Hello, and welcome to the website. I hope you stay a while, look around, read some stories, browse some photos (and eventually, some videos) and basically enjoy the experience. And please, feel free to come back as many times as you want. Heck, I hope you make a visit to this website part of your everyday life.
My name is Stephen Hart. I’ve been a professional writer since 1989. From late November of that year until the summer of 2017, I was a reporter for The Staten Island Advance, serving primarily as a sportswriter and columnist (with a rewarding 18-month run as a news reporter from 2003-04 in the middle of it all). I wore several other hats while at the newspaper, but I always considered myself a writer first and foremost. I loved the art of crafting a story, making it clear and understandable and entertaining and informative for the reader – whether it was about a high school soccer game or an emotional profile of a teen overcoming off-the-field hurdles to succeed.
Over the last six years, after leaving the Advance to work full time as a teacher, I have continued to flex my writing muscle by doing stories for magazines and websites, along with showing off for my students as moderator of the school’s creative writing club. Primarily, those stories haven’t been on sports; many have pertained to movie reviews and film commentary (being a cinephile is one of my other loves).
Still, there was a void I needed to fill. I wanted to get back to writing on a consistent basis, and I wanted to get back to writing about what I love most and know best – sports. And while I covered my share of pro sports, for my likely audience of hometown Staten Islanders, their primary focus is high school sports. So, this website will predominantly be about that. It will feature some game information — primarily, however, the focus of this website will be about human interest stories in the Staten Island high school sports community. What makes a student-athlete tick … what obstacles has a teen overcome to get on the playing field … what new things are schools doing to help their kids reach their goals. Old-fashioned “feel good” stories.
The stories will be accompanied by my photography (a skill I picked up over the last few years at the Advance) and, once the website is established, video will likely be added. In fact, if players and/or coaches wish to share some of their highlight reels (that they may already be posting on websites like YouTube) – to help increase their profile for prospective colleges, it will certainly be welcomed here with open arms. I will be providing an email address where people can send photos, video or simply news or tips on possible stories that I will try to investigate.
Since the reporting done for this website will begin as a one-man show, I ask for your patience in getting the spotlight on each school. The same goes for giving attention to the wide variety of scholastic sports that are contested here on Staten Island. But I will try to make sure there is as much fresh content as possible daily. Getting help from coaches and athletic directors will go a long way to fulfilling that promise. And while I might need to satisfy my own desire to mix in some pop culture news or pro sports commentary periodically, the focus of this website will be Staten Island high school sports and its outstanding scholar-athletes.