Hoover Athletic Association in central Alabama has a rich 50+ year history of serving the community with a strong focus on instilling important life lessons into every athlete. The non-profit organization totals more than 1,000 athletes participating in baseball, football, and cheerleading.
Mike Plaia, president of Hoover Athletic Association, knows his role well. He’s in charge of growing the association and ensuring that each volunteer and coach knows the organization’s mission and carries it out during every practice, game, and activity.
Name: Mike Plaia
Organization: Hoover Athletic Association
Position: President
SportsEngine Tools Utilized: Registration, Sitebuilder, Billing, Tourney, League
What he was up against
As a non-profit organization with a staff of volunteers, turnover for all positions is high — Plaia knew that because of this, he needed to create a single source of truth to create continuity for the organization and future association leaders.
Plaia also knew that continuity would be tough to achieve with the organization using multiple companies to handle their registration (SI Play and TeamWall Communications), scheduling (Quickscores), and their homegrown website.
What SportsEngine did to help
SportsEngine delivered all the tools that Hoover Athletic Association needed to operate efficiently, all on one platform — creating the continuity Plaia knew they needed. SportsEngine provided a custom website, online registration, team and league management tools, and payment processing services.
What the impact was
“When I first became president of the association a few years ago, we really didn’t have a good online presence or documented history and mission for anyone to gain an understanding of the organization,” says Plaia. “My first order of business was to fix that and to find a technology partner that could help us grow and centralize all our information.”
Plaia found that partner in SportsEngine.
“The new website from SportsEngine has been huge for us,” says Plaia. “We have separate pages for all our teams, a centralized location for coaches and parents to find schedules, a place to share urgent messages, and the ability to host online registration.”
“Plus, and maybe most important to me, we have a home for our organization’s mission and history,” says Plaia. “Being a non-profit, everyone is a volunteer, and turnover for most positions is very high. The challenge for us is to sustain the culture we have built well into the future.”
“Now, when someone is new or a family is researching us, they can just go to our website and find everything they need to understand both what we stand for and what we do,” says Plaia. “We’re building our history through SportsEngine, and we now have a template for future leaders to follow.”
Of course, the website is more than just a single source of truth for the organization, it’s also a powerful marketing tool.
“Before SportsEngine, our website was really basic and just didn’t look good,” says Plaia. “We didn’t even encourage people to visit it.”
“Now, with SportsEngine, the website looks great, and families check often for scores, standings, schedules, photos, videos, and more,” says Plaia. “It’s really changed the game for us and has become a great tool for attracting new families.”
“I saved three to four thousand dollars switching to SportsEngine, and got much more robust tools than I had before,” says Plaia. “Our goal is to minimize the cost to play sports and increase the number of athletes — with a reasonable pricing structure and an online presence that motivates people to join us, SportsEngine has allowed us to do both.”
“I get excited about our future with SportsEngine and am always waiting to see what’s next,” says Plaia. “If you go with someone that has proven success like SportsEngine — with their credibility and financial backing — then you know there’s more great things to come.”
“With all the new tools coming out and enhancements being made, SportsEngine continues to make life easier for me and our volunteers.”
"I saved three to four thousand dollars switching to SportsEngine, and got much more robust tools than I had before."
