We are deciding over the next five to six weeks what our coverage plans will be for the upcoming 2016-17 school year on CalHiSports.com. A major factor will be whether we can attract partners for some of our most popular weekly features and perhaps additional features that may be produced.
If you have a business or know of one that is looking to start or enhance a statewide promotional or branding campaign to thousands of coaches, high school athletes, their parents and fans, then CalHiSports.com and Cal-Hi Sports may be a great fit – and at the right price.
For the 2016-17 school year, once again our primary sports are expected to be football, boys basketball, girls basketball, baseball and softball. There also is the possibility of adding girls volleyball. We will continue to monitor teams and individuals in all sports for state record files but many of them are well-served by single-sport web sites.
For the 2015 calendar year, we reached 1.1 million page views plus in the last week we surpassed 18,400 twitter followers and are well over 5,000 likes on Facebook. Anyone who signs up for any promotional content on our site also gets access to deliver messages through all of our social media channels.
OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND
(Look into becoming a primary presenting partner of these content items on CalHiSports.com; note that all of them generate significant media attention from throughout the state due to the creditability we’ve built up over many years)
NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week
During football season, we choose one for offense, defense and special teams from both Northern California and Southern California (with CIF Central Section considered in the north). We switch to one boy and one girl from each region during basketball season and then do same for baseball and softball in the spring.
State Coaches of the Week
(Possible New Feature)
We’ll write up and highlight the accomplishments and highlights of at least two coaches per week. The item would be directed both at coaches and at the communities they represent.
State Stat Stars
This is the weekly collecting pot where everyone who’s hit high numbers in football, boys hoops, girls hoops, baseball and softball gets written up. We also compile this weekly feature as support for our ongoing work on maintaining state records in all sports.
Cal-Hi Sports Top 20 Rankings
(Using Slide Show)
This feature is currently stamped Gold Club for those who have opted to become subscribers. If we had a sponsor, it would obviously become a free content item. This is where we explain why each team is ranked where it has been ranked and give readers an idea of what moves may be coming next. Extensive lists of teams on the bubble are included as well. In addition, we’re looking at the possibility of presenting each Top 20 in a slide show format (which has shown by other sites we’ve followed in other states for many years results in great traffic numbers).
State Record Updates
At any point during the school year, we may compile an updated list of state records and provide them to our readers. An example would be the state records for team scoring and 100-point games in boys basketball set just a few months ago by the incredible team at Chino Hills. That information doesn’t come from anyone else. A presenting sponsor could help us with all of these posts – as they happen and updated.
State Coaches of the Year
This honor is for one coach per year in each of the five sports we specialize in. We also honor coaches for medium schools and small schools for each sport as well. A sponsorship in this category also may include sponsorship of probably the most requested state record lists we do by the media: all-time coaching wins.
State Players of the Year
Also known as Mr. Football, Mr. Basketball, Ms. Basketball, Mr. Baseball and Ms. Softball for all of those sports in California. In addition, we select state players of the year for juniors, sophomores, freshmen (except football) and for medium schools and small schools. Our player of the year lists extend back more than 100 years in some cases and make it a very special experience to be on it.
Hogan Irwin of San Diego Cathedral Catholic was a member of the most recent All-State All-Academic Football Team. Photo: @KUSISports/Twitter.com.
All-State All-Academic Teams
We began doing these teams for football two years ago and believe it has gone well. We’d like to eventually add them for the other four sports and getting a presenting sponsor would certainly help.
Cal-Hi Sports Podcast
(Possible New Feature)
These have become a great way in recent years for users to interact with inside experts like those on our editorial team. We’re looking into doing a podcast with weekly guests or without and have learned a lot about the process through being part of the State and Local Sports Show with Stockton Record prep editor Thomas Lawrence.
State Record Book & Almanac
One of the main reasons we’ve never been able to print a state record book since 2009 is that there has not been a sponsor/partner willing to help produce it. This book was published four times in our 25-plus years of being part of the Student Sports team and three times before that. There is no other book on California high school sports that comes close to it for relevance, amazement and for the tens of thousands of names in it. It may be a perfect item to be sold inside the store of a presenting sponsor.
Banner Ads/Text Ads/Module Ads
& Using Side Margins
All partners we have would be included in a campaign of banner ads, text ads and module ads within our site. It also is possible to simply sponsor one of the ads without partnering up on a content item. Video links also can be added and we can easily switch the images on the side margins of the site, otherwise known as “the skin,” to display advertising.
Preseason Coaches Questionnaires
We send these out to select coaches in each of our five sports a few weeks before their seasons get going to help us with preseason rankings, preseason features and coverage during each season. These questionnaires can be sponsored and we guarantee that these are emails that coaches actually will open and look at.
One-Time Text Ad
It can cost as little as $100 for someone to get a one-time promotion onto our site. For this rate, we produce a content item, place it onto our Insider’s blog and then send out links to that post through our social media channels.
If you are interested in any of these partnership possibilities, call editor Mark Tennis today at 209-608-1317 or email markjtennis@gmail.com.
