5 Questions With Lady D Sports

Today's guest is a Memphis, TN native that went to college in Jackson, MS, at a small liberal arts school (Millsaps College). Currently working on her PhD in psychology, Deranda Lester is also the mind behind LadyDSports. "Lady D watches ESPN so you don't have to" is just one of the messages that greets you when you go on the website. She turned off SportsCenter a moment to answer my 5 questions:

1. What inspired you to start the LadyDSports site? What do you hope to accomplish with the site? How long have you been online and what are your goals for the future of the site?

LadyDSports has been up and running since July of 2007. I have been a sports fan my whole life, but when I started dating my now husband my sports fandom really grew. Many of our conversations revolve around the sports world, and I love it. The whole idea for the website began as I started to notice that guys were always impressed with my ability to discuss football at a deeper level than most girls. I thought, “Imagine how great it would have been to have known this stuff as a freshman in college.” So that’s what I’d like to accomplish with this site. I want to provide a venue for women to read sports articles from the female perspective. We try to write articles for women who are wanting to learn more about sports (the football glossary and the girls guide to football) and women who already know and love sports (featured players articles and games of the week). We also have a forum for women to discuss sports. The forum had some activity last year, but we’d like to popularize that more in the future.

2. What sports have you played in your lifetime - competitive of otherwise? Do you play any now? What are your favorite sports to participate in?

The only sport that I ever enjoyed playing was soccer. I played soccer into college, but no longer play now. I’d like to join a coed league that’s started in our community, but I’ll have to wait because I’m expecting a little girl at the end of this month.

3. What are your favorite sports to follow as a fan? Tell me which are your favorite teams in those sports and how long you have followed them.

Football is by far my favorite sport to follow. I love the Tennessee Titans! My husband is a big New Orleans Saints fan, and I pull for them too. My husband also went to Ole Miss, so we hit the Grove as much as we can. I also pull for the UT Volunteers because my family all loves that team in orange and that’s what I grew up cheering for.

4. What are your favorite sports to cover as a writer? Are there any that you purposely ignore? Are there any you wish you had more time for?

Obviously, my favorite sport to cover as a writer is football. There are no sports that I purposely ignore, but there are many that I hardly cover because I just don’t have time. In the future I’d like to develop more of a baseball and basketball section (although we do have some articles on these sports).

5. What is the most rewarding thing about running the Lady D site? The most frustrating?

The most rewarding thing about running LadyDSports is watching it grow. I also never tire of hearing people say “I saw that on LadyD”. My husband is the technical brain behind the scenes, and the more he learns the better the site looks. The most frustrating thing about running a website is finding the time to incorporate all of our ideas. It’s also hard to get word out about the site so that it can grow in popularity and reach more female sports fans.