MaxPreps Mega-Widget Hits the Streets

Brian M. Heater, the producer, technical director and web designer at What If Productions (http://www.whatifproductions.biz/) has built and released the world’s first MaxPreps’ mega-widget, a robust 242-school module that will serve one of his clients in the Northwest, the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association.

Though the widget was originally designed with a 150-school capacity, modifications may be made in some instances to expand it to whatever the client requires. This is the first widget to top the 150 mark; more are sure to follow.

Heater has the OACA widget parked at the following URL:

http://oregoncoach.org

The webmaster has over 25 years of experience in the field, experience ranging from website design and development to computer graphics, hardware and software technical support to high quality video & audio production.

Ridgefield, Conn., MaxPreps Team Up

The Ridgefield Press in western Connecticut has enjoyed a long history of excellence in weekly newspaper journalism and reporting. Its veteran sports editor, Tim Murphy, has played a major role in maintaining that excellence. Having an outstanding sports program to report about at Ridgefield High School certainly hasn’t hurt.

Murphy is presently leading his online sports section at the Press with an all-sports Ridgefield High MaxPreps’ widget:

http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=48&Itemid=768

The Ridgefield Press is a part of the Hersam Acorn weekly newspaper network, which has been a MaxPreps.com media partner since last fall.

Big Sky Country Adopts MaxPreps Widget

Assistant girls’ basketball coach Ryan Wakefield at Kalispell Glacier High has achieved a historic first:

Bringing the MaxPreps’ widget to the great state of Montana.

http://www.sd5.k12.mt.us/ghs/act/bballg/index.html

The Wolfpack website, edited by Wakefield, now features a widget that allows visitors to track all seven teams in Glacier’s AA Western Conference. Glacier is joined in the conference by Kalispell Flathead – I believe that’s cherry country – Helena, Helena Capital, Missoula Big Sky, Missoula Hellgate and Missoula Sentinel.

Glacier is coached by Doug Hashley, who graduated from Big Sandy High in 1977, where he earned all-state first-team honors in basketball and football. He went on to play basketball at Montana State University, where he still owns rebounding and shooting records.

The versatile Wakefield is also the Director of Outdoor Pursuits at Iron Horse Golf Club in Whitefish.

Northern Virginia Christian Welcomes the Widget

The Northern Virginia Christian Academy in Fairfax, Va., has created an eight-team boys’ basketball widget for the school’s home page:

http://www.nvchristianacademy.org/

NVCA’s lineup of teams is an intriguing one to say the least, including Fairfax Home School, Islamic Saudi Academy and Trinity at Meadow View. The Falcons are off to a 6-0 start, with their latest win being a 72-25 victory against Emmanuel Christian of Manassas.

Bird's Eye Sports Needs a Bigger Widget

Bird’s Eye Sports in Westport, Conn., (http://www.birdseyesports.com) has long been the leader in regional prep web coverage in the Northeast. Ben Talbott’s Internet operation was one of the first on the scene in 2003; his company continues to provide exceptional data and content services, particularly in the field of action video.

Not surprisingly. Bird’s Eye has become one of the first web sites to launch an all-state MaxPreps widget, taking on the task of building a sprawling boys’ basketball widget that includes every program in the Connecticut. The problem is, Ben hit the 150-school limit when he got to the “Ts” and to Trumbull High. There are 178 teams in Connecticut. He needs openings for 28 more.

Will someone please help him? The MaxPreps widget needs greater length here! Others are surely waiting to do the same with their own states:

http://www.birdseyesports.com/updates-standings.php?sportsId=2&&s=m

Talbott, incidentally, was a NCAA-All American in football at Lehigh University. He has since helped a number of athletes through the search process for the right college with his business. He was also selected by the Anaheim Angels in the MLB amateur draft in 1997, spending time in their minor league system after a successful two-sport career at Lehigh. Bird’s Eye has been a MaxPreps.com media partner since last summer, subscribing to the popular content management program.

Southwest Florida Not Just for Football

While Florida is known as one of the top football-playing states in the nation, its prep basketball isn’t too shabby, either. Aaron Seybert at Southwest Florida Hoops (http://www.swflhoops.com) is making sure that boys’ basketball in the Bradenton/Fort Myers area gains its share of attention, and he’s using a 54-team MaxPreps’ widget to help state his case.

