Greenfield Football: There's an App for That

Want to see video of your favorite Greenfield Hustlin’ Hawks player? Need to know where Friday’s football game is?

There’s an app for that.

The Greenfield High School athletics program just introduced a smartphone app that not only updates fans on all the essentials – game schedules, results and rosters – but also makes available photos and videos of game and practice highlights.

It’s all part of the athletic programs’ push toward social media, according to assistant football coach Greg Gerber, who manages the app for the football program as well as its Twitter account (@Greenfield Hawks).

“(The app) is for anyone who wants to follow anything about Greenfield sports,” Gerber said. “Right now, only football and wrestling are using it, but it’s tailored toward anyone. It’s user-friendly and kid-friendly. It’s simple and easy to use.”

Gerber is in his sixth year with the Hawks football program. He spent three seasons with the Jr. Hawks, one with the freshmen program and was a defensive coach for the varsity last year. This year, he’ll coach varsity wide receivers.

He’s also the program’s video coordinator and manages the football program’s online database that has videos of athletes, maintains rosters and a whole lot more.

He’s still running the Twitter account – it’s up to almost 175 followers – and now he’s tackling the app.

“It’s just something I’ve grown into liking,” Gerber said. “Social media now, becoming what it is and how big it is now, doing something that is connecting the community and the kids is how things are going to be done now and will be done in the future.

“And the program sends out emails every couple of weeks, but having a platform like Twitter or the app, we can give up-to-the-minute updates.”

Gerber said the app has about 100 downloads despite being launched just last week. The app cost the athletics department $500, according to Gerber but can be a revenue generator. Sponsorship packages are available, with 50 percent of every advertising dollar spent on the app going to the athletics program, which just launched a campaign to raise money for turf on the football field and weight room improvements.

“The more sponsors we get, the more we can help local business and the more it helps the local program,” Gerber said.

In addition to the app sponsorships, there’s an online fundraising effort that allows Greenfield football supporters to donate money to the turf and weight room improvement efforts.

The Greenfield athletics app can be downloaded for both the iPhone and Android.

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