A web designer by trade, Kevin Plew is an avid fan of technology and takes pride in the ability to do everything himself. As webmaster for Eagle Mustang Football Boosters, an organization that raises more than $160,000 each year for the high school football program, Plew, and his vast knowledge of technology, is instrumental to the organization’s success.
Name: Kevin Plew
Organization: Eagle Mustang Football — Eagle High School, Idaho
Position: Webmaster
SportsEngine Tools Utilized: Registration, Sitebuilder, Powerpay
What he was up against
As a tech-savvy individual, Plew has spent the last 18 years doing things his way, using Wordpress to create the Eagle Mustang Football website and PayPal to register athletes and process payments. But, after all this time, Plew is ready to retire from his volunteer role and needs to find a user-friendly sports technology platform that will be easy for future volunteers to operate.
What SportsEngine did to help
Eagle Mustang Football worked with SportsEngine to replace Wordpress and PayPal as the club’s technology partner, providing the club with a unique website, custom registration, and powerful communications tools — all on one platform.
What the impact was
“I’ve loved working for the boosters program and helping promote the organization, but after 18 years, it’s time for me to pass off my duties,” says Plew. “And while what I’ve built makes sense to me, the reality is that there’s a better way to manage a sports organization than with Wordpress and Paypal.”
“I don’t know if you’ve used PayPal for registration before, but I can tell you, it’s a terrible experience,” says Plew. “After registration, you have to check your PayPal account every couple weeks and look who registered, then pull all the data into a spreadsheet and hope you didn’t miss something — I was handling the data 2-3 times instead of just once.”
“Last year, before we started using SportsEngine, we found 18 kids on rosters that never registered or paid their dues,” says Plew. (Roster dues are $600 for each athlete.)
Plew knew there had to be a better way, and he found it with SportsEngine.
“The difference between SportsEngine's registration and payment tool solution is night and day when compared to PayPal,” says Plew. “With SportsEngine, we can request payments, arrange payment plans and terms, and track payments all in one place. Then, when registrations are collected, you can quickly assign each athlete to a roster without having to duplicate data or handle it more than one time.”
“SportsEngine reduces our registration, data management, and rostering time by 75% every season,” says Plew. “Plus, parents love that they complete the entire registration process on their phones.”
“Moving away from PayPal and Wordpress has changed our entire online presence and the way that we can interact with families and fans,” says Plew. “Registration is seamlessly integrated into our website for families, and fans can sign up through the website to receive messages, score updates, and more from the club.”
“I’ve already trained in other volunteers on the back end of the website and platform dashboard, and they are learning everything fast,” says Plew. “I love that there are multiple choices we can make to customize the website, but not so many that it’s overwhelming for novice users.”
“SportsEngine just understands every facet of sports programs,” says Plew. “From managing volunteers, to rostering athletes, to hosting registration — they understand what you need and they deliver it all on one platform.”
“I feel completely comfortable now handing off the website, registration, and club technology to other volunteers now that we have SportsEngine,” says Plew. “If anyone ever asks me to build another sports website, I won’t do it unless it’s a SportsEngine website — it’s just that good.”
"SportsEngine reduces our registration, data management, and rostering time by 75% every season."
