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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Athletic Department launches new and improved website

Athletic+Department+launches+new+and+improved+website

The athletic department unveiled a new athletics website on Jan. 30, featuring interactive elements such as a social media feed and a photo gallery.

“The pictures and social media feed are all sourced through the community,” director of athletics Vic Acuña said. “Parents, students, and coaches can upload images and tweets straight to the website.”

Involving the community in the athletic department has a great effect on publicity for sports teams, senior Bingham Mitchell said.

“I really like the idea of giving the community the ability to upload photos and tweets, because I feel like the publicity for our sports is lacking, so I think this could help with that,” Mitchell said.

One of the reasons for the new website was to create a more interactive platform to promote community involvement, Acuña said.

“In making the website, we wanted something more community based, more organic, and something that the community and students could get behind,” Acuña said.

The interactive component of the website is posed to have a great effect on the involvement of the community in athletics, senior Rafael Chellew said.

“Since the site is now more interactive, it will naturally draw more people towards it who want to be more involved,” Chellew said.

Another goal for the website is not only to have student involvement, but also to keep  the website updated, Acuña said.

“The goal is to have a Piedmont High School product that students and I direct, maintain, and make our own,” Acuña said.

The potential to have student involvement in something as impactful as the athletic website is quite alluring, Mitchell said.

“I could see students wanting to get involved in the maintenance of the athletic website. It could maybe even be incorporated into a class or a club,” Mitchell said.

In addition to keeping the main site up to date, students and coaches can be involved in their microsite as well, Acuña said.

“Each team has a microsite within the larger website, that includes their schedule, roster, and link to MaxPreps, which stores all the statistics for the entire league,” Acuña said.

Maxpreps is a great resource because it allows you to see opponents scores and stats to prepare for future match-ups, Chellew said.

“It will be really nice to have such easy access to keep track of other teams in our league,” Chellew said.

One of the goals of the microsite is to promote coach involvement by keeping the rosters and schedules up to date, Acuña said.

“In addition to schedules and rosters, we want coaches to own their microsite by adding pictures, updates, tweets, and scores,” Acuña said.

On top of the tweets and scores, another interactive feature of the website is a live feed, where news and announcements can be displayed, Acuña said.

“The more we can communicate, the more we can avoid conflict and issues,” Acuña said.

Students have shown appreciation for the new website and its helpful asset in monitoring the status of practices, Chellew said.

“The website makes it much easier to stay updated on any changes and not worry about missing any important dates,” Chellew said.

The live feed has the potential to grow from its current state, Acuña said.

“Although it was primarily used for rain notifications, I plan to add a weekly blog about concussions, NCAA needs and clearances, and other things along those lines,” Acuña said.

To make the website the best possible platform for students, there is a suggestion box at the bottom of the page where the community can voice their opinions on how to improve the site, Acuña said. 

“At the end of the day, the website is meant to promote and recognize our student athletes, so we want the best possible site to do so,” Acuña said. 

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