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The 5th Quarter

Tell us what you think about the new HighSchoolOT.com

By Nick Stevens
Aug 18, 2008

Ryan Craig

HighSchoolOT.com covers high school sports like no one else can

I have been counting down the days for the launch of HighSchoolOT.com since spring, and I am so excited that it is finally live!

Our goal when we created this site was to create a fun Web site for high school students, athletes, and fans, but to also make it professional.

We want to keep HighSchoolOT.com growing, so we need your feedback! What do you like? What should we change? What suggestions do you have for us?

Leave a comment on this blogpost with your feedback, or click here to contact us!

Also, be sure to let us know if you find a bug in the site that we need to have worked out.

Check out all of our new features:

  • Team Pages: Each team in the Cap Seven, Greater Neuse River, PAC-6, and Tri-8 Conferences will have their own team pages, complete with team news, football standings, schedule, video, audio and slideshows. In the future, we have plans to add pages for different sports at each school.
  • Athlete of the Week: HighSchoolOT.com will feature one athlete each Monday as the Athlete of the Week. This athlete will answer questions about his or her athletic career, as well as questions that they don't typically get asked by the media.
  • Tom Suiter's Extra Effort Award: Tom Suiter has given out more than 500 Extra Effort Awards in his time, and HighSchoolOT.com will have video of every award handed out during the 2008-2009 school year.
  • Recruiting: HighSchoolOT.com will have an exclusive section with a heavy focus on the local recruiting scene. We will also have coverage of recruiting at area colleges, and a weekly recruiting column from the Fayetteville Observer's Sammy Batten.
  • Game of the Week: Get all of your Game of the Week coverage on HighSchoolOT.com by going to our Game of the Week section. New information will be added throughout the week!
  • Across the State: The WRAL viewing area spans across 22-counties, and local prep fans care about what is going on in other parts of the state. We're not limiting our coverage to the Triangle; we've got an entire section dedicated to prep sports news across North Carolina!
  • Tom Suiter's Fabulous 15 Poll: WRAL-TV legend Tom Suiter lists the top 15 teams in the WRAL viewing area each week. Get it every Wednesday on the 6 o'clock news, and anytime on HighSchoolOT.com.
  • Video, Audio, & Slideshows: HighSchoolOT.com will have video from WRAL-TV, audio from 99.9 FM The Fan, and photos from photographers on the High School OT staff, all for your viewing. New on OT, when an audio file is on the sidebar of a story, you can play the audio while still looking at the story. The audio will not open up in a new page! Also, be sure to check out our awesome video player, exclusive to HighSchoolOT.com.
  • Polls: We'll have a poll frequently on the right side of HighSchoolOT.com. Let us know your opinion by exercising your right to vote!
  • Submit your photos: HighSchoolOT.com will be very interactive. A large part of that interaction is our comment section, but another big part of the interaction is what we call user generated content. Upload your photos after your contests here on HighSchoolOT.com for everyone to see. It doesn't have to be football, it could be soccer, golf, cross country, any sport! If your school doesn't have a team page, you can still upload photos!
  • The Football Friday Challenge: It's a hit every year on WRAL.com, but this year it moves to HighSchoolOT.com. Sign up today, make your picks, and see how you rank against the HighSchoolOT.com staff! You could win a McDonald's Arch Card by winning a single week, but if you win the entire contest -- You get a $200 gas card from HighSchoolOT.com.

Look out for more features coming soon. And remember, Football Friday begins on Aug. 22 at 11:35 p.m.

Back To: Tell us what you think about the new HighSchoolOT.com
COMMENTS

8 Comments


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Nice site, very nice. I guess youve already heard you forgot my school. Well here goes again. I'd like to see South Johnston on your list. As a matter of fact I'd like to see it on the find my team list. And furthermore what about a little love for the Cape Fear Valley. Dunn Daily Record seems to be the only one left covering that conference. I look forward to more and I hope this carries on into Basketball, and Baseball.
robbiebadams
August 25, 2008 4:23 p.m.
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Good site Nick. It's interesting to see your (WRAL) commitiment and focus to prep sports. Virtually none of your competition has any coverage at all at the moment to HS sports. The site & WRAL are leaders for HS sports and you all should be proud. Keep it up!

Bruce
otaybw
August 20, 2008 8:16 p.m.
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rreham,

We are covering the PAC-6 and Private Schools as well. If you look at the left side of the site you will see pages for each of those schools. We have hired a correspondent, John D'Amore, who will be dedicated to covering the PAC-6. We have video interviews and photos from the launch party of PAC-6 players as well.

In the future, we will have individual team pages for each sport at each school. Right now - for the launch - we wanted to focus just on football. You will see expansion as we move forward through time. One of our goals is to expand our coverage past the four 4-A conferences and go to the other area conferences. Depending on how everything goes with OT this year, that will be something we discuss for next year.

Thanks for the input!
Nick Stevens
August 20, 2008 4:21 p.m.
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Great Site! Thanks for the concentration on this area.... but c'mon guys... expand your coverage a bit.... the Cap7 and Tri8 Conferences, as good as they are, are not the only conferences that have teams in the area! How about some from the PAC6 and Private Schools also?!?!
rreham
August 20, 2008 3:05 p.m.
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Nice site. Easy to navigate. Looking forward to new features
VikingTom
August 19, 2008 4:08 a.m.
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cp1017,

For our initial launch, we wanted to narrow the scope of the OT coverage. We hope to expand our coverage through time. We will still have statewide coverage as we did last season. There is an entire section dedicated to prep news across the state... "Across the State" is the name of the section! We will post information there on games, teams, and schools from across the state.
Nick Stevens
August 18, 2008 9:56 p.m.
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You left out a few area schools like Princeton and North Johnston!
cp1017
August 18, 2008 8:47 p.m.
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Very, very cool and exciting!!!!
humbay62
August 18, 2008 5:06 p.m.
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