By Scott Wilson
In this installment of Moore League Showdown, we're assessing which school has the best boys basketball website. This time around, no one gets an A while one school gets an F..
I've been doing this series for a year and a half and I continue to be amazed at how few schools and coaches recognize the importance of a strong online presence. A team's website is the face it presents to the world. A good site can engage and inspire fans, who may then buy tickets or otherwise financially support the program. It can also win over the parents of students, drawing talented new athletes to your team. .
I continue to be puzzled why teams find it so difficult to report results of their games on their own websites. When I was coaching 9-year-olds (for free) in AYSO soccer, there was a simple process to post game scores on the league site. It took about 20 seconds. Why is it so hard for high school coaches (who are paid) to post their scores?
(To be fair, some teams in the Moore Leagues do have excellent web pages. One is Wilson's baseball website.)
A couple notes: First, this is a review of official team pages, not commercial sites like MaxPreps or fan sites. Also, websites change, so this review can only capture a "snapshot" at this time. Tomorrow, any one of these websites may be better or worse, or even disappear altogether.
The ratings:
Wilson
Grade: B
The Bruins "win" this competition basically by not losing. Their boys basketball page
includes a practice schedule and game schedule (for all levels), both
current. There are no results, but there is a clearly labeled link to
find scores on MaxPreps. The head coach's name, email
address and phone number (nice!) are prominent. That's good for the basics, and there are no obvious errors, but there's almost no other content. There are no rosters, no other coaches' names besides the head coach, and only two pictures, both years old.
Jordan
Grade: B-
Jordan High School does a lot right with its boys basketball pages, but it needs to pay more attention to detail to get that A grade.
Jordan's official page on the school website has the name of all the coaches, with the email address and even phone number of the head coach. There's a link to MaxPreps for those who want results, but it's not labeled and could easily be missed.
There's also a prominent link to a separate Jordan basketball website. This is where things get interesting -- and weird. The good-looking Wix-based website has both hits and misses.
Jordan's is the only Moore League boys basketball site to include current rosters of the varsity, JV, sophomore and freshman teams. It has a game schedule but no results. The front page features announcements of two upcoming events, but also one that is outdated. On the separate "announcements" page, everything is from last season.
Under "Latest News" is this:
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me and you can start adding your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
You see what I mean about attention to detail?
One of the best things on the site is a "Parent Basketball Handbook" that spells out many of the standards and expectations for the program. For instance: "The Student-Athlete must refrain from the use of profanity or resorting to illegal tactics. He must learn that both winning and losing are a part of the game and that you have to be a good loser as well as a gracious winner."
If I was a parent considering whether the Jordan program would be good for my son, I would be heartened to see such a clear statement of the team's principles.
Lakewood
Grade: C
The official page for Lakewood boys basketball has a schedule for the current season, plus the coach's name, his email address and a picture of him. That covers many of the fundamentals, but fans and parents will want more. How about some results? Pictures? Rosters? What about schedules for the freshman and JV teams?
Long Beach Poly
Grade: D
Poly usually has the best, or one of the best, boys basketball teams in the Moore League, but its website is not going to win any awards. The school's official page has many pictures, but none from current season. The coach's name, along with an email address, is shown, but I wouldn't blame anyone for being confused. First, the page misspells coach Shelton Diggs' name as "Shelton Digg." Second, it also lists Sharrief Metoyer as "Teacher / Boys Basketball Coach." One problem: Metoyer hasn't been a Poly coach for four years.
The page has no schedule, no results, no roster. Persistent fans might eventually find themselves to the semi-official Poly Sports site (there's no link to it from the school site). But even if they do, they'll be disappointed. There is a schedule, and some results there, but they're incomplete. And there's nothing else.
Millikan
Grade: D-
Those who come to the boys basketball page on the official Millikan High School will find two things: First there's a link to a game schedule for last season (just the schedule, no results). Second there is a link that leads to the boys basketball page at the separate Millikan Athletics website. And what will they find there? This: "Error 404: The page you're looking for either doesn't exist or can't be found."
Most people will stop there, concluding that Millikan is too lame to have even a single decent basketball page. Prospective players will choose other schools; fans will find other teams to support. A few people, if they persist, might click around and find that there actually is a schedule -- a woefully incomplete one -- for the varsity team, with some results . But that's it. There are no coaches' names, much less a way to contact them. There are no pictures, no roster and, for the JV and freshman teams, absolutely nothing.
Fans can find more information -- not that the bar has been set high -- at the Millikan boys basketball Facebook page (it's unclear who the creators of this page are). There are some photos, videos, and game results, but it still is far from complete. The events page is filled with items that are over four years old.
Grade: F
If you go to the Compton High website and click on "Varsity Teams," you will come to a page that says "Varsity Teams" -- and nothing else.
There is a separate "Schedules" page that claims (falsely) to offer a link to last year's schedule for the "Boys Varsisty Basketball" team. Spelling aside, the link actually goes to MaxPreps, the national high school sports site. MaxPreps is a decent website, but by not publishing anything about its own team on its own site, Compton High is showing how little respect it gives its basketball program. Why should fans, parents, and sportswriters care about your team, when you don't?
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