(Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What is the
Purpose of the Site?
2. What is the Benefit of the
Site?
3. Who are the
People Behind NJHSChiefs.com?
4. What Do the Statisticians Do?
5. How are the Statistics Compiled and Tracked?
6. How Did the Web Site Come into Being?
7. Who Pays for the Web Site?
1. What is the Purpose of the Site?
The primary purpose of the domain, NJHSChiefs.com is to allow local newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, and college scouts to have access to the NJHS player and team information and statistics. This allows the media to have up-to-date information about North Jackson any time they wish and gives them instant information when they want to do a story about the team. It also allows the general public and football fans to get a look at the statistics and some inside information about the team, coaches, players, cheerleaders, and band. The site is not intended to be considered a "cutesy" site, but rather to be fully functional with an emphasis on statistical data and informational accuracy.
2. What is the Benefit of the Web Site?
The benefit is maximum media coverage for the school and players resulting in the public, colleges and universities, and the people who select All-State and regional teams becoming very familiar with our team and the players. The end result is the school being recognized as one of the top programs in the state with the media all throughout Alabama and Southeast Tennessee recognizing the prominence of North Jackson High School. In the past, this type of recognition has helped many local players being named to All-Area, All-Tri-State, and All-State teams, and has helped several of them get college scholarships. Of course it is the success of the team and the players that supplies the basis for the recognition but it has long been the relentless efforts of the guys responsible for this web site making sure NJHS information gets to the media.
The web site also allows former residents, students, and players (some in the military) in all parts of the country and the world to get the scores and information when it was impossible in the past. There has been correspondence from as far away as Australia and Japan, applauding the existence of the site and its ability to bring a little bit of home to them.
3. Who are the People Behind NJHSChiefs.com?
For those of you who have wondered who the guys actually are, if you have been around Bridgeport, Stevenson, or North Jackson football for the past 37 years, you may already be familiar with them. Their names are Dale and Alton McCloud, two brothers from Bridgeport, and they have been a part of the North Jackson football program since its inception in 1988, serving as the official statisticians for the team. Dale served as the Bridgeport statistician for 19 years from 1970 until the school merged with Stevenson to form North Jackson High School in 1988. He then started providing the same service to North Jackson until he left the area in 1990, taking a job in South Carolina. Not wanting to leave the program in a bind, Dale turned the job over to his brother Alton who has been handling the chores ever since. Combined, Dale and Alton have been handling the statistics for Bridgeport and now, North Jackson, for over 36 years.
4. What Do the Statisticians Do?
The service Alton and Dale have provided to the school over the years is basically transparent to the public. It has been their task to walk the sidelines with clipboard in hand, gathering the statistics for every game. After the game is over, they hustle off the field and make a quick exit from the game site. If the game is at home, it is a quick trip to the house where the stats are tabulated with a calculator and phone calls are started. If it is an away game, the stats are tabulated and the calls are made from a cellular phone in the car. TV stations in Chattanooga and Huntsville are first called to ensure the game score and other game information is provided to the public during the Ten O'clock News. Next, a call is made to the Chattanooga Times-Free Press to allow the game story to make it into the early morning edition. Calls are then made to the Huntsville Times and North Jackson Progress for their Saturday afternoon editions. To each newspaper, detailed scoring summaries and the statistics are relayed to allow the sports reporters there to write the game story as if they had actually been at the game.
It sometimes takes hours to finish all of the calls but, once completed, the game information has been provided to the media so the local folks can turn on their TVs and see the score and hear reporters like WTVC's Darrell Patterson talk about the game. The next day, hundreds of people pick up their newspapers and read all about the game, not really knowing how the story got there. On Saturdays, the data collected during the game is then input into a computerized statistical database system to be kept as a permanent record. After all stats have been input, copies of everything compiled are then printed out and given to the the NJHS coaches in a neat package.
All of this is the normal routine that Dale and Alton have been going through for the past 30 years with the exception of the computerized system which was started in 1986. The only time it varies is those occasions when the newspapers have reporters at the game but those times are rare. Even though the guys have been donating their time and services to the schools for all those years, it is virtually a thankless job with little or no recognition.
The guys also get assistance at the games from statistician Greg Lingenfelter, who has taken over for Danny Curtis. After helping out for the past several years, Danny has started a new phase in his life, and has turned over his tasks to Greg. Greg takes care of logging the defensive stats and charting the offense on the sidelines at each game, which is a tremendous help to Alton and Dale. It is those offensive play charts and Alton's stats that provides Dale the information necessary to write the game summaries after each game from his home in Los Angeles.
5. How are the Statistics Compiled and Tracked?
Both being computer programmers, Dale specializing in database applications and Alton into IBM AS400 programming, the guys developed a computerized high school football statistic tracking system to allow concise and accurate tracking and reporting of football statistics. Utilizing the application, Dale started providing the media with statistical reports in printed copy back in the late 1980s, making Bridgeport the first school in North Alabama to use a computerized system for statistics. The newspapers loved it. With up-to-date statistical reports in hand, the newspapers did numerous articles about the school. Later, the same system was put into use for the North Jackson football team and is still in use today, although much improved and modernized. The newspapers still love it, although now, instead of a printed copy, they just call the information up on the web site. Although Alton has taken over the job of compiling and tracking the stats, Dale has continued to provide assistance over the years, redesigning and upgrading the software when needed.
6. How Did the Web Site Come into Being?
In 1997, Alton came up with the idea of posting the statistics on the Internet, making the task of getting the statistics to the media even easier. Since Dale was already familiar with Web design, a site was developed, server space was rented, and the domain name, NJHSChiefs.com was registered on the World Wide Web. Although Dale now lives in Los Angeles California, he takes care of the web site administration and maintenance from there while Alton handles the statistic compilation and tracking from Bridgeport. Alton also handles the sideline work along with making all the calls after the game. Alton is also responsible for uploading copies of the game summary and the statistical data to the web server so Dale can download it, write the game story seen on the site and create the HTML statistical reports and post them on the site. In all, it takes many hours and much cooperation between Alton and Dale to get the information posted. It is their desire to get the information to the public and media that drives them since there is no monetary value in what they do, only expense.
Although some people have the mistaken idea that this is a profitable venture, all the expense of the web site and being the NJHS statisticians is borne solely by Alton and Dale, including the monthly cost of long distance phone calls, cellular phone calls, web space rental, and the yearly Internet domain registration. The estimated yearly cost of the site and logging the stats is around $800 which does not include periodic costs such as buying new software to keep up with the rapidly changing technology. Of course, the time spent doing all the required work (usually about 5 - 10 hours a week each) is also donated.