CWU Athletics made the decision to change their website over winter break. With basketball season well underway and baseball and track coming up, it was time to implement some changes.

“We were looking for an opportunity to improve and get better,” Assistant Athletic Director, Tyler Unsicker said.

Almost five months ago CWU athletic directors started planning the new website for CWU Athletics.

Director of Athletic Communications, Sammy Henderson added, “Our old website was good, but there was so much that it couldn’t do that we wish it did, kind of a plain page with words and numbers, our old website wasn’t very interactive.”

Before the website was renovated, most of the content was made up of pictures accompanied by the names of student athletes, making it difficult to find out more about each player individually.

After implementing changes, the website became easier to use and appears to be much more interactive. It allows you to view each player’s biography, as well as statistics from previous games.

“When you’re looking at our page, you’re getting the information you need,” Henderson said.

With college athletics, each university has a three-year plan with a website reporter. For CWUs case, their reporter is SIDEARM Sports. SIDEARM Sports is one of the providers for college athletics websites. Every three years CWU Athletics is allowed to update their website. SIDEARM Sports’ job is to collaborate with the athletic directors to find out how CWU wants their website to be made.

“Having this opportunity to upgrade the website was much needed,” Unsicker said.

The CWU athletic directors collaborated together and wanted to make a perfect website for viewers to find what they are looking for.

“This website is really helpful for me, I am able to look up statistics from basketball games that I can’t make,” CWU student Jordan Webb said.

The website has an open layout that allows you to explore CWU Athletics  in-depth. You can view game recaps, play-by-play updates and the upcoming schedule. According to Henderson, the main focus was to connect the websites through social media.

“We post our website and stories on Facebook and Twitter because that is where a lot of our interaction comes through,” Henderson said.