Fort Myers, of course, recently played host to the 36th annual Bank of America City of Palms Classic, a star-studded field won by Mater Dei of Santa Ana, Calif.

Seybert is a jack-of-all-trades at SWFLH, having first founded the company and now serving as its Editor-in-Chief, Director of Scouting Services and Webmaster. He is always looking for editorial, photographic and video contributions so visit his site sometime soon and see if there's anything you can do to help provide assistance. Aaron is undoubtedly at his desk.

http://www.swflhoops.com

Eyewitness News 11 Locks in MaxPreps Widget

WTVD-TV, ABC Eyewitness News 11 in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area, has taken the lead in region in promoting high school sports on the Internet via the MaxPreps widget. The station’s web site recently released a 115-school module that includes the sports of football, volleyball, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball and baseball. The web site has a flash reference button on its main index page that takes viewers to the complete widget package on an inside page:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/feature?section=news/sports/high_school&id=6569732

Once Again, PIAA District 6 Leads the Way

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s District 6 was already a leader when it came to the use of the MaxPreps data widget. PIAA District 6 put the widget into play in a big way during the 2008 football season.

Now, District 6 basketball is out front when it comes to deploying the widget for the winter season, having commissioned a 57-school module for both the boys and the girls. What’s more, the PIAA is requiring that all 2008-9 playoff teams have their rosters and stats entered into the system, potentially making this the most robust widget on record. Thanks go to T.J. Kakabar, Phillip Cmor, John Bomboy, Mike Gentzyel, Bill Born, Lee Stanek, Scott Dane and Joe Intrieri for making this happen.

http://www.piaad6.org/6hoopage.htm

NCHSAA Class AAAA Champs Summon the Widget

The MaxPreps.com widget lineup added up a big-time program to its ranks on Tuesday when the Fayetteville Westover girls’ basketball team imbedded the content module into its home page. The Lady Wolverines won the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4-A championship a season ago, finishing with 30-2 overall record. They also won the SunCom Holiday Classic during the regular season and captured the Mid-Southeastern Conference Tournament, as well as the Section 1 and Eastern Regional playoff crowns. Westover is coached by Gene Arrington. The widget features 10 teams.

http://westoverbasketball.com/

Northern Lights: Michigan Debuts With WMKT Widget

Talk Radio 1270, WMKT-AM in the Traverse City area of northern Michigan, has become the first MaxPreps widget user in the state.

WMKT, which features a local morning show with Greg Marshall and Bob White in the 7 to 10 a.m. slot, Vic McCarty later in the morning and Fox Radio features during the afternoon, operates at 27,000 watts during daylight hours. It is also the radio home of Charlevoix Rayder basketball (both boys and girls), and a member of the Detroit Tigers radio network.

How far north is WMKT? Put it this way: when it looks to the southeast, it sees Toronto. When it looks to the southwest, it sees Milwaukee. One of the teams that plays in the WMKT league coverage area, Cheboygen, is across the water from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

How else can anything but a warm welcome be offered?

http://www.wmktthetalkstation.com/CharSchedule.html

Santa Barbara Blog Stays Current By Using the Widget

The Santa Barbara Independent isn’t the only source of news in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area. SantaBarbarasblog.com tries to keep area residents abreast of news, developments and trends in the region. To help do so, the blog has imbedded an 11-school MaxPreps widget for the basketball season.

http://www.santabarbarasblog.com

Wedding Photographers Also Embrace the Widget

Photographers in both the east and the west continue to deploy the MaxPreps widget in order to show support for their local high school teams.

Though Jacquie Beik, based in northern California, is primarily a wedding and portraits photography, she shoots for the MaxPreps.com photo network on occasion, and sports a 32-school widget on her site.

http://jvanphotography.blogspot.com/2008/12/it-has-been-cold-here-in-northern.html

Beik is a rarity among MaxPreps’ photographers, having served on both the east and west coasts. She worked out of western Massachusetts during the 2007-08 season.

Alabama Elite Shine with Hoop Widget

Alabama Elite, a web site dedicated to basketball results, stats, recruiting and training services in the greater Montgomery, Ala., area, is using the MaxPreps.com data widget to track the 29 boys’ teams in its coverage area:

http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=alabama_elite

Coach Alec Pitts is the site’s general manager, and heads operations, scheduling and education. He is assisted by Rodney Harrell (Training Director, Talent Scout & Graphic Designer), Darrell Bradshaw (Girls Division Director, Writer) and Darryl Woods (Talent Scout, Southern Alabama).

