Volleyball Schedule is Out and Commentary on Local Media and The Seldon Tragedy
Hello everyone.
As always, thanks so very much for reading AGGREGATOR, the only source for NM State news and insight.
I want to thank the new paid subscribers to AGGREGATOR to the roster. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support. This is critical to the survival of this column.
FOR THE NEXT 33 DAYS, YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A YEAR OF AGGREGATOR’S PAID SUBSCRIPTION FOR 20% LESS! That’s about 10 cents a day. You can’t buy anything with 10 cents, but if you put a few of them together, you can have a year of AGGREGATOR and a year of Aggies news and notes.
This link will give you the discount:
https://goaggies.substack.com/c4f0327d
It will go away by August 31st, which is day 1 of the football season.
During Football, expect extra content on the paywall, plus other things you won’t see on the free side of things.
Don’t get me wrong, the Free side of AGGREGATOR already does more than any other outlet, but if you want football coming out of your nose, click that link above and sign up at a discount. Support Independent Journalism.
No word on if I made the cut for Las Cruces’ best columnist though. Stay tuned on that :).
2024 Volleyball Schedule Released
Earlier this week, I was complaining that we didn’t have a finalized volleyball schedule. I won’t say my complaints were answered, because I think they could care less about me, but anyway, the schedule was released and it is a hearty, strong schedule.
A couple of road invitationals highlight the start of the regular season, including matchups against Coastal Carolina, UCLA and Georgia Tech in Atlanta on August 30-September 1st in a very strong field.
A trip to the state capital of California is next where the Aggies will play San Franciso, Sacramento State, and CSUN on successive days starting September 5th.
Home schedule kicks off with the Border Invitational. Texas Southern, Abilene Christian, and Arizona over the course of two days in Cruces.
After that, for the first time since 2019, UNM and NM State will renew their Battle of I-25 Rivalry with a home and home. At UNM on 9-17 and back here in Las Cruces on 9-19. Two games against low majors follow as the Aggies play Southern on 9-20 and UIW the next day.
CUSA Play will follow the same back-to-back games against one opponent model, which I get works really well to mitigate travel costs.
Conference play opens 9/27-28 against new CUSA member Kennesaw State with the home schedule for CUSA opening a week later 10/4-5 against LA Tech.
Both games against UTEP will follow in El Paso and the home conference finale will be 11/8-9 against Jax State.
But good news, volleyball lovers! UTEP will be hosting the CUSA Volleyball Tournament at the end of November, so quasi-home games for NM State are in the mix, so Aggies fans should plan accordingly to make it to memorial gym in El Paso to root on an Aggies team who made it all the way to the CUSA finals last season.
Commentary: It’s a really strong schedule, and back to back invitationals on the road, especially 2 of the first 3 games against P5 teams will test the Aggies Volleyball Players mettle. It will be such a treat to see the Battle of I-25 again for this sport, and I have never attended one of the rivalry games before, something that will change this season.
With all the additions in Volleyball this season, expect a lot of fireworks from this team, and don’t be surprised to see them in the top of the conference standings with a little luck and a lot of hard work.
Commentary: Andre Seldon Coverage Thrived and Was Well-Told on Local TV News and Failed Miserably in Print
It’s been a slow news week in Aggies land, but it will most certainly pick up in the coming days, and I will be frank, I will likely have something for you almost every day between Mid-August and March. Yikes. I put my foot in my mouth too many times when I talk about how there is no coverage of NM State.
But I will say one thing: It is HARD to try to cover everything. I get why some people are not cut out for it. I really do. I try my hardest to support people who write for a living, who tell stories for a living. I subscribe to a couple of substacks like I ask you to do for mine. I want to have a belief that there is a world out there of people who are eager to tell stories.
A lot of my criticism, which comes in SUPPORT of New Mexico State University, and to a lesser extent, the high school kids of this town is warranted. I say lesser extent for HS because I don’t follow HS Sports either as a reporter or fan, and have only a passing interest because of friends who have kids on teams. Cruces needs someone to step up with that in a big way. I’ll handle NM State, thank you very much.
But last Saturday, my weekend was barreled over by the tragic news that Andre Seldon, former Aggies standout, passed away in Utah, the victim of a tragic accident at the far too young age of 22.
