How important is the team's website?

[JimineyCricket]

One of the things I've noticed lately is the wide variety of information teams choose to put on their public-facing websites. Some teams have terrific, professional-looking sites, complete with player profiles, stats, schedules, etc. Other teams seem to have nothing more than a placeholder with (often outdated) contact information. How important do you think it is for a team to have a professional quality website? Does it help with the college recruiting process if your DD plays for a team with a great website? Does it hurt her if they don't? What teams do you think have the best websites? Which ones need the most improvement?

[6to4to3]

Just put yourself in the position of that college your DD wants to go to in TX or back east or something. Your first impression when that player emails you is the website of her team. If that player is supposed to be college material her team website better be professional enough to represent that. I think even more important is having tracking analytics on the site that track the traffic, page views, and who is looking at what. If you can let the players see that their hours at the computer emailing prospective coaches is paying off with page vews, it'll keep that player's fire lit. I speak from experience on that one, my kid gets fired up when she sees that colleges are looking at her stuff, profile, video, etc...

Having said that, a great website showing a pile of crap is still just a real nice electronic wrapper showing a pile of crap. But if your DD has done all the work to get her game to possible college level you better have a way to show her off!

[ICMTM]

If you're going to have a website it should have a purpose. I don't think it's necessary to have one, but here is my deal. If it sucks you can guarantee not only will I move on from looking at it I won't be back to it. It's proven if your website is not user friendly people will not use it.

For those teams who aren't regularly updating your websites and they become either stale or are not maintained in a timely manner I can guarantee you're wasting your time by even having one.

[Outta Here!]

Bottom line is that good organizations have informative websites that are regularly updated.

[NumeroUno]

How's this one
http://hometeamsonline.com/teams/?u=min ... ftball&t=c

[rbi]

#1, that is a pretty cool website that MG has.

Here is my take, I love to scan teams site's, it gives you a chance to find out more about the team, who is on it, where they are going, where they play HS ball, what class they are in, etc etc...

I would like to see, not for my sake but for up and comers sake, info on the COACHS and not just HC, ALL of them, where they came from, what experience they have, etc etc, need coaching bios!!!! People will say coachs dont matter to people, i call b.s., they should be critical in a decision a family makes when choosing a team. If teams are shy about putting coachs bios, that should say enough.

Lastly, once you get out of the "top 10", team websites are a HUGE recruiting tool, up and comers want to see where kids are going and want to be a part. Top 10 teams are just a given, all the best want and NEED to be on them, all the rest need to have some type of recruiting tool, and websites are big!

[NumeroUno]

good idea about coaches info, I like that

[JimineyCricket]

I thin RBI makes some good points. He's looking at it from the prospective player's viewpoint, which is an important one. But what about the prospective college coach's perspective? What types of things about a website make the biggest difference for a college coach looking at a potential recruit's team website?

[Fly Out]

For those who do not have a website or a shitty one they will say they are not important. For those who have a good one they will say it is very important

Personally I think it is a reflection of the Org you play for. First impression is key in all aspects when it comes to being recruited or selling yourself. My personal opinion all aspects of appearance mean something. When a team enters together it shows unity. When team bags, players clothes, coaches clothes all match that team cares about how they represent their org and each other. When a team or org has a complete website that has been well thought out and looks clean it again shows a certain level of how that org expects to be represented.

If I am a consumer which college coaches are, I would prefer to shop at a store where the employees represent their company well and in a store that sets the level of which they should be represented high. A teams website is part of this. If you are going to have one it needs to look good and be as up to date as possible.

As for the info put out their. With limited time and budgets for recruiting I would assume the more info I can gather on you with the least amount of work the better. If I had to hunt to long chances are I will lose your name and move on to the next 100 players on my list.

Just my thoughts.

Then again like I said we have one I happen to like with player profiles so I think it's important http://www.team-california.com

[Wilson Bats]

i visited your web site and the only links that worked was the 16U link that took me to another web page and one to a Police fundraiser. No other rosters would open so this is what you say is a good site

Wilson