|
Just the score please.
That's all Dave Spengler needs.
And that's what the 1971 Elmwood High School graduate gets every night that boys high school basketball games are played in the Northwest district.
When Spengler gets the score, he then updates team records and league standings on the davey1.com Web site.
"That's all I want. I don't care about who scored the most points, or who had the most rebounds," said Spengler, a Bowling Green resident. "We're at the point now where there are a few coaches or athletic directors texting scores to my phone, the same night of the game,"
There are approximately 170 teams Spengler tracks, covering 20 leagues and three independent teams. Friday night there were 79 games on the schedule, meaning almost every team in the district was scheduled to play.
"It keeps me busy, but I enjoy doing it," Spengler said about his hobby.
He uses any number of sources on the Internet to track down scores, including radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, sports-related Web sites and league Web sites.
Spengler is a basketball fan, but said: "I don't claim to know a whole lot about the game of basketball." He focuses his attention on high schools, usually attending two or three games a week. He recently went to Kalida and McComb. He also goes to the state tournament each year.
Spengler started compiling the boys tournament brackets on paper and distributing them to his friends in the mid-to-late '80s.
"A little bit later one of my good friends said we ought to do something a little bit different with this and he volunteered to write the commentary we call Trail Trash now," Spengler said.
Dave Sigler, a former BG resident who now lives in Sylvania, does all the writing for the Web site.
"Dave and I sat down in the summer of 2004. I already had the davey1 Web site up and running with personal stuff on it," Spengler said. "It had nothing to do with sports or basketball."
Spengler said he and Sigler wanted to do more with basketball and finally decided to attempt to cover all the leagues in the Northwest district while using the Web site to get the information out.
"It was tough getting the schedules in the beginning," Spengler said. "And sometimes even now it's difficult to get, but over the last few years a lot more of them have been showing up on other sites on the Internet.
"To my knowledge, ours is the only place where it's all put together on one Web site, a convenient place for everybody to see," he added. "Over the last couple of years I've gotten better cooperation out of coaches and athletic directors and I have a pretty extensive e-mail list. It really has grown in the last few years."
One of the biggest problems for Spengler is being able to track down all the makeup dates as a result of postponements because of bad weather. As an example on Jan. 10, a total of 55 games were scheduled, with only 10 being played. So Spengler had to track down dates for 45 games.
In addition to informing fans of scores and schedule changes, Spengler said coaches tell him they use the Web site to figure out their scouting plans for future opponents.
There are advertisers on the Web site to help defray costs.
"I don't think either one of us thought it would be anything like this," Spengler said about the growth of davey1.com. He said he had about 500 hits last Sunday, the day of the boys tournament draw. On a good day during the season there are about 250-300 hits.
"It's just nice that people are taking notice," Spengler said.
A former employee of Pearl Gas in Bowling Green, Spengler now works on the computer system and does some accounting work for NAT Transportation in Bradner.
Spengler has no plans to expand the Web site.
"I don't have any time to do girls," he said. "People ask me about doing girls, but I want to make the boys the best that I can do and I don't have enough time to devote to anything else."
» 1 Comment
1"Davey1" at Monday, 16 February 2009 22:34
Davey has a passion for the work he does online. He is exceptional in his talent, and a technological genius.
» Post Comment
Only registered users can write a comment. Please login or register.
|