT: If you scroll down the left hand side of the homepage you will see a new Daily Feature. On Sundays a "Report Card" will be issued for the game that just took place. We will grade the offense, defense, special teams and coaching of both JHS and their opponent for the week.

As you can see, this means there will be new content EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK. While this is a lofty goal it is something I am confident that we can deliver on.

All other daily content themes will remain the same. I also will continue to update standings and scores throughout the entire western region of the state during the year on the Standings/Scoreboard page. The "Countdown to 600" will continue as well.

The athletic department has always been very good at getting me schedules for the different sports seasons. As soon as I get the fall sports schedules they will be posted on the Schedules page.

The Photo Album page will continue to see limited entries. I cannot give the writing I do for this site the dedication it needs without paying attention to the game. Attempting to take photos can be distracting. I will take my camera to games but cannot guarantee if photos will be available on a regular basis. Some local photographers were kind enough last year to donate some photos for my use. Please email me if you'd like to/or know someone that would be willing to donate a few pics here and there.

The relationship with PennLive has been great thus far. They have been pleased with the work I have done and allowed me to continue with the Southwestern PA Sports Blog well after football season. I wrote on the winter and spring sports seasons and will cover some AAABA and American Legion ball this summer on a limited basis thereby bridging the summer gap.

The Rankings will be a bit revamped. Unfortunately, the rankings project didn't pan out on a few levels last season. First, WFNN never contacted me to discuss them on the air as was originally planned. Also, I underestimated the amount of time and energy that would have to go in this project.

Now that there is a better understanding of what goes in to a ranking system, for 2005 we are going to attempt to do a large school (AAAA and AAA) and a small school (AA and A) ranking system. Right now there will be a top ten, whether that will be expanded or not is yet to be determined. Of course, these won't be statewide rankings, only teams in District 5 & 6. These rankings will be posted both on Trojan Nation and the Southwestern PA Sports Blog.

****CHAT AND MESSAGE BOARD: Many of you know that the precursor to the Trojan Nation website was the Johnstown High Football Yahoo Group. Although with most of the content now being posted directly to the website, this group has become somewhat obsolete. However, I will not close it because it has a chat feature. I am hoping to organize a chat session once a week for no more than an hour. In that time we can talk about the game that just went down, the game coming up or whatever really. I think I threw Tuesdays at 9:00p.m. as a time and I am interested in some feedback as to what times work for people.

On a similar note, I set up a message board last year during the basketball run. It got limited action but not as much as I would have liked. I am hopeful that football will cause more people to want to go there and post thoughts. I’m not looking for it become as active as the boards on PennLive but I wouldn’t mind some good threads popping up there this fall.

****NEW CONTRIBUTORS: Last but most definitely not least I am happy to announce that I will have three new people joining me and writing for the site. Now when I refer to “we” it will really be true! I will add full bios on the “About Us” page soon, but for now, here’s a thumbnail:

Please join me in welcoming these three very valuable additions to the Trojan Nation staff.