Recognition

Recognition: The Guide to Getting Recognized on Illpolo.com

By Aaron Brown

Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:30am

Over the past seven years, the main goal of this web site has remained the same...to recognize as many boys' and girls' water polo players for their performances throughout the season. I'd hesitate to count how many players over that time have had their name appear on the site, but the number is probably far too great to count. And judging by the total number of hits the site is nearing (1,000,000), that's quite a few people who have read about those players over that time.

Which brings me to the point of the article - how to get recognized on Illpolo.com. The main reason I decided to type this out at midnight on a Wednesday during Week 6 of the season is because I have been getting a handful of e-mails from parents and players that are confused as to why certain players get recognition from the site, while others never get mentioned. Trust me when I tell you that between 95-98% of the information that I receive on a daily basis gets posted on the site. There really isn't much that goes into deciding who to include and who to exclude...all legitimate information usually finds its' way onto the site. Which means that if someone's performance hasn't been recognized, it is very likely that no one took the time to report the information to the site.

Recognition should start with the coaches. If a coach wants to get their players recognition, they should know by now to send all information to illpolo2007@yahoo.com. If that doesn't work, send it to illpolo2007@gmail.com. No good...send a text to (847) 331-6520. Or call the same number and leave a voicemail. In this day and age, it's easy to send information right from the pool deck or the bus using a cell phone.

Some coaches are better at this than others. Some have never sent one e-mail or text at all. It's all up to the coach...but after 7 years of running this site, there's a very good chance that almost all of the coaches in Illinois know about the site and how to contact Illpolo.com. In fact, when you read the daily blog, it's probably easy to see which coaches report to the site; their team's information is right there within hours of their latest game. On the other hand, some teams rarely get mentioned on the site, which means that no one is reporting their game recaps. In some cases, teams that never get reported on actually get mentioned occasionally only because their opponent's coach sent in their game information along with their own.

Some teams have a scorekeeper or someone who keeps statistics and sends them via e-mail or text. Some players even take the time to send scores and/or recaps. Once I can determine that the source is legitimate, then their information can be posted when it is sent. I've only have one time (that I know of) from five years ago where someone sent false information...their coach made them send an apology to me and asked that I take it off the site the next day.

I had one e-mail sent two years ago where a parent complained that the site was biased because my game recap of a 5-4 double-overtime game only included information from the winning team. The e-mail claimed that it was obvious who I was rooting for and that I missed a lot of great performances from the losing team because of my biased reporting. The simple fact was that the winning's team coach sent game information for his team (which, in my opinion, is his only responsibility) while the other team's coach never sent anything to the site. If I am biased, then I am biased in favor of people who send me scores and recaps!

Trust me when I say that I would LOVE to have every single bit of information to report on, but I can only report on the information I am given. I encourage everyone to take the time to report information to Illpolo.com. Let's try to recognize as many players and their performances as possible and reward the boys and girls of this sport for their hard work and enormous efforts.

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