There’s no denying it, everybody loves the blogs …

Here’s my column from Friday, in case you missed it.

Like certain other things people do on the Internet, it seems everybody is in denial when it comes to this newspaper’s prep sports blogs.

Let me guess. You don’t read them either.

Funny, but I can’t make it through covering a game without at least three or four people mentioning something they read or watched on the blogs. But nobody’s reading it.

I can’t tell you how many people have told me about something that was on the blog, but they didn’t personally read it. They just “heard about it.”

Coaches are even worse. There isn’t a prep sports writer in this office who hasn’t gotten a call from a coach who told them verbatim about something he didn’t like on the blog … but it wasn’t something the coach actually read. It was something somebody told him about. Supposedly.

Each morning I receive a report that tells me exactly how many page views each blog got the previous day. I was stunned one day this past week when Fred Robledo’s blog got more than 18,000 views, because everybody I talk to said they don’t read it.

Well, today I’m here to tell you it’s time for everybody to come clean and admit they read the blog.

And if you’re really feeling it, it’s time you admit you actually like it. How could you not? Live scores, breaking news, opinion, quick-hitting tidbits of information … you really can’t have your finger on the pulse of this area’s preps scene unless you’re doing the unthinkable and reading the blogs.

What’s not to like? Oh wait, I know. The personal attacks. The bashing of kids. The anonymous comments. It’s terrible. Believe me, I know. After all, you’re talking to the Valley’s fat, uneducated terrorist, according to some commenters.

When it comes to the bashing of kids, we try very hard to eliminate comments that do so as quickly as possible.

And what we often view as the scrutiny that comes with being a high-profile prep athlete other people view as bashing.

But in case you haven’t noticed, social media has taken over. From Facebook to Twitter to blogs, society is doing things differently than even five years ago. Because of this, there are going to be haters everywhere.

These blogs are no exception. Trust me, kids are more aware of this dynamic than you think.

I’m not one to tell any parent how to do their job, but I would suggest using the blogs as an educational tool to show how you often have to take the good with the bad.

The good is the blog was an excellent tool in getting fans to a charity baseball game between Covina schools to raise money for the family of victims after the Christmas Day massacre in 2008.

The good is the blog gave us the proper outlet earlier this week to share how amazing it was to cover the college signings of 34 local athletes.

The good is an e-mail the Tribune recently received about the blog and how it was used following the recent deaths of Northview softball coach Fred Fraijo and former Vikings wrestler Jesse Cruz.

To quote some of it: I would like to commend the SGV Tribune, and specifically, Mr. Fred Robledo, for affording us, members of this community, a networking vehicle to reach out and connect during our times of need.

As a subscriber to the Tribune that has received a hard copy newspaper on my driveway every morning for the past 10 years, I feel your online sports blog have served a greater purpose.

The good is the blog is read by very influential people. Major media members, college coaches, recruiters, professional and college athletes all have told me at one time or another they read the blog. And almost all of them say they love it.

What this means is Valley athletes and their teams are getting the kind of exposure they otherwise would not get if they were unfortunate enough to live elsewhere.

The good also is the blog puts butts in seats. It then allows those people to come back and say what they thought of what they just saw.

The bad is everybody’s business is in the streets. Sorry if you don’t like it, but that’s the way it is now.

I guess you’ll be deleting your Facebook any minute.

Back when former Tribune sports editor Doug Spoon first offered our staff the opportunity to blog, I was one of two people who raised their hands to do it. My first blog post was back in 2006 and it was titled “This blog is my blog, this blog is your blog …” I won’t lie, I knew it would be wildly popular. Not because I’m a genius but because I saw where society was headed on the Internet and knew blogs fit in perfectly to our little corner of the world.

What I started, Robledo has perfected. We know we’ll never be able to eliminate the stigma of negativity that surrounds the blogs. We know the little bit of bad can ruin the abundance of good for a great many people.

But just know this. Should you ever need the blogs because you’ve moved out of town and want to stay current on the alma mater, want to be entertained, need a score, want a place to vent, need to get an important message out for a good cause, it always will be there for you just how it was intended to be.

And don’t worry. Just about everybody in town will see it whether they admit it or not.