Recognizing this, Universities have sports information departments specifically designed to engage people in their athletic programs.  Most high schools don’t think they have the resources to actively promote their programs.  And most didn’t, until VNN.

Through VNN, schools give voice to the fans in their community, and in doing so develop a community that is deeply invested in the success of the athletic department.

Gate receipts going down?  Noticed a lack of parent and alumni interest?  VNN can help.

The journalism class at West Ottawa High School makes sure Panther athletes get the coverage they deserve, earning credit for publishing stories, pictures and videos to WOpanthers.com.

Haven’t seen your team featured in the media lately?  You’re not alone.

VNN can help.  Contact us to learn more.

PressboxApp.net simplifies score reporting… all the way down to 6-minutes per report.

Check out how easy it is below, then try out your FREE account at PressboxApp.net.

One report and you’re done.  Every media outlet has your report gift-wrapped and waiting for them to publish.  You can even add your own media outlets (like Grandma Smith).

Try out your free account at PressboxApp.net.

PressboxApp.net simplifies score reporting… all the way down to 6-minutes per report.

Check out how easy it is below, then try out your FREE account at PressboxApp.net.

One report and you’re done.  Every media outlet has your report gift-wrapped and waiting for them to publish.  You can even add your own media outlets (like Grandma Smith).

Try out your free account at PressboxApp.net.

PressboxApp.net simplifies score reporting… all the way down to 6-minutes per report.

Check out how easy it is below, then try out your FREE account at PressboxApp.net.

One report and you’re done.  Every media outlet has your report gift-wrapped and waiting for them to publish.  You can even add your own media outlets (like Grandma Smith).

Try out your free account at PressboxApp.net.

PressboxApp.net simplifies score reporting… all the way down to 6-minutes per report.

Check out how easy it is below, then try out your FREE account at PressboxApp.net.

One report and you’re done.  Every media outlet has your report gift-wrapped and waiting for them to publish.  You can even add your own media outlets (like Grandma Smith).

Try out your free account at PressboxApp.net.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making specific tweaks to the words and structure of your website in order to help it rank higher in Google search results.  It’s a long and complex process, but it’s critical to getting your site found online.

Luckily, VNN has put together a handy dandy cheatsheet of some things you can do right now to make a big improvement to your SEO.

1. Titles:
Use your school name and the name of the sport in the title of your article.  

Example: “Forest Hills Northern football takes down Grand Rapids Christian” is a great, search-engine-friendly title to an article.  Search engines don’t know that you’re writing directly for your school, so you need to write your titles like you’re writing for a worldwide audience if you want Google to find your story.  (Exception: Don’t force it where it doesn’t fit.  If you write like a robot you risk losing your human audience.)

2. Tags:
Use tags religiously, but keep them short.

Example: “Volleyball” is a good tag.  ”East Kentwood Volleyball” is a bad tag.  Names are also great tags, so “Betsy Smith” works too.  Search engines look to the tags to properly index your article, so be sure that you’re using them (hint: they’re on the right side of the screen when you write an article).

3. Links:
Link your district website to your VNN site.

Example: When you click “Athletics” on your district website, it should go directly to your VNN website via what’s called a “301 Redirect” (ask your tech department).  Search engines transfer clout from one website to the next via links, so having multiple sites link to one another helps raise the search engine love for all sites.

Follow the three steps above, and watch as the traffic to your site increases.

About the Simple Sports Marketing series

Varsity News Network helps clients successfully market their athletic departments online.  There is a ton you can do, but there are only 24 hours in a day.  The Simple Sports Marketing series makes it easy to prioritize what you do with the time you do have, to help you get the most bang for your buck.

If you’re not proactively marketing your athletic program through VNN, what are you waiting for?  Learn more

When Saline High School (SHS) Athletic Director Rob White has important information to give to his community, he wants the exchange to be quick and easy. To White, a website filled with twists and turns that confuse parents and fans is simply unacceptable.

His original idea was bold. White wanted Saline’s athletic website to rival that of the University of Michigan’s. To get there, White reached out to Varsity News Network (VNN) to supercharge Salinehornets.com.

VNN, a Grand Rapids based-company founded in 2010, offers high schools an online athletic system that not only makes things like schedules and directions easily accessible, but also incorporates sports journalism, setting a foundation for students to report on their school’s athletic programs. VNN is like ESPN.com for high schools.

