ROGERS -- Mark Holderbaum loves the look of the new websites for the Rogers Public Schools athletic programs, but he also got a lesson in practical use recently.
"I was at a Roger Heritage basketball game and I called up the site on my tablet and I had the team roster page right there," said Holderbaum, who serves as athletic director for Rogers Public Schools. "The information is right there and it converts well to tablet or phone. That's just one of the uses. We will have schedules, rosters and maybe even have bios for players and coaches."
On The Web:
Here are the links to the Rogers High and Rogers Heritage athletic websites:
And that's just scratching the surface of the benefits of the sites, Holderbaum said.
Rogers High and Rogers Heritage athletics now have the makings of websites that can be similar to NCAA Division I college athletic programs, Holderbaum said. Sidearm Sports, the provider for the two websites, also serves many colleges such as Texas and Kansas.
The decision was made over the summer to allow the athletic programs at Rogers High and Rogers Heritage to search for platforms separate from the district website, Holderbaum said.
"Late spring, maybe the first part of the summer I was informed that what we were looking for as far as sports probably wasn't going to come with the school package," Holderbaum said. "We were looking for some of the things people have become accustomed to for sports and making it more user friendly.
"We were extremely limited in what the pages could look like and that's no fault of the district. It's just wasn't geared toward athletics."
The possibility of added revenue is another element of the website that could be beneficial, Holderbaum said.
"Nunnally Chevrolet has stepped forward as a sponsor," Holderbaum said. "There's the ability to generate some revenue, which we haven't had before."
Even Holderbaum has gone through some web-based training for how to load items onto the website. Blu Green, an assistant girls basketball coach at Rogers High, is one of the coaches who has been involved in putting content on the site said it will only help the programs.
"I think it's a great way to promote our school," Green said. "The area is growing and if somebody's looking at coming to our school, it's a good way to get our information out there. That's important to people now. The Internet is a way people have to get information now and with people moving into the area they will be looking for information."
Green said he went through online training for the website with other coaches and even collegiate sports information people.
"It was really pretty simple," Green said. "There were Division I sports information directors going through the same training I was. We have looked at some of the college websites to take a few ideas and implement them on our site."
Holderbaum and coaches of each sport are currently the ones putting information on the site, but he's also excited about the possibility of student interaction in the future.
"We have two excellent student newspapers, so there could be the opportunities for stories, photos and even streaming or broadcast," Holderbaum said. "I just think the sky's the limit on where would could go with it."
Sports on 12/18/2014