Hockey history runs deep in Dallas

Brad Buckland celebrates association's past while pushing it into modern age

Webmaster of the Week: May 2-8

Name:
Brad Buckland

Site:
Dallas Junior Hockey Association

Position:
President/webmaster

Use of platform:
Dibs, Registration, Sitebuilder, Tourney 

Background:
Buckland grew up in east Texas so, naturally, as a kid he played … gymnastics? Yup, Buckland was a gymnast as a kid. “This is football country,” Buckland said. “In Texas you don’t really think of gymnastics or hockey.” Buckland’s son, Jacob, went unconventional when picking his sport of choice, too. He’s hooked on hockey. As Brad found himself spending more and more time shuttling Jacob, 12, to Dallas/Fort Worth-area rinks, he figured he might as well get involved as a volunteer. He first served on the Dallas Junior Hockey Association board of directors and now is entering his third year as the association’s president. An information technology manager with a programming background, Buckland volunteered to help out with the Dallas Junior Hockey Association website. 

What he does:
As webmaster, Buckland spends his late-night and weekend hours posting and organizing content, creating registrations, communicating with parents, coaches and players and posting and managing volunteer sessions, among other regular tasks. Working with DJHA board members and the Sport Ngin creative team, Buckland oversaw a site redesign and transition to a mobile responsive theme. One of the priorities in that project was to pay homage to the association’s rich history. “The DJHA was founded in the 1971-72 season,” Buckland said. “I am still in awe that a youth hockey organization has been around for 45 years in Dallas.” The new homepage design combines vintage photos from the early years of the association with modern pictures of players and recent championship banners. “The biggest thing is just because we have been around since 1971 doesn’t mean we have to continue to operate like we have been around since 1971,” Buckland said. One of Buckland’s big time savers is a creative use of the Survey Report page element. He sets up registrations for showcase events and summer camps, then pulls select information into a Survey Report page element that he places on a private page. Buckland then gives access to the page to coaches of the players in their respective age groups, allowing them to track who is registered and who needs reminders to sign up.

Making his mark:
Buckland uses the news collector, photo collector and document collector page types in Sitebuilder to organize and display specific types of content.