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September 2, 2008
The (CT football) world according to MaxPreps and CalPreps
I don't envy the guys over at MaxPreps, the revolutionary high school sports statistical database. With rankings and their Mad Libs attempt to turn stats into recaps, they've always tried to expand their services to beyond that of your weekly statistical reports. But now, with the backing of new owner CBS (hence why the site now looks like CBS Sportsline) and the the help of a regional director and a few freelancers, they're attempting to delve into actual "staff" content.
Hence, why I got a call from Steve Spiewak, a national MaxPreps writer based in Jersey and responsible for the northeast. It was at the start of summer baseball season and right between the all-star games and I was about to go on vacation. So the call caught me off guard.
Steve told me he was looking for some preliminary info on Connecticut for a brief story they were putting together. We chatted about football in Connecticut. He had some preconceived knowledge, which I augmented with my own. He admitted there was a lot he had to learn, but what we'd discussed was fine.
The product of that conversation (and others, I'm sure) is this Connecticut high school football primer, which appeared in early August.
For working off of no prior knowledge or sense of history, it isn't bad. There are some slight misrepresentations (New London is in Class SS now) and I'm sure people will argue with the greatest rivalry (is there really a greatest rivalry in this state?), or the upcoming player (I've heard of Stamford's Khari Fortt but only because his family forwards reams of football camp and college visit releases to people in the media. Apparently, Spiewak is in their address book).
However, they do a nice job coming up with an all-state preseason team. I'm not so sure we need that, but it's still interesting, which, I guess, is the point.
Speaking of interesting, we received an email late last month from a guy named Ned Freeman from a website called calpreps.com. Apparently, the guys at Calpreps tried to preview every single high school football team in the country.
Click here for the 2008 Calpreps High School Football Preview Database
Now I'm not sure what went into this vast project, how they did it (did they call coaches on every team, or just base most of their information on MaxPreps' databasee?), but all things considered they seemed to do a decent job with Connecticut.
Like MaxPreps, there are a lot of mistakes (Hampus Hellermarkk, it says, returns for Staples). But in this age of instant information, it's not bad.
Posted by SPB on September 2, 2008 10:59 AM
Comments
Do you know if West Haven has any more scrimmages lined up? I missed the Ansonia one and was wondering what kind o f team they have.
Posted by: Carl Ciociola at September 2, 2008 2:36 PM
calpreps is full of ****. and maxpreps stats are always wrong
Posted by: George Hummel at September 2, 2008 6:59 PM
Not sure, i heard Ansonia handled WH pretty well though. I also heard Masuk defeated Greenwich in a full scrimmage monday. Can someone confirm or deny?
Posted by: Eugene at September 2, 2008 7:31 PM
Not sure about CalPreps, but each team is responsible for inputting their own stats into the MaxPreps database. So if the stats are wrong, blame the coaching staff for either, putting in the wrong information, or not keeping it up to date.
Posted by: kris1 at September 2, 2008 10:02 PM
that confirmed eugene they won 28-23 it was a good game with a great ending masuk scored with about a minute left
Posted by: stevej at September 3, 2008 9:53 AM
Question for SPB
are you going to prep @ staples scrimmage tomorrow because i cant go and i would love to see it
Posted by: Jason Whiting at September 3, 2008 4:15 PM
I am going to the Prep @ Staples scrimmage. ...Not sure, however, if I'll be doing instant video. I have Oxford-Derby in the hopper and a bunch of actual stories to write. ...Maybe a video on this will appear Sunday.
Posted by: SPB at September 3, 2008 8:58 PM
ok well at least make a topic letting us know how it went
Posted by: Jason Whiting at September 3, 2008 10:53 PM
Will do.
Posted by: SPB at September 4, 2008 1:46 AM