This added journalistic perspective was especially important to White, due to the diminishing coverage Saline’s non-football sports had received.

Increasing coverage for student athletes

Saline, a town with a population around 9,000 people, is twenty miles away from Ann Arbor. Saline High School used to rely on Annarbor.com as the only source of sports coverage. This worked until Annarbor.com began cutting back on their staff, and in turn, cutting back on their high school sports coverage.

White grew tired of seeing his athletes’ stories fall through the cracks.

“Our JV soccer team had played 12 games without giving up a single goal, and nobody knew about it,” White said. “AnnArbor.com didn’t give them recognition, so we needed to do this ourselves.”

With a goal of covering all sports, paired with the VNN software system, all White had to do was find his sports journalists.

Sports journalism independent study

Saline no longer had a high school newspaper due to low enrollment, so White collaborated with the English department to develop an independent study class in sports journalism. It took off immediately.

Four student athletes jumped on the opportunity to cover sports for credit, and have since been responsible for covering all sports at Saline. After dividing up the events according to a calendar, each student’s class involves covering 2-3 games per week. They post articles, photos, and videos to SalineHornets.com and are graded (pass/fail) on a weekly basis.

White runs the sports journalism class seamlessly through VNN. The result has been constant media coverage of all 32 sports teams and the 1300 athletes they represent. More coverage than any other school in the area.

Saving time with proactive communication

VNN has also made it easier for coaches and parents to find the information they need. All of Saline’s athletic forms are well organized on SalineHornets.com, as are the schedules, rosters, and the latest scores for every Saline team. Visitors can keep up to date with the latest Saline news on Facebook and Twitter, or stay connected with a daily email newsletter, outreach which happens automatically through VNN. Articles from the local paper automatically fed into the website, making SalineHornets.com the one stop hub for information about Saline sports.

White has found that proactive communication means far less phone calls from people asking the same old questions. Where is the game? How much money do tickets cost? What was the score of last night’s game? These phone calls have all but disappeared, leaving White more time to spend with student athletes.

I just think about what I would want to see if I were a parent or fan, and I make sure it’s on our site,” White explains. “With VNN, we have the best website around.”

See what goes on behind the scenes at Forest Hills Central when Maranda visits the Rangers’ journalism class.  She also talks to VNN Co-Founder Ryan Vaughn about the benefits of becoming part of the ‘Network’ and the positive exposure that it gives to all sports.

With a full sports calendar year under the belt of VNN now,  the Michigan based company that set up shop in West Michigan is now expanding it’s horizons and moving across other regions in the state.  The first east side school to join the network is Saline.  Just about 10 minutes south of Ann Arbor, Saline High School has exploded in growth over the past 15 years.  In 1996, the school had just over 900 students.  Today, the Hornets are double that size and their Athletics program has seen the same type of growth.

The Hornets previously had a website that was cutting edge but they wanted to take what they were doing well and take it to the next level.  Athletic Director Rob White recently did an interview with an online local newspaper, the Saline-Milan Patch and had this to say.  ”Technology continues to change and it provides us more opportunities.”

When AnnArbor.com cut back on its sports coverage, White saw a need that wasn’t being met.

“High school sports coverage isn’t where I’d like to see it—especially for some of the less mainstream sports like tennis, water polo or lacrosse. We wanted a site that would help bring our athletes the recognition they deserve,” White said.

White has big plans for the site this year which was quoted in the article as well, “Starting this fall, aspiring writers, journalists, videographers and photographers from Saline High School will be on the sidelines taking notes, asking questions and shooting pictures and video. White hopes the students will cover four or five athletic events each week. Students will do the work for extra credit.”

The Hornets also will be making a big push to promote and integrate their own spirit store, where parents can purchase Hornets clothing, gear and accessories in just a few clicks.

Saline is just one example of a school utilizing all of the efforts we have put forth to develop new features on a monthly basis.  The network is growing in coverage and in capabilities.  Saline will also be using the site as an informational tool for vital programs, such as Pay to Play and online handbooks for coaches and parents.

White finished the article with this quote that sums it up, “I think it will make things more convenient for parents, for the coaches, for the students and the parents.”

Thanks Rob, this gives great meaning to the old Field of Dreams mantra, “If you build it they will come.”  Yes and in the the case of Saline, they will not only come but when they get here, they will take full advantage of all the tools and pump out a winner that leads by example.