5 Questions With Goon Squad Sarah

Speaking of women who really love sports - today's guest is Goon Squad Sarah. I'll let her give you the intro:

I was born in Ohio but I grew up in Tampa. Now I live in the DC Metro Area with my husband and four year old b/g twins. I went to High School in Tampa and I attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

I write for Sarah and the Goon Squad, BlogHer, Draft Day Suit, MamaPop, DC Metro Moms Blog, Loser Moms, and Sarah reviews Stuff Here.

1. What got you started blogging and how did you get involved in sports blogging? Which are your favorite topics to write about?

I started blogging when I my twins were a year old. I needed an outlet to speak in complete sentences. Being a stay at home mom was driving me crazy. I had a couple of friends that were bloggers and I decided to give it a try. I honestly never thought I would write a second post. That was over three years ago and I rarely miss a day now.

I started out as a Mommyblogger. I was writing about my day to day life. When football season rolled around I started talking about the Bucs. I have been a huge Buccaneers fan for years now and it was just natural for the subject to come up.

In 2006 I went to my first BlogHer conference. BlogHer.com was still fairly new and I approached Lisa Stone and suggested that the website needed someone covering women blogging about sports. They ended up hiring me for the job. I have been writing for them for over two years now and I am shocked at how much I have learned about sports along the way. I still like writing about football the best.

2. What sports have you played competitively or otherwise in your lifetime? What, if any, do you continue to play and which are your favorite sports to participate in?

Believe it or not (and if you knew me you would believe it) I am not much of an athlete myself. I played your standard tee-ball, softball, and soccer in elementary school but honestly that is about it. I thought about taking soccer back up in high school until I realized how much running was involved. I hate running. I played a year or two of intramural soccer in college, but even then I wasn't really a big fan of putting myself in harms way for the good of the team. I wasn't a very good goalie.

3. What are your favorite sports and teams to follow? Do you get to many games or are you more of a television spectator? How long have you followed these teams/sports?

My favorite sports team in the whole world is The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I was a raging Orlando Magic fan in the '90s but my love for them is fading. Of course I am a UCF fan, and since my husband is a USF alumni I root for the Bulls too (unless they are playing UCF). I follow the Tampa Bay Lightning and The Washington Capitals, which is a conflict of interest since they are in the same division. I am really trying to find a Washington or Baltimore franchise to love since I live here and can usually get tickets to the games but I am finding that my sports heart is still in Tampa.

I usually get to at least one or two Redskins games a year and one Ravens game. This summer I caught my first Nationals game and I went to my first Orioles game a few weeks ago. My friend Nancy has season tickets to the Capitals and she hooks me up for a couple of games each season and I try to go to at least one Wizards game, even though I have sort of lost my love for the NBA. Of course I try to catch a Bucs game anytime I am back home and they are playing at Raymond James. Honestly, I would go to almost any sporting event I could get tickets to. I love going to games. That being said, I'll watch any football, basketball or hockey game on tv. Watching a baseball game on television bores me to tears.

How long following stats:
Bucs ('84)
Magic ('92)
UCF ('91)
USF ('02)
Lightning ('97)

4. I know you recently went on an interesting road trip that had to do with your blogging career - give me the synopsis on what that was about and what was the most rewarding part of the experience.

In July I took a road trip with four other Mommy Bloggers from Washington D.C. to San Francisco. We stared at my house and ended up at BlogHer.

DC Metro Moms Blog is part of the Silicon Valley Moms Blog umbrella. One of our founders, Jill Asher, got together with Six Apart and Chevy who sponsored four of us blogging our was across the country. GM provided us with a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (which totally kicked ass, and I'm not just saying that because they let me borrow their car) and I woke up at 4:00 am one morning and picked up my friend Devra. We drove to Chicago and picked up Meagan Francis and then we stopped in Omaha, Denver (where we got Aviva), Salt Lake City, and Reno. We stopped by Jill's house in Palo Alto and the five of us showed up at BlogHer. It was amazing and fun and exhausting. We had blogger meet-ups and television interviews all along the way.

I had been to California before, but I'd never been through the Rocky Mountains. They blew me away.

You can still read all about it here

5. What advice would you give to someone that wanted to start a blog? Any different advice for a sports-related blog? What are your favorite types of blogs to read.

I think that everyone should have a blog. It is the most cathartic thing you can do. It's better than primal screaming. (I would imagine anyway, I've never actually done that.)

My advice? Make sure it is fun for you.

My advice to increase traffic? 1) Have a blogroll, 2) Link to other bloggers if you get an idea from them, 3) Comment on other blogs and do so intelligently - or at least be amusing.

My advice for a sports blog? Update in a timely fashion. I can't say I've been doing this on my own sports blog, but that leads me to other advice - don't bite off more than you can chew. *blushes*

My favorite blogs to read are funny sports blogs. I love Kissing Suzy Kolber and The Big Lead. I am also a big fan of parenting blogs. That is what got me started in the first place. All of my favorite blogs have a sense of humor. I prefer posts that aren't too long (I have a very short attention span) and that can make me laugh.