MaxPreps.com: Another possible revenue stream squandered by newspapers?

I don't disagree with you. I think it's an awesome idea if anyone can get it to work. But we're talking about getting timely, accurate updates from coaches who call me and say, "I think Johnny Tailback had about 90 yards. No, he had 100. Yeah, I think it was about 100."

 

As far as the site speed goes -- heh-heh, DyePack would LOVE hearing me say this -- they try to do too much with their pages. There's too much going on -- too many photos, Java items, menus, etc. -- to load. They have to work out a balance between presentation and getting it loaded in a timely manner.

 

There's another service that calls itself "Schedule Star" on highschoolsports.net that we've been trying to get to work for us ..so far, waaaaaay too many problems.

 

Doesn't the Rocky Mountain News have a prep stats website the envy of the known geek world? That's what I remember from a few years ago, but I haven't been there since the Columbine shootings when I decided to see whether they had any good teams or not (they had a nationally-ranked girls soccer team at the time).

 

I'm lucky (and probably outing myself)...

In my coverage area in PA, there's a district website -- a volunteer-run website at that -- with schedules, stat leaders, rosters, etc.

www.d9sports.com

It's well-organized, easy to navigate and load (Hi MaxPreps!), but would be worthless if coaches and volunteers didn't provide information.

 

That's the exact site I linked to up above, Trey.

re the Rocky Mountain News: I looked at what they're doing. The idea's certainly there. But look at it closer. It has exactly the problems you would expect. Their basketball leaderboard has scoring leaders with 1 or 2 games reported. The information beyond the bells and whistles is very, very sketchy.

 

I had never heard of MaxPreps before moving to Southern California about 16 months ago...

But let me assure you, it is HUGE here. I'd say about 80 percent of our high school football teams have their full rosters and season stats posted and updated on that site each week.

As far as basketball, about 70 percent of teams have their complete season results and rosters there, but less than 50 percent frequently update their stats.

It's also very helpful for baseball and softball, and they added soccer this year.

The LA Times actually links from their web site to MaxPreps...our paper was told we weren't allowed to do that (by management, not MaxPreps), but we still rely on the site for stats anyway because the coaches just post them there instead of sending them in.

 

Jeff -- That's my point exactly. Our writers spend a ton of time on MaxPreps. The L.A. Times links to it. The shame of it is, with a little forward thinking and a small investment, newspapers could easily keep all that traffic in house. Plus, we are better equipped to track down the stragglers and make sure the stats are as accurate and updated as possible.

But it would take three things that aren't typical of newspapers:

1) Forward thinking
2) A willingness to spend money to make money
3) Co-opperation amongst themselves

 

My shop began using it this winter for basketball and soccer stats. We have a ton of teams in the area, and it's too hard to try and keep up to date stats with everything else we have to do.

we set up accounts for all the areas teams, e-mailed every coach their username and password, and let them at it. Some are doing it. Others aren't. but it does mean when parents call us to ask why little Jimmy's points per game average isn't in our stats package, we can tell them it's because coach isn't holding up his end of the deal. It takes five minutes to enter a game, half an hour to set up a team. There's no reason for them not to do it.

And everyone here likes it a lot, because it lets us be journalists, not book-keepers.

 

Our paper has its own Maxpreps type site to cover all sports for the 20 high schools in our coverage area. It works great for football and basketball, but it's a major pain in the butt inputting the stuff on deadline. It's also not the easiest to navigate. Those of you who want to see, PM me and I'll send a link.

 

You would have to change your practice of listing non-scorers.

 

Definitely be careful using stats you find on MaxPreps, especially those like rebounds and blocks in basketball or tackles and sacks in football. Way too many coaches fabricate inflated bullshit to make their players look better.