Saratoga HS Ice Hockey Revamps Media Guide and Raises $21,000
Bianca Javate - Blog Writer
Photo submitted by Abbey Temple
Being a hockey parent is tough—you’re balancing your duties within the family alongside your career and other external commitments. Attending games, chauffeuring practices, running fundraisers, and coordinating with the community are just some of the ways that hockey parents get involved. Of course, as a parent, you would want to show your support in any way that you can. You want to be present and on top of everything; but there’s only so much that you can do, and this was a common point of discussion for hockey parents in blogs and online forums. As President of the Saratoga Springs Hockey Association, Abbey Temple was familiar with this story. She already had a lot on her plate prior to her presidency, but was willing to step up and help the Saratoga Blue Streaks Hockey team in their 2024 season.
As she assumed her role in the association, one of the most strenuous and time-consuming tasks given to her was the preparation of the Blue Streaks’ media guide. Together with other parent volunteers, Abbey organized all of the business sponsors’ advertisements, gathered all the images, oversaw the design process, sorted payments, and settled invoices. It was a lot for them to do on their own and it was costly to produce printed copies that had to be transported to every game; not to mention that it was also a bit of a waste when there were excess copies left in storage. With that in mind, Abbey sought out the help and expertise provided by the team at Story of the Season.
Through discussing with Abbey and understanding the problems that she and her committee had experienced, Story of the Season was able to provide Saratoga Blue Streaks Hockey with a product that had all of the upgrades that they needed. The result was a digital, interactive, visually appealing, and accessible media guide that did not require any heavy lifting for the Saratoga Hockey Association, Abbey, and even Head Coach Tim Horst. The media guide was packed with personalized media coverage like an interactive roster, custom graphics, preseason highlights, news articles and more!
Story of the Season did all of the behind the scenes work connected to design and ad images. By using readily-available photos and information from both the hockey team and their existing sponsors, Story of the Season was able to save time in preparing the media guide. In addition to this, they also took over the responsibility of directly contacting new sponsors to get ad images and additional information that would be needed in the creation of their advertisements. Over 100 sponsors’ ad images and information were organized and published by Story of the Season. All that was left for Abbey and her committee to do was to collect the money generated through the sponsorships.
In exchange for the sponsorship that the businesses had provided, their advertisements in the media guide were interactive and linked to the business’ website. Because of the transition to a digital model—the media guide was now accessible through scannable QR codes that were displayed in every game—more people were able to see the media guide and its contents therefore giving more value to the sponsorships that were contributed.
Aside from the impact that the digital transition had on the businesses involved, the revamped media guide was able to include exclusive content for the team’s social media, families and fans. It also featured video highlights, slideshows, senior survey questions, and customizable senior spreads that improved the whole user experience and increased its engagement.
By working with Story of the Season, Abbey and the entire Saratoga Springs Hockey Association weren't just able to save time and effort, nor were they able to just update their media guide; they were also able to raise over $21,000 for the team. To quote Abbey herself, “As President of Saratoga Springs Hockey Association, I partnered with Christopher Herman and Story of the Season to create an amazing (fundraising) season program for Toga Varsity Hockey. The experience was amazing and the final result was more than I ever imagined. I can not thank Chris & his team enough for this final product.”
Reiterating the point that was made at the start of this article, being a hockey parent (or the parent of any athlete) is a tough enough job in itself. It’s made even harder when you’re spearheading the team’s committee of parent volunteers and leading the fundraising activities that come with it—but you don’t have to do all of this on your own. Let Story of the Season guide you in this journey toward a more efficient way of raising money for high school sports teams and improving your team’s media program. Click here to learn more about the company and all the services offered, and schedule a demo today to see what Story of the Season can do for you.
