As a college basketball fanatic, Chris DiSano loves this time of year. The beginning of the conference season, especially Atlantic 10 play, is special for him. This year, he is even more excited than usual.

That’s because DiSano is no longer just a fan. The Warwick native and former URI ball boy is now part of the A-10.

An attorney who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., DiSano has taken on a second job — as editor of a website that has become the unofficial home for Atlantic 10 men’s basketball. With the help of several of his URI friends, DiSano has launched the collegechalktalk.com Web site. The site went on line a year ago, and has become so successful that the A-10 has become a sponsor.

The site has become a clearinghouse for news about all 14 A-10 schools. Among other offerings, it features regular reports from assistant coaches, including URI’s Pat Clarke. It ties into newspaper reports, including the Providence Journal’s projo.com Web site and message board.

It even includes previews and stories on conference happenings. Just this month, the site reached agreement with Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli to do a series of diaries for the site when conference play begins next month.

It all has happened quickly, an example of someone with a good idea and a willingness to work taking advantage of the new media world.

“Over the last few years, I had been thinking of beginning a Web site dedicated to the A-10 and providing unbiased coverage,” DiSano said. “It’s a great conference where four-year players are the norm, not the exception. Along with a law school buddy, Jason Rhodes, we decided to found collegechalktalk in November of 2007.”

DiSano talked three of his friends, Andrew Greene, Christian Marge and Brendan Hames, all URI grads, into helping run the site.

“After pitching the idea to Duane Bailey, an associate commissioner of the A-10, who was instrumental in supporting us, we formally launched on January 15th of this year,” DiSano said.

“We are sponsored by the A-10 and can be seen on the bottom of their web page. We have relationships with all 14 schools. We’re generating between 7,500 and 10,000 visits per month. There were many more visits over the offseason than in our first two months live last season, as the word spread.

“We now have about 15 writers with many allegiances, among them well-respected folks such as Ray Floriani (St. Bonaventure, ’74) from Basketball Times. Ray has been a great mentor and friend. Coaches from various A-10 schools are also doing diaries with us this year, and we’ll be covering the A-10 tournament courtside again in March.”

Ian Nolan, who formerly worked with St. Bonaventure, also is a regularly featured columnist.

While he received his undergraduate degree from James Madison and attended law school at Syracuse, DiSano has been a URI guy all his life. His mother, Laura, is a former president of the URI Alumni Association. His father, Dennis, was the longtime band director at Cranston West. When DiSano was 12, he was the ball boy for the Rams at Keaney Gym.

Now, he occasionally assigns himself to cover games, such as earlier this season when he was on press row for URI’s great game at Duke.

“It’s been a great experience and we continue to receive great feedback from fans, coaching staffs and administrations as we grow,” DiSano said. “It’s been a lot of work, particularly with my full-time job (as an attorney), but my wife Alesia (Gray) DiSano (a South Kingstown High grad) has been a saint. I do most of the work late at night and on weekends so as to keep priorities straight. To be honest, it’s easier now that it is off the ground and we are adding writers/contributors.

“While the site is technically set up as a blog from a physical appearance, we prefer to call ourselves a web site,” he added. This is because, unlike many blogs, all of our content is original. From coaches’ diaries to team previews to feature articles, our writers go out, do the research and get the stories. There is no importing other stories and linking to them, unless it’s an extraordinary story that transcends the game, like Chris Lofton of Tennessee playing with cancer.”

DiSano now is a member of the United States Basketball Writers’ Association.

“We hope to be able to continue providing solid coverage and grow the site wisely,” he said. “But honestly, we all do this because of the fire we have for the A-10 and have really enjoyed the experience of earning respect, being around the game and meeting some great people in the business.”

pkenyon@projo.com