West Stokes Folks Join the Club

The 2008 West Stokes (NC) Lady Wildcats have installed a basketball widget on their team site, drawing upon data for all teams in the North State Conference:

http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=ladywildcatsbasketball

Webmaster Robert Money reports that a MaxPreps widget will be going on the school’s football site next fall. In the meantime, watch out for the Lady Wildcats softball team, which reached the NCHSAA 2-A Final Four last season and returns seven starters.

Bluegrass Country: Horses, Fine Bourbon and the Widget

The MaxPreps.com widget has debuted in the state of Kentucky! The Bath County Public Schools web site of Owingsville, Ky. , has a Bath County High widget parked on its main index page:

http://www.bath.k12.ky.us

These folks in the Bluegrass State don't fool around, either. They have already added baseball to their widget mix, which means their 2008 data from last spring has become retroactive (a 35-6 win over Augusta on May 12, followed by a 3-0 loss to Ashland Blazer the next day? In Kentucky, like everywhere else, momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitching).

Show Me State Shows the MaxPreps Widget

The Pepsi Showcase Tournament, featuring 10 boys’ basketball teams from Missouri and Illinois, was held earlier this season at the Show Me Center at Southeast Missouri State. In order to highlight teams that were entered in the event and to allow fans to track the progress of those entries during the 2008-09 season, the official web site of the Pepsi Showcase called upon the MaxPreps.com widget. This marks the second time the widget has played a key role in a basketball tournament, the first being the SNY-TV event in New York City. Great work by our friend Shannon Buford, director of marketing at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

http://www.pepsishowcase.com/

Kansas Site Offers Everything…Including 8-Man

The Southeastern Kansas regional website SEK-sports.com has assembled one of the more diversified MaxPreps’ widgets to date. In addition to signing up for the usual lineup of fall and winter sports, SEK-Sports features several conferences that sponsor 8-man football teams:

http://www.sek-sports.com/

In all, this new partner is carrying nine conferences and 67 schools. A big thank you thus goes out to Danny, the site's chief administrator.

Big Red Always Thinking Big in Parkersburg

Coach Kenny DeMoss at Parkersburg High in West Virginia (Charleston area) has assumed the added role of webmaster for the Big Red girls’ Internet site. In doing so, he has taken 16 area teams for his site's widget:

http://www.eteamz.com/phsgirlshoops/

Parkersburg has maintained a proud tradition of excellence over the years in girls’ basketball. Since 1975, the team has won six state titles and placed second five times, while winning 16 regional championships and compiling 10, 19-win seasons.

KRLD Goes All-Sports, All-Widget

KRLD-FM in Dallas, a 100,000-watt radio station serving the vast North Texas region, made the move last week to an all sports, talk radio format.

As part of the transition of its web site, KRLD (The Fan, 105.3) signed up for a 129-team, all-sports MaxPreps.com widget.

”Until we get our feet underneath us with high school content, the MaxPreps widget will definitely help out,” said Devin Pike, Web Services Manager at KRLD-AM / KRLD-FM, both of which are CBS owned.

Included in the KRLD coverage area is Southlake Carroll, which operates one of the most respected and accomplished high school football programs in the country.

Check out KRLD’s expanded high school coverage:

http://www.1053thefan.com/pages/3478157.php

Princeton, Hoosiers Take on Hoop Widget

What would the start of the basketball season be without a contribution from the Hoosier State?

