Moving towards a better FloridaHSFootball.com user experience

GAINESVILLE — For the past seven years, FloridaHSFootball.com has grown as a site that started off just simply to cover high school football. It would have been hard to have told many people where it would take myself in the process of that journey, but it has sure been a fun one so far and a challenging one at times. This upcoming fall will be the eighth football season for the site and totally feel it will be by far the most challenging one yet, but also will probably one of the best ever.

However, time to get down to some things business wise.

Today, I am sharing some thoughts and ideas that I am bringing forward to continue improving FloridaHSFootball.com in the day, weeks and months ahead.

More Content

This is something I am working hard improving is more content and more of it daily. Some of the content will come a the spur of the moment like coaching changes and other news events affecting teams around the state. Nothing much we can do to prepare for that except to expect that news when it does happen.

However, what can be planned for are features and game coverage.

Some features that are looking at being done includes the following:

• History Huddle: Looking back on Florida’s high school football history. There is a lot we can do this and we are not going to say too much about how we will go about it, but I do intend to involve Florida high school football history expert Richard Burton from time to time. He has a big wealth of knowledge and has spent the last few years researching, so this is something we will be working on.
• Four Questions with the Coaches: We will ask coaches four questions which they will answer and will feature them on the site with likely one each at least. It will be a great way for fans to better know the leaders of the programs from around the state. We will do this both with Football and Flag Football.
• Twitter Tuesdays: We will look back on an entire’s week of events and news stories through tweets, plus post a few poll questions along the way about different topics.
• Over/Under Media Spotlight: We will throw some things out there for members of the media to answer about different topics. An example will be will Team A get eight wins this season and the response will be given to us as Over or Under and a brief explanation as to why.
• Regional Bias: From time to time we will take a look at the different parts of the state using a regional bias. We will talk to members of the media in a particular region to see what is moving or what is shaking and where things could head for that region from time to time.
• Other Things: The helmet challenge will return this summer (likely to be different than 9 brackets like last year), some different things on mascots, alumni notebooks and other ideas that come about as we move forward. Things like weekly rankings, weekly look ahead and other things during both tackle and flag football seasons will still be there as well.

We will likely, starting next week, launch a Weekly Planner to kind of give an idea of the content planned for that week, minus anything that could pop at a moment’s notice.

Mobile App

This is likely one of the biggest things I have been asked about: “When are you going to have a mobile app?” Well, that has always been one of those things that have been down low on the priority list, but with some recent advancements in technology, things have improved upon this outlook.

So yes, a mobile app is being considered. Will it happen today, tomorrow or next week? Unlikely. A few months is more likely the ideal situation at this point. There will be at least a 30-day build out things before any app launches, so that will have to be factored in once things finally lock in place. And when we do launch an app it will be available on Android and iOS (Apple). The app will be free to everyone and it would allow us to send push notifications directly to you on any news or updates that we feel will be important.

Video Integration & Podcasts

Currently working on some things involving video, but not too much can be said as to what it will be, exactly how it will be and so forth. However, I will say this could be a major game changer and that is where we will leave it at for now on that. The only other thing is that this could spur some specialty podcasts and that would be another thing that is be investigated at this time. Hopefully, some announcements will be able to start rolling out soon in regards to this.

Sponsorships & Advertising

We are going to be revamping how we handle sponsorships and advertising as we do have some interest coming forth from some major companies for the upcoming season. However, we understand not everyone can do major sponsorships and so forth. However, we will offer a variety of advertising options that will meet different needs for our advertisers and sponsors. More will be posted in the near future in regards to these options.

Want to chime in with your thoughts or suggestions? Leave us a comment below or email me at joshua.wilson@floridahsfootball.com.