D9SPORTS.COM

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

D9Sports.com is a web site devoted to covering recognized high school sports in the PIAA’s ninth District, which consists of 36 high schools (33 public and 3 private) in the following 11 Pennsylvania counties: Butler (parts), Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield (parts), Elk, Forest (excluding Abraxas), Jefferson, McKean, Potter, Warren (parts) and Venango (parts). School’s located in those counties that are not part of the PIAA will not be covered. The web site is not affiliated with the PIAA or with District 9.

The web site is a mainly voluntarily run site with no money being charged at this time to view the site. We have recently started to find sponsors for various aspects of the web site so that we can continue to provide and expand coverage of the great student-athletes and teams in District 9. 

The goal of the site is to cover as many sports as possible, but because time constraints of the fact that the site is still primarily volunteer in nature may not be possible to give equal coverage to each sport or to give coverage to all sports at all times. Volunteers to help cover sports are always welcome and encouraged.

D9sports.com was formed at the start of the 2000-2001 school year and is starting its eighth season of covering District 9 sports in 2007-2008.

Rosters and schedules can be submitted for every sport. We also expect stories and statistics for football and boys’ and girls’ basketball at this time. Information can be e-mailed to us at d9sports@usachoice.net. If you have any questions about what kind of information we are looking for, we encourage you to send us an e-mail.

Right now e-mail is the best way to submit information to us. If you can't e-mail, please call 814-221-8015 and we will try to find a different way to have you submit the information. 

If your team’s information is not posted it means one of a couple of things. Either we aren’t currently posting information for that sport (ie. no other team’s information for a particular sport is posted either) or your coach hasn’t submitted the information to us. Fans are welcome to submit information for sports that coaches have failed to do so in by e-mailing us at d9sports@usachoice.net.

D9Sports.com was an extension of a KSAC boys’ basketball web site that was formed for the 1999-2000 season by Chris Rossetti and Jonathan Shaffer that was found on GeoCities. In the spring of 2000, Rich Rhoades, then the Sports Editor of the DuBois Courier Express/Tri-County Sunday approached Rossetti, who was the assistant Sports Information Director at Clarion University, the former Sports Editor at the Clarion News and a part-time writer at both the Clarion News and DuBois Courier Express/Tri-County Sunday, and Shaffer, who was a part-time sports writer for the Clarion News and the DuBois Courier-Express and a student worker in the Clarion University Sports Information Office, and suggested forming a web site covering all of District 9.

The idea for D9Sports.com was hatched at Clarion’s County Seat Restaurant in April of 2000 and work on the site began almost immediately with the site going into operation in June of 2000.

Rossetti, Rhoades and Dustin Kifer run D9Sports.com today.

Rossetti dabbles in just about everything to do with local sports and says ones of his favorites is serving as the co host of the All-American Awards & Engraving Monday Evening Quarterback Show live from the RRR Roadhouse in Clarion Mall (Monday's from 6-7 p.m. on C-93, 92.7 FM in Clarion during the football season) while also picking up additional newspaper and some radio work. He is a 1998 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Political Science and Journalism. 

Rhoades now works for WDBA Radio in DuBois He also writes part-time for the DuBois Courier-Express/Tri-County Sunday awhile picking up additional newspaper work. He is a graduate of Grove City College with degree in Journalism and Political Science. He was born in Hawaii but hasn't been back since he was a baby. 

Kifer originally came on board as a contributing writer to D9Sports.com while a student at nearby Union High School. His involvement took a break when he went away to Grove City College, where he graduated with a degree in Secondary Education/Math in December 2007. He recently got a job teaching math at Keystone High School. In addition to his work on the web site and at Keystone, he is also employed part-time by Clarion Broadcasting working both on-air and off-air shifts at C-93, 92.7 FM and 1300 AM in Clarion. He and Rossetti team up to do high school baseball and softball on Radio 13 in the Spring and Summer, and he is also the engineer of the All American Awards & Engraving Monday Evening Quarterback Show live from the RRR Roadhouse in the Clarion Mall.  

In 2001, Shaffer decided because of other commitments to tone down some of his involvement with the web site but remained a part of the site before moving with his wife to Nashville, Tenn., in late July 2004. He remains in close contact with the staff at D9Sports.com and continues to check the web site regularly. He is a sports radio personality/producer for ESPN Radio in Nashville and hosts a Tennessee Titans pre-game show in the fall while also hosting the Chris (Brown) & Chris (Hope) Show on Mondays during the football season. 

No one knows what is in store for D9Sports.com in the future, but the goal is to continue to provide District 9 sports fans with the best possible Internet coverage in not only the district but in the state. New ideas are constantly being discussed and implemented to improve the site.