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New athletics Web site to provide more interaction with UH fans

Published: Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Updated: Monday, August 3, 2009 18:08

The University of Hawai‘i athletics department launched its new Web site on Aug. 20 to coincide with the start of the new school year. Along with its new look, the site also gives Hawai‘i fans a more interactive experience through videos.

The initial athletics Web site was launched in 1995, designed by the Starr Tech Interactive. The updated look of the site is a product of Internet Consulting Services Company, which developed the fourth-generation Web site. The contract signed with the Syracuse, N.Y., company was based on a three-year deal, with the company scheduled to receive $3,500 annually. The Web site took about six to eight months to produce, although talks of designing a new one had been going on for about a year.

"We worked so long on it because we wanted to make sure that when we launched it, it was working properly and smoothly," said John McNamara, associate athletics director of external affairs.

IT/Internet specialist Troy Yamamoto spearheaded the project, along with media relations director Derek Inouchi, who also helped to produce the new design of the Web site.

"I think that the video component is the focal point of this new Web site. There are a lot of creative ideas that we have by being able to use the video component as well as integrating live stats," Yamamoto explained.

Aside from the video component, fans will be able to see the featured athletes of the week every Monday. The idea is to highlight an athlete by featuring the athletic department's Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week, which is decided by the members of the media relations department.

This year, for the first time, classified UH students can purchase tickets online through the new Web site.

"One of the biggest things is that we want to try and make our Web site an easy point of access for tickets, which is a big revenue generator, so we're trying to merge together our etickethawaii.com Web site into the new hawaiiathletics.com Web site," Yamamoto said.

The UH athletics department also hopes to expand fan interaction by utilizing the video component.

"We want fans to be able to ask questions through the Web site and have athletes, administrators and coaches do a video blog to answer their questions," Yamamoto said.

Yamamoto added that this won't be the end of the new Web site's design. They are in the process of enabling text messaging from the Web site, which would allow UH fanatics to get the latest scores of their favorite UH teams sent straight to their cell phones. This feature is expected to be launched within the coming semester.

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