Paul Sidebottom in Southern Indiana manages a site that highlights the Princeton High Tigers boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, and also features a scattering of teams in both Indiana and Illinois with his MaxPreps’ basketball widget.

http://indiana-high-school-basketball.blogspot.com/

Riding the Wings of Niceville Basketball

Thanks to some new friends who work at and live in the vicinity of Elgin Air Force Base in Florida, both basketball teams at Niceville High are carrying the widget and providing information on all teams in 5A District 1. Software engineer Jeffrey J. Davis at the Tybrin Corporation helped us out with this particular project. With Elgin AFB in the area, the Niceville teams are fittingly called “the Eagles.”

http://www.nhsbball.kelkat.net/boys/2008_2009/pages/Links.htm

http://www.nhsbball.kelkat.net/girls/2008_2009/pages/Links.htm

Sun Shining on Widget in Naples

Naples, Fla., is a hotbed of standout schools and outstanding athletes and tradition on the southwest coast of the Sunshine State. We were thus pleased to hear that we’d been welcomed to Cougar Country by the Barron Collier high school site.

http://www.collier.k12.fl.us/bch/

Widget Delivers for Concord, Kannapolis

The Independent Tribune of Concord & Kannapolis, N.C., has seven schools in its circulation area in Cabarrus County and checks in using the following all-sports MaxPreps.com widget on the following page:

http://www2.independenttribune.com/p/content/cit-max-preps/

One of the paper’s seven teams, A.L. Brown, reached the 3-AA football championship game last weekend, falling to Dudley, 34-18, in Winston-Salem.

Fayetteville Observer Knows Football - and Widgets

Last week was a fabulous week for high school football in North Carolina as the NCHSAA conducted its 95th-annual championships in eight divisions at three venues in the Triad. The final game on Sunday was arguably the best and the wildest as Richmond Senior outlasted Jack Britt, 38-35, for the Class 4-AA title.

The Fayetteville Observer and its popular high school web section, 910Preps.com, had a special interest in the latter game; the paper proudly claims both Richmond and Jack Britt as members of its Cape Fear circulation area, and displays the stats of these two titans – as well as 4-A champion Seventy-First High – on its 25-team widget. Seventy-First, incidentally, beat another Observer circulation team, Douglas Byrd, in the final. East Bladen reached the NCHSAA finals as well.

http://www.910preps.com/

Evangel Christian Joins the Widget Ranks

It isn’t often that an 11-time state football champion, one that stands as one of the all-time greats in the history of America high school football, joins your media team. But that’s exactly what happened on the day when Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian Academy signed up to use the MaxPreps.com widget:

http://www.evangelacademy.com/Athletics/highschool/football/index.php

Though Evangel lost last week in the Louisiana state championship game in New Orleans to another storied opponent – John Curtis – it still went 12-2 this season. It’s only other loss came on the road against Gatorade national player of the year, Garrett Gilbert, and Austin Lake Travis.

MaxPreps Widget Helps Promote PSAL Basketball

By way of its new affiliate relationship with the venerable New York State Sportswriters Association, MaxPreps will be working this winter to help promote PSAL basketball, the New York City-based association that annually produces some of the top teams in the nation.

The NYSSWA web site, published and edited by Rochester-area media giant John Moriello, will deploy a MaxPreps data widget that will deliver all schedules, results and statistics of all teams in the PSAL to its pages. Today’s launch began with PSAL AA boys teams. More City teams are to follow, as are other teams and conferences from around the state of New York.

Check out the NYSSWA’s initial widget launch here:

http://www.newyorksportswriters.org/sports/bkb.shtml

MaxPreps.com is also pleased to announced that it will again be featuring a weekly PSAL basketball column this winter, written by its talented columnist/photographer Danny Wild, who by day is writer, editorial producer and photographer for MLB.com.

SNY Taps Widget to Promote High-Profile Event

SNY Television in New York is using the Widget to help promote and highlight its annual four-team tournament at New York University. This season’s event, scheduled for January 23-24 at the Cole Athletic Center, features another stellar lineup of entries, one that spans two boroughs and one suburban county. The semifinal round on Jan. 23 tips off at 6 p.m. with Thomas Jefferson of Brooklyn facing Section 1 kingpin Mount Vernon; that game will be followed at 8 p.m. by Boys & Girls of Brooklyn vs. St. Raymond’s of the Bronx. Last year’s event was won by the Lance Stephenson-led Railsplitters from Lincoln. These people know how to pick their teams.

http://www.sny.tv/events/sny_invitational/

PIAA District 6 Widget Takes Runaway Lead

Not only do Tom Elling and Rich Vetock produce the outstanding and wildly popular Pennsylvania Football News, their PIAA District 6 web site is a favorite stop on the scholastic Internet circuit as well. The D6 site is so popular, in fact, that it has become the early runaway leader among widgets in page views produced nationally. We haven't seen the most recent figures but as of late last week, the District 6 widget had been responsible for over 30,000 viewings. Way to work, gentleman.

http://www.piaad6.org/6fbpage.htm

Gold Beach Takes the Widget to School

Widgets aren't just for sports web sites. Gold Beach High in Gold Beach, Ore., has opted to utilize the widget data for all of its teams on the main index page of its school web site. They have strategically placed its adjacent to the Headlines & Features section and an RSS feed.

http://www.ccsd.k12.or.us/goldbeachhs/site/default.asp

First in Widgets, First in Class 6A in Illinois

They say that good things come to people who wait. They might also say that good things come to people who use the MaxPreps’ Widget.

