Introduction to Story of the Season and Founder Chris Herman

My name is Christopher Herman, and I am the founder and CEO of Story of the Season, a sports media marketing company that works with high school and college sports programs to fundraise, provide top-tier media coverage, and give student athletes a way to remember their careers.  I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, and in high school, I was a quarterback on the football team. 

I was recruited to play football at Oberlin College, a Division III (DIII) college in Ohio.  Playing DIII football had an enormous impact on my personal, academic, and professional growth-- my collegiate football career led me to lifelong friends and mentors. In fact, the first two investors in Story of the Season were Oberlin alumni, a former football player and a basketball player. Some of my fondest memories are playing football with my closest friends, lifting together in the weight room, and making big plays under the Friday night lights on Friday nights. Unfortunately, I am left with little more than those memories-- I have a handful of newspaper clippings that my dad kept for me and a highlight video of my senior year, but I have no other means of remembering my career. 

Fast forward to today, March 25, 2024, and  Story of the Season has transformed from a small idea to a profitable, fast-growing company that is revolutionizing how schools promote their sports programs, how they fundraise and, in an increasingly technological world, how they share their story. Over the past decade Story of the Season has worked with hundreds of high school and college sports programs to engage coaches, players, alumni, parents, and fans in a novel--and profitable--way that also provides teams media coverage like the pros and gives athletes a way to remember their careers. 

Not only do we want to bring Story of the Season to every high school and college  in America, but we also want to be an authoritative resource for coaches, booster clubs, athletic directors, social media managers, athletes, and parents on fundraising, building a program’s digital presence, and building or strengthening each program’s ties to the community.  To that end, these blog posts will touch on a wide variety of topics, ranging from fundraising opportunities and pitfalls to building a team’s brand. 

To kick things off, I and the rest of the team at Story of the Season will release a weekly series of blog posts addressing high school sports fundraising and marketing.  These blogs will include detailed case studies of different sports programs’ unique fundraisers, as well as our insights into why they are or are not successful.  We will also share unique and creative ideas for amplifying these fundraisers and share best practices for successfully executing the purportedly tried and true fundraisers, such as discount cards, cookie dough, donation campaigns, business sponsors and others. 

With respect to fundraising, we will also provide insight on how to utilize corporate and business sponsorships to raise a ton of money and drive deeper ties with the business and the community.  

In addition to fundraising, we will share valuable and actionable insights and ideas for giving your team a professional digital presence on social media that transforms its brand and elevates the experience for your players, parents, alumni and fans.

We will give you cheat codes and shortcuts to creating digital (and print) media and graphics to highlight your players - so you can save time promoting your program each week. 

I am so excited about what we are building here at Story of the Season and I can’t wait to share more with you!