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At the end of 2023, I penned an "open letter" to our audience. The theme of that letter was that we at The Stride Report needed to, "learn to be aggressive."
Initially, I thought that we had fallen short of that mantra in 2024. After going through the seasons, there didn't seem to be a particular moment over the last year that dramatically altered the long-term direction of our site.
However, upon deeper reflection, there were actually numerous improvements that boosted our value proposition. In fact, if I told myself this time last year that we would accomplish everything that we did in 2024, my former self would be thrilled!
But in my world, there is no time to stop and smell the roses.
Instead, there are many more flower patches to water.
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In 2024, our site got a much-needed makeover. We published a more uniform layout with easier-to-navigate pages, all while reinforcing the modern-day, minimalistic feel of our brand. Frankly, that was long overdue.
We also began to expand our coverage with the introduction of NAIA content! And while that area of coverage is still a work in progress, it does feel like we took a big step in the right direction (our preseason NAIA rankings are coming later this month, by the way).
I would also argue that we were far more consistent when it came to covering the high school realm across all three seasons. A large part of that was due to the effort and reliability of our lead analyst, Donny Speas. Now, we're beginning to further invest (albeit, lightly) in that area.
During the summer, TSR showed that we still had our fastball by first reporting that Coach Sean Carlson had been hired as Colorado's next Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. That was a tough day for my phone's battery.
2024 was also the first full calendar year where we sent freelancers out to meets across all three seasons. If you follow us on Instagram or subscribe to us on YouTube, then you likely saw an uptick in the content quality shown on those pages.
Back in October, The Stride Report live streamed our very first meet, the Lewis XC Crossover! And while we certainly want to make improvements in the future, we felt like our streaming debut could largely be viewed as a success.
There were also a handful of things that went our way, internally.
Platforms like Instagram, Threads and YouTube began to pay us for posting content. Our Division Two and Division Three editor, Gavin Struve, reached a point of sustainability where he can now operate on his own (and, more importantly, without me). We've also added a large handful of writers to our team, bringing on six new names across a variety of divisions in the last few months.
And yet, despite all of that, I can't help but want to give all of you more in terms of value...much, much more.
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Someone asked me recently what I would be doing if I wasn't overseeing The Stride Report. And truthfully, I couldn't come up with an answer. I couldn't envision a scenario where I wasn't doing this on a day-by-day basis.
I am absolutely in love with the grind, in love with the challenge and in love with the long-term vision of what this website could be. I think you can also see the same passion reflected in our writer's work from this past year.
However, being as deeply invested in something as I am can also make you go a little crazy. We are, after all, in a constant chase to offer more and more value for our readers, but we're also bound by the confines of what is fiscally and logistically appropriate.
What are responsible investments to make in a business as niche as this? What are ways that we can offer more value for you without sacrificing fundamental parts of our website's identity? How do we invest more time in scaling when so much of our time is already being put towards writing lengthy, in-depth articles? What risks are worth taking? Which risks are not?
Admittedly, I don't know what the answers to those questions are...yet.
But what I do know is that no platform in this sport has as much upside as we do. There are so many different ways that we could expand across a variety of different verticals. And despite streaming our very first meet and expanding our coverage in 2024, I think we can be twice -- maybe even thrice -- as ambitious in 2025.
As a wise philosopher once said, "The ceiling is the roof."
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Since it's inception, I've always said that I had grand dreams for this website -- even if I didn't always know what those dreams looked like. And yet, at the end of every year, I can't help but look in awe at how far we've come.
Pretty much no one read this website for the first year-and-a-half from when I launched it. The only exception to that was my mom, my very first reader and my very first editor who has long since retired from that latter role because, "You guys put out way too much content for me to keep up."
Nowadays, we can reach up to 100,000 users who visited our website in a 365-day span. That doesn't even include the traffic that we get on all of our other platforms.
But make no mistake, we are not satisfied with what we have accomplished.
Instead, we're looking forward to what could be next.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to support us over the years. It has been, and always will be, an honor to wake up every day and serve you with content.
Your loyal admin,
Garrett Zatlin
The Stride Report