Chris Steele, who originally hoped to land a secretary position with the Colleyville Heritage High School football team's booster club, instead has thrived as webmaster despite a 'trial by fire' initiation.
Name: Chris Steele
Site: Colleyville Heritage High School Football
Position: Webmaster
Use of platform: Registration, Sitebuilder
Background: Steele grew up in Houston, attended the University of North Texas in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and settled in nearby Colleyville to raise her family. She is a high school English teacher by training, but spends most of her time as a stay-at-home mom. She works as a substitute teacher on occasion, and last spring volunteered to serve as a volunteer with the Colleyville Heritage High School football program’s booster club. She initially hoped to land the open secretary position, but when that was filled, “The booster club president said, ‘Hey, would you mind doing this instead?’ ” Steele said. “This” meant stepping in and taking over the club’s webmaster duties. “I had no website experience, so it was trial by fire,” Steele said. “The previous person who did it was our booster club president (Dean Jones). He said, ‘Oh, just get in there and play around, you’ll figure it out.’ ” Steele’s oldest son, Brendan, played on Colleyville Heritage's Junior Varsity Black squad this fall while middle son, Taylor, played on the Freshman Black team.
What she does: Steele laughs about, “Using my masters degree for a website.” But she has proven to be a quick study when it comes to learning the SportsEngine platform. She effectively uses a wide variety of page elements in multiple ways, most noticeably on the football program’s home page. Steele said she takes direction from Colleyville Heritage’s head coach Joe Willis and current booster club president Ryan Young on what content to present on the home page and how to prioritize it. “It’s a joint effort between everybody looking at things,” said Steele, adding she gets help updating the site, particularly calendar items, from assistant coach Freddy Ortega. The Panthers, who play in the second largest of Texas’ football classifications (Class 5A), reached the third round of the playoffs before being eliminated in a wild 80-62 loss to Lubbock Coronado on Dec. 2 at Wildcat Stadium in Abilene. Before that game, Steele had the site’s homepage loaded with information about the game, including directions, ticket prices, a countdown timer to kickoff and what fans were allowed to bring into the stadium. The detail-oriented Steele created a Coaches section with photos and bio information, loaded player photos on the team’s roster and kept the team’s schedule updated with results.
Making her mark: Steele created a Recruiting Page that includes a Prospect Guide that lists players from the 2018 through 2021 classes who are looking to play at the college level. There’s a photo with each player, and basic stats (height, weight, 40-yard dash time) are also listed. Steele also provides links to each player’s Twitter and HUDL pages.
Fun fact: Colleyville Heritage quarterback Jagger LaRoe threw for 508 yards and four touchdowns in the playoff loss to Lubbock Coronado. The teams combined for 1,440 yards of offense and 20 touchdowns.