Dance Dance

After capturing the program’s first-ever Atlantic Sun Softball Championship, the Lipscomb players celebrated briefly, retook the field and requested that the operations staff in the Patricia Wilson Field press box play Justin Bieber’s “Baby” over the stadium’s loud speakers.

The resulting video clip became the Atlantic Sun’s most successful viral video in the nine months since the league launched its own YouTube channel. As of Wednesday afternoon, the total views count topped 5,000 through the A-Sun’s channel, while the popular sports blog deadspin.com accounted for almost 8,500 more views after linking to the video Monday afternoon.



“Video initiatives have been a pet project of ours throughout this year,” said A-Sun Director of Sports Services John Roberts. “Going back to last summer, the entire communications staff began discussing ways to raise awareness and get A-Sun message out to a larger audience, and the YouTube channel was one of the ideas we generated.”

The channel enjoyed modest success throughout the year, with viewership ranging from 75-400, depending on the content. The league produced a weekly highlight package for both men’s and women’s basketball, as well as conducting video interviews at all A-Sun Championships. Highlight packages at the men’s and women’s golf championships were also well-received. Nothing, however, approached the popularity of the Lipscomb dance routine.

“It’s really nice to see us have that kind of success with a video clip,” Roberts said. “Hopefully a few more people know about the league now, and they’ll keep coming back to see what’s new. I’m most happy that the Lipscomb ladies received some additional exposure from this; that’s really what it’s all about for me. They have had a spectacular season, and anything we can do to let more people know about them, I want us to do.”

In addition to the YouTube channel, fans of the A-Sun can also follow the league and its schools through other social media such as Facebook and Twitter.