Spring is a time for statistics.

Baseball is so dependent on numbers and tendencies and probabilities that it’s almost as if someone invented the statistical categories for the game before they invented the game itself. Softball, the same way.

Track and field? It’s all about beating the clock, or stretching the tape just a few inches further with each long jump or shot put throw.

Soccer? There have to be stats for soccer. We want your results online, too, Jacksonville.

If you like stats, spring sports were invented for you. Varsity was invented for you, too. We started the spring season with the Illinois College invitational track meet last Friday, and we’ve already started entering results online. We can’t wait for the first baseball or softball game (isn’t it still a bit cold?) so we can take a look at how Varsity handles those stats.

If you’re a coach, and you’d like to make sure your athletes are recognized on Varsity this spring, please give us a call. We have a user name and a password already set up for you, and we really could use your help. We know coaches are busy people, especially in season, so if you know of a parent who would like to help by entering stats, please let us know.

You might remember me mentioning our Varsity All-Stars. These are the coaches who help us with the Varsity Web site.

Varsity was set up by our people in California so it would be easy to use. Not just for us, but for you, too.

It’s true: The program is very easy to use. However, it takes a lot of time to enter stats. If we had to enter stats for every single game every night, we’d never get done. We just don’t have the staff to do it.

We depend on coaches to help us. Many do. But these are no ordinary coaches. They’re coaches who are so enthusiastic about their sport, or their team, or who are so proud of their players, or who are so appreciative of their team’s fans, or who are just so happy to have the opportunity to coach and touch the lives of our young people that they’re willing to take the time to enter their stats online.

Those are our All-Stars.

It’s a simple stat program, and it’s kind of neat the way they put it together. If you enter stats for each game, the Web site will do the rest, adding together stats for each player game by game. You can compare stats in any number of ways. For basketball, for instance, you can click on points, and the site will rank the players by points. Click on steals, and it will rank the players by steals. But you probably already knew that.

As I said, there are some coaches who think this endeavor is worthwhile enough to help us. Routt football was among the best this year. Coaches entered stats for their games THE NIGHT OF the game. Triopia did, too. West Central always had their stats entered before the weekend was out. Pittsfield, too. And Pleasant Hill.

We had some great ones in basketball as well. Coach Todd Bradshaw made sure Griggsville-Perry’s stats were updated. Calhoun, Waverly, Brown County, Pleasant Hill, A-C Central, Rushville-Industry and even Westfair — they all helped. Others, like Jacksonville, at least furnished all their stats — steals, rebounds, assists and the other things that don’t show up in the nightly box scores.

Girls’ basketball teams helped, too. Waverly girls’ basketball coach Scott Hendricks was a Varsity All-Star. Pleasant Hill. Routt coach Joe Eilering, whose team went further in the playoffs than any other team in the area, filled in all of his team’s stats. Calhoun entered stats and uploaded mug shots of all their players. Absolutely outstanding. Carrollton. Greenfield. Triopia. Brown County. They all helped. Volleyball — Carrie Jo Donnan at A-C Central was a Varsity All-Star. Routt coach Pat Gibson entered his team’s stats. Triopia helped. I’m hoping I haven’t left anyone out. But if you’re a regular visitor to the site, you know which schools helped, and which did not.

So to our All-Stars, we say thank you. You should thank them, too, if you’re a fan who enjoyed seeing updated stats of your favorite players.

If your team’s stats weren’t online, or they weren’t complete, ask your coach why. Or better yet, volunteer to enter them for your team.

In a small way, you can touch the lives of our young people, too.

We’ve got some big changes on the way. First, let me tell you that all of this comes from California. We’re just one paper in a chain of newspapers owned by Freedom Communications. They’re handling all of our Web site stuff, and we’re glad they are. They give us the ability to make changes here and there, but for the big stuff, they’re in charge.

One change will be a redesign. The new Varsity Web site will look more like the myjournalcourier.com Web site. It will display links to more stories so they’re easier to find.

The other change, which is coming in a month or two, will affect everyone who posts comments on the site. Yep. We’ll begin requiring posters to register.

Oooh, scary. Not really. I think it will accomplish two things. First, it will create more of an online community on our site. As it is now, people can sign in as whomever they please. In fact, you can pick a different name for every comment you make. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the stories we’ve published had multiple posts by the same person, logged in under different names, talking to himself. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

With the new system, you’ll still remain anonymous. But you’ll become known by your screen name. If you log in as “Mr. X” all the time, readers will get to know you through your posts. So message boards will become more of a conversation among people who “know” one another, or at least where each other is coming from, rather than hit-and-run posters commenting under different names. Currently, I know only one poster on our site, The Evaluator. I have no idea who it is, but when I see the name, I always know the comment will be thoughtful and insightful.

Second, the new system will make posters more responsible for their posts. Your freedom of expression won’t be abridged, but posters who continually violate the guidelines for posting can be banned from the site. The guidelines, of course, will remain extremely liberal. We want you to post comments; that’s one of the big reasons we have the site in the first place. We allow criticism of adults (as long as it’s not libelous); student-athletes, not so much.

One exciting thing about the new system is that readers will be able to start their own blogs. You’ll essentially have your own Web page. Here’s a link to the people who have created blogs on the Web site for the Colorado Springs Gazette, one of the other newspapers in our chain:

http://www.gazette.com/share/blogs/

You’ll be able to post your own blog and your own pictures. And we hope you do. We did, and it’s kinda fun.