Ponies hockey site tamed by webmaster

Doug Biever's organizational skills big part of Stillwater Area Hockey Association's makeover

Webmaster of the Week: April 27-May 3

Name:
Doug Biever    

Site:
Stillwater Area Hockey Association

Position:
Webmaster

Background:
Biever has been involved with Stillwater hockey since the youngest of his four boys became active in the association in 2006. He stepped up his contributions four years ago when he offered to put his computer science degree and IT background (he manages the network team at US Bank). “I noticed how dysfunctional our website was. It was a dumping ground with very little organization. It was just a mess.” His work was recognized in late February when Stillwater Area Hockey Association cracked the top 5 in Sport Ngin's youth hockey site rankings.

What he does:
Biever initially went to work organizing the site’s content, cleaning up the home page by limiting to just four or five main areas of content – no more endless scroll. While it was Sport Ngin’s creative crew that implemented much of the site’s distinctive design – a design that has spawned a dozen or so similar-looking youth hockey sites – Biever’s fingerprints are on some of the subtleties of the site’s look (font colors, sizes, etc.). Biever has helped build out several sections of the site, including multiple categories (Development, Safety, New/Used Equipment Swap) under the robust Resources section. Doug’s wife, Kelly Biever, serves as the association’s SafeSport coordinator and helped build out the the multi-page Safety section.

Making his mark:
Biever ensures that the association’s tournaments are promoted, documented and archived on the site. The popular Skate for the Roses tournament includes a custom graphic and a page with a tabbed element showing the brackets in each age division along with Tournament Rules, Arena Links and Arena Maps. “All the information is online and easy to navigate, with results getting posted in real time,” Biever said. “There’s nothing more discouraging paying $1,000 to enter a tournament and then you can’t find any information about it.”