How important is the team's website?

[Iluvblue]

In my 15 years involved in this sport, id be SHOCKED if even ONE player joined my team due to our website, or if even one didnt join us due to our site.

My daughter has started her first year coaching college in the CCAA, Id also be SHOCKED if a team's website helped them get a player or turned them away from a player. i will ask her if they even look at team's sites for prospective players.


if I were a college coach, I dont think I am going to be relying on whether a travel team has a kick ass site or a crappy one in regards to getting my players.

I think it is important ONLY for our local community to kep up with what a team is doing.... meaning people like the ones here on the bucket.

If you have a great site and a mediocre team, what good is that? Crappysite and a kick ass team.. it wont matter.

JMO

That being said, we do try to keep up with info on our site in regards to all our teams. Our games are on game changer so people that want can see how we have done from game to game.

[Bleacher bug]

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

It sucks when that moment hits and you realize that you are not as smart as a 6th grader. It really sucks when it happens on a public forum though!!!! Wilson those links are called Navigation Buttons, when you mouse over a Navigation Button and a drop down menu pops up that is a Sub Navigation Button which means scroll down and click on the page of your choice. Clicking on the 10u 12u or 14u is not suppose to send you anywhere. Oh and that police fund raiser is the Org's major supporter.

I had to look, I haven't been on the TC site in awhile. I must say I like the new white site over the old black one. I think the player profiles look cool. Checked a lot of them out you guys have a lot of smart kids playing ball. Nice to see kids with good grades playing at a high level.

When the season starts will stats or a link to game changer be posted for the teams?

I give it a thumbs up

[Kool-Aid]

Cmon man you have only had a website for a YEAR maybe two, jeez we all know kids join your team because of coaching, jeez really!


Anyone care for a sip!

[Iluvblue]

Just showed how little you know. You drinking your own koolaid

[rbi]

As far as parents/kids choosing a team, if your new to an area or new to TB and are not aware of the local TB landscape, websites have become the "new wave" last few years and everyone is jumping on the bus, and they will or will not do the following.

10u/12u/14u- minimal player info (thank god), zero coach info (which i think is not good), some tourney info, practice info, and maybe whose bringing the (sliced oranges and gummy bears), other than that its basically word of mouth when selecting team.

16U/Gold- its a place to find out where the current roster of players are committed to as well as alumni, where they play (Elementary school or HB#3), how many tourneys and where (LA, or local), practice schedule, minimal coaching bio's (dont like). Its a place for kids/parents to gauge there level of play and see where they might fit in. Your not going to tryout for a team loaded with Jr National kids if you cant get the ball out of the infield.

As far as College's scanning teams websites, i might be wrong on this but, college coachs are going in a 100 different directions and have little time to be navigating through websites, let alone 10 min you tube player videos.

Lastly, you will never know why a player does NOT play for you, they just dont show up to tryout. Sometimes you will find out why they quit mid stream, but not when they never show up.

[Patriots16U]

Analytics is where it's at. We can tell when a college lands on out website based on the ISP and IP address, we can also tell what pages they visit and where they leave from (i.e. 18u roster page link to youtube). With that knowledge we can share with the players that they are getting traffic based on their emails and recruit questionnaires or captain U or elsewhere. This way they can stay excited that their emails are generating some interest. Of course if they aren't right for that college they probably won't be back to look again. we can also tell multiple visits from the same college which we can then tell the player to maybe send some more info or updates after tourneys to that coach since they are definitely looking hard at her info.

I'll use Friday as an example, we had 108 page views, 49 were unique visits and 11 were returning. Some of the colleges that day were Ottowa, Felician, Buffalo, Oklohoma, Rider, Hartford (twice), UNR Reno, TX @ San Antonio, and SFSU to name a few. I'd say there was one or two players sending out a lot of emails AND generating interest, woudln't you? Those coaches also stayed around and looked a a few other player pages. If your site was horrible, they would have left ASAP rather than averaging 4 minutes per visit. BTW - we don't host videos so once a person links to a player video, their site visit time ends.

Having said all this - I doubt 14u and younger websites matter since no one is recruiting for the 2017 and 2018 grads yet. List building maybe but not actively recruiting.

It's 2013 folks...if you don't think the WWW is a major piece of college recruiting you need to wake up.

[Kool-Aid]

DAMN, Patriots sending a "wake up" call to the peps.

A lot of smaller schools with limited recruiting budgets will scan sites for players, looking for specific yr/position, as they are not able to get out as often.

BTW, I know of quite a few 14U kids being recruited TODAY, some of which have committed, so trust me its happening.

[ICMTM]

Like I said a website is only important if it has a purpose. If your purpose is to have a website just because the next team does it becomes a waste of time and a burden.

[calply]

[quote][/quote ]Having said all this - I doubt 14u and younger websites matter since no one is recruiting for the 2017 and 2018 grads yet. List building maybe but not actively recruiting.

Patriot .. Great breakdown but there is a correction needed ,, The 2017's are being picked from the tree much more than you might think .. This is unfortunate for the recruit and the schools ,, but it is happening and not small conferences either ... The SEC and PAC 12 are not just picking the fruit from the low branches ,, they are reaching very high in tree ..

[Patriots16U]

Ahhhh, the great and powerful "verbal" scholarship offer that softball parents are in such LOVE with. Yeah, tons of verbals out there...anyone ever validate one? Anyone know how binding that verbal agreement is OR ISN"T? Rhetorical questions there folks, no need to educate me on your first hand knowledge.

My post was more to help explain the importance of websites and having a good site showcasing good players and even more importantly tracking your website traffic and less about what age recruiting starts. I am well aware of the recruiting "game", but it doesn't seem that many folks are as aware of the internet game with regard to showcase softball.

Guess y'all showed me though! nice..hahahahaa (insert sarcastic smirk here)