Meet the New Jazzbots

Posted by Derrick Daye on September 11, 2008

‘Moments after the last interview, Jared (on the right) and I begin the selection process’

This Summer more than 900 Utah Jazz fans from Hawaii to Europe participated in our search for bloggers via an essay contest. We knew from the earliest submissions we would be selecting from a very talented and knowledgeable group of fans. After reading and scoring every entry, we selected 15 for in-person interviews - out of state interviews were conducted by phone. Myself, Brendan Burke and Jared Conger interviewed the candidates at ESA this past Friday and Saturday.

As Jazzbots is the official voice of the Jazz fan we aim to amplify a wide range of perspectives from a diverse group of fans. Because there are so many ‘final score’ sources available our criteria included the ability to creatively share perspectives outside of the performance of our team. We also conducted full background checks to ensure there was no history of cheering for the Lakers.

In the end we selected 13 new members to join J.R. (Jazzaholic), Annie, Jonathan and many of our other returning team members. It may sound cliche’ but the decision was extremely difficult in every step. Who made the team?

Trent Sanders - Salt Lake City, UT
Alex Jepson - Centerville, UT
Mike Mckell - Herriman, UT
Brian McCann - St. George, UT
Tim Gittons - Evanston, WY
The Meyer Family (Mom, Dad, Hugh, Meg, Mallory, McCall) - Provo, UT
Andy Larsen - Riverton, UT
Christie Gardiner - Eagle Mountain, UT
Justin Bytheway - Provo, UT
Bryan Hickman - Washington D.C.
Jeffrey Wank - Los Angeles, CA
Aaron Allen - Brooklyn, NY
Nancy Thompson - Salt Lake City, Fan Flickr Stream Manager

Congratulations to each of you - welcome aboard. And many thanks to those of you who participated in this years search. As is customary, our next search will be next summer. Also, a big welcome aboard to the new 4th graders in Jackie Corbridge’s class and the new 6th graders in Karen Chatterton’s class.

We’re very excited about these additions to our team. This season we will offer more for the serious Jazz fan than ever before. Including an upgrade of Jazzbots itself with a whole new range of community options.

One more note, we’d like to tip our hat to other Jazz blogs that were instrumental in our search and are inspiring great conversations about the team we all love - SLC Dunk, JazzFanz and The Cowhide Globe to name a few.

Here’s to another great season! Go Jazz!

3 Comments

J R Stewart on September 11, 2008 said:

A Laker Lover screening is more important than a criminal background check. We can put up with murders, cheats and liars, as long as they don’t root for the Lakers.

Jazzaholic

Sheri on September 12, 2008 said:

It was fun just to apply to see what the outcome was.

Linda McFarland on September 16, 2008 said:

Congratulations to all the bloggers. I was gone and didn’t hear about the applying process or I would have tried to be there with you. Since I didn’t, I will just have to listen to everyone and jump in with my opinion. Me, have an opinion??!! I can hardly believe that. I get to go to 12 home games this year so they are the best games. We had the drawing and we got the first pre-season games so I am super excited about that!! Go Jazz…..