Athletic website increases Bobcat pride

Department of Athletics launches new website to promote university spirit and utilize video elements

Beginning in June, the Georgia College athletic department began to redesign its website. The company, Presto Sports, who holds the contract for designing the athletic website gave Georgia College the opportunity to have its website redesigned for free. The athletic department saw this as a chance to improve its website.

“Every time you re-up that contract, which ours was due in October, you get a free redesign. So we decided to do it a little bit early so we could have a nice, over the summer, redesign,” Sports Information Director Al Weston said. “We had those new spirit logos that we come out with last year as a university, and I wanted to integrate some of that kind of stuff with the athletic site. What I wanted to get out of it was to feature those spirit logos; I thought that was crucial. I wanted to get those elements out there because that’s some good branding elements for the athletic department as whole.”

Not only does the website have many new designs, it also has multiple features and components that the old website did not. One of these new components is a much larger access to videos. For example, the site will attempt to get inside the athletes’ lifestyle and personality by getting them on camera and asking them questions.

“I wanted to increase the ability to utilize the video element. That’s going to be a much more featured element of this new website … our site’s a bit more friendly to video elements,” Weston said. “Also, all of the pictures are larger and it’s just a bit more vibrant, color-wise. It’s got a new background that kind of features our fans, which I think is fun. So it was all just an aesthetic purpose to try and get some more energy around the athletic department.”

Although the former athletics website had no problems operating or functioning, Weston did feel that it lacked certain components.

“It didn’t have the energy that I wanted it to,” Weston said. “A lot of it was also some of the old nomenclature too, as far as the university goes. There was a lot of Georgia College & State University instead of the switch to just Georgia College that we made last year. I wanted to get rid of some of that to kind of line up better with university initiatives. It was a functional site, but we just wanted to make it a bit more fan-friendly and bit more interesting to look at.”

In addition, the new website is easier to get around and find what is being searched for. The links on the site have also been upgraded, and there are many more links that can be accessed on the website and can help students get more involved with Georgia College. There is also an online store on the site where Georgia College students can buy Bobcats merchandise.

For students who want to be able to stay updated on the Bobcats sports teams, the website now has a text alert feature that was not available in the past, allowing them to stay updated on Bobcat athletic news such as game scores.

“So about half way through a soccer game, I’ll send you a text if you sign up on the website that says ‘We’re beating Armstrong Atlantic 2-0,’ that kind of stuff. It’ll come right to your phone,” Weston said. “There’s some extra bells and whistles that hadn’t been there in the past as well.”

If Georgia College students want to voice their opinion about the website and recommend changes, there are small components that the athletic department can change on their own.

“That’s one thing I would encourage to Bobcat fans, if there’s anything that’s missing or ideas that you have for something that folks would like to see on the website, find that email that’s on the bottom of the page and send the ideas. That would be great. We took some fan input on this redesign,” Weston said. “Some of the fans’ ideas are already in place, elements like those text alerts. If there’s other ideas and they’re easy enough to add we’re going to get them right in there for them.”

Since the athletic department is continuing with the company Presto Sports, all of the back-end procedures that the athletic department does such as updating information to the website is exactly the same as before.

Although the redesigned website was finished in early August, the Athletic Department officially launched it on the first day of class. Weston has particular objectives that he plans for the new athletic website to reach.

“With websites and web promotions, the key is to get them there, and then to get them to stay. I want people to realize that this is the site for Georgia College athletics and the information that’s associated with that,” Weston said. “My key is to get you in there and then once you start poking around and finding all the cool stuff, you’re going to stick around and make it a regular site that you’re going to visit every time you want to know about Georgia College athletics.”