Now, I was one of the first people to hear about this news as the sun was still shining on Las Cruces and Seldon’s place of passing in Utah. I want to thank my sources, and thank them for the trust that they have in me to do the right thing by news like that.
Of course, others heard about it, and it was hard to comprehend for a lot of folks, and a lot of people were getting things ready in preparation of the announcement.
Local TV stations covered it well after it was announced. Bea Martinez of KVIA and Kelly Horyczun of KTSM, two women who were NOT here when Andre Seldon played football, just arriving this spring, did an admirable job in reporting the news, because regardless of what jersey Seldon was wearing at the end, he was an Aggie, and yes, this story had local interest for his big part of the team last year.
KTSM:
Not a fan of the title of their Youtube Video. Andre Seldon Dies at 22 is fine. It’s such a regional thing to immediately ask “how” someone passes.
KVIA:
It’s the responsibility of local news to report on the things that mean a lot to people who watch their programming. Las Cruces is in the DMA (Designated Market Area) of the El Paso stations, and aside from the alleged UTEP Favoritism that some people will say the stations have, both of these stations handled the news admirably.
I’m not one who says the UTEP thing about them. I mean, UTEP is literally right there by all TV stations, so it is a lot easier to just go grab a story in a few minutes for them. NM State sports (when it is about sports) gets treated fairly on the local news.
I am proud of how they covered the story, because it was something that piqued a lot of interest.
Our local newspaper, the Sun-News? Not so much
The Monday edition of the local paper did not cover Seldon’s passing to its alleged 9,000 readers. Sad. For the record, El Paso Times did run a story from the USA Today about it, which is not a local person who wrote it.
It’s paywalled, which should lead to another discussion about what should be paywalled within the newspaper and what shouldn’t.
Obvious news in the 2024 Presidential Race was on the front page, but on the front page as well? A guest column on why people should freeze their credit files. Seriously.
First off, as a bank manager, I can tell you a dozen reasons why you shouldn’t do that. Yes, there is fraud in this world, but freezing your credit is really detrimental to your credit HISTORY…anyway
Secondly, it’s an opinion column on the front page of the paper, when there is so much news afoot in this town. Aside from Seldon, there are things we see in the community every day, there are events happening that should be covered, and none of it is there.
While this particular column I write is an Aggies column, I am also a Las Crucen, and even if I never rooted for the teams I cover, I would care to read an article about someone who meant a lot to the team.
This is an abject failure in coverage, and while I can safely say “We’re good” with this column I write, plus adequate TV coverage, it is still shocking to not have a Las Cruces story of interest in the Las Cruces newspaper.
As for the bulletin, they did write about it…2 1/2 days later. While I can appreciate their efforts, it was something that impacted a community, a team, and everyone on social media for a good amount of time this weekend.
I think I have earned your trust already with AGGREGATOR. I seek no additional validation from this commentary other than you telling me “Good job,” and if I stink, having a decent relevant critique of my work can help me.
I was fortunate enough to have over 20,000 people read my Seldon column, that is 2x the Sun News and Bulletin. It’s overwhelming
Note, most of those 77 new subscriptions are free. I will keep working hard to earn your trust and your contributions to my work.
But 21,100 readers when I typically get 4,000 on a good story tells me there is a market out there for news and people are underserved. While I know there was a lot of readers from Utah and Michigan in my column, the fact of the matter is if you are in the news industry, you should want anyone from anywhere to read your stuff.
The stats I shared are proof that people are here to read things they care about if you just write about it. I thank you for the trust every single day, folks, and I hope if you believe in me, you hit that paid subscribe button. Take advantage of the discount.
When I critique others, it’s not to shame them to put my work on a pedestal. We can tell so many GREAT stories together if we work hard at it. For the most part, the print news industry has not been kind to this writer, and I get why. I tell it like it is, and sometimes, people don’t get that, nor do they like that.
There’s a ton of you who email me often just your thoughts, and I love that. I live for that, and I appreciate that. Keep doing it. It shows you trust me, and that’s the biggest compliment!
My email is open to any of you. thenotoriousbanker@gmail.com
But I am going to keep doing what I do, and if they keep doing what they do, they won’t be there very long.
James
I will be back for a lot more next week. So much football coming out. I will have an “Olympic” themed column as well, since I am watching the games. Hope you are too.
Thanks again!
JAMES BACA - AGGREGATOR