Though exact documentation is difficult to obtain, it is widely believed that the Sacred Heart-Griffin football web site in Illinois was the first in the nation to deploy the widget earlier this fall. For that we have SHG’s Man of Steele, assistant coach Frank Steele, to thank.

Accordingly, one first-place finish has led to another. Sacred Heart-Griffin captured the 2008 Illinois Class 6A championship last Saturday, downing Lemont, 37-15, at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium.

The Cyclones run a fabulous web site overall, one that is presently featuring a streaming audio re-broadcast of their state championship victory. Kudos to the Cycs both on and off the field.

http://www.shgfootball.com/site/index.shtml

http://www.shgfootball.com/site/statistics.shtml

Prattville and the Widget...What a Team!

So, you have to ask, how does the MaxPreps' widget wind up appearing so quickly in Prattville, Ala., at radio station WIQR (1410 AM)?

We don't know the real story for sure, but you can bet young Spiewak had something to do with this.

While he was working on one of our national road tours a few years ago, national football editor Steve Spiewak landed in Prattville one weekend and made immediate friends with a number of folks at WIQR , also know locally as "The Station That Stirs it Up."

Now WIQR is stirring it up and pouring out stats from 25 of its coverage-area football teams via use of the MaxPreps widget. Please visit these great promoters of high school football and give their station a listen. They also have video capabilities as well.

http://wiqrsports.com/

Widget Debuts in PA

November 26, 2008

Nobody knows football better than Pennsylvania. Accordingly, who else would you expect to be riding the early wave of the MaxPreps widget than the Pennsylvania Football News, Professor Thomas Elling, Editor Emeritus.


http://www.pawrsl.com/pfn/pfnscore08.htm

Photographers Embrace the Widget

November 26, 2008

Though I am sure there are many more out there, Scott Seighman in Ohio and Jonathan Bloom in Connecticut were two of the first photographers to deploy the widget on their business sites for the purpose of supporting their local schools and teams:

http://www.3blooms.net/

http://frenchcreekphoto.com/maxpreps.html

Packet Online in New Jersey Converts

November 26, 2008

Nice job by the folks at Princeton Packet Online, which owns and services 12 weekly newspapers in central Jersey. They are the first to make the conversion from MaxPreps traditional media affiliate service to the Widget. Great work Edith!

http://packetonline.com/hssports/

MaxPreps Data Widget Has Arrived

November 25, 2008

Dear Web Content Manager:

The MaxPreps.com data widget is now available and ready for immediate deployment.

Enjoy the same great content syndication service that major newspapers and television stations across the country have been receiving for years from MaxPreps, America’s Source for High School Sports.

The widget allows sites such as yours to receive all MaxPreps schedules, results, standings, leaderboards, rankings and player statistical data for your favorite schools and coverage-area teams. This is not a link, bur rather an imbedded and robust content-generating module.

The widget is easy to install and can be functioning on behalf of your company or organization within minutes. It may be customized to draw data from one school or up to 150 schools. The choice is yours and it’s free.

Simply select the sport (s) and the team (s) you wish to receive data for, generate the corresponding .html code and upload the coding on the designated page; MaxPreps’ data will begin working instantly on behalf of you, your web site, your school (s) and your entire sports community.

http://www.maxpreps.com/widgets/createwidget.aspx

Please contact me if you have any questions. And thank you for considering MaxPreps for your online data needs.

Sincerely,

Jim

Jim Stout
Media Manager, Eastern U.S.
CBS MaxPreps Inc.
4080 Plaza Goldorado Circle, Suite A
Cameron Park, CA 95682

O: 845-367-2864 C: 203-788-2593
jstout@maxpreps.com