On October 12th, 2017, I published a list of questions that I feel every racquetball association website should in some way attempt to answer if they want to be the destination website for their area. I’ll score each question up to a maximum of 8 points, and I’ll give a base score of 4 so that every association with a website will be able to get up to 100 points on the review.
The next website to go under the microscope is Alaska Racquetball. Note:PHP Nuke, the technology behind this site, was very popular in the early 2000s for forum software. It it does not tend to display well on mobile devices.
TL:DR — 38 points out of a possible 100
1) Where can I play in/near city X?
Alaska Racquetball doesn’t cover this well. There are tournaments and other regularly scheduled clinics and events, but there is no list of facilities or full addresses/phone numbers/websites for any of the clubs listed.
1 points
2) What events are happening in/near city X?
Alaska Racquetball address this with 2 pages. One for the 2017-2018 Alaska Tournament Schedule and one for Racquetball Programs @ The Alaska Club. Their events are well rounded, from intro sessions, to specific clinics, junior & high school programs, and sanctioned tournaments. The only things really missing from these pages is full contact info for the facilities or organizers. A traveler that isn’t familiar with the clubs already will need to reach out to the website authors or the Facebook group to get the full details.
6 points.
3) Are there players at college X?
This does not appear to be addressed at all.
0 points
4) What is the rule for this situation?
The website links to the full USA Racquetball rules. They also have an article for racquetball refereeing basics. The only way I see for this to be better would be links to specific scenario videos or a place for prior Q&A results and some mention of the referee certification process.
4 points.
5) How do I get better at X?
The Racquetball Programs @ The Alaska Club page has multiple clinics listed for specific shots, strategies, doubles, and more. There aren’t any videos or contact info for the instructors, but players in Alaska can at least find out who is putting on clinics and when/where. They also link to a number of instructors on their Racquetball Links page, but most of the links are out of date.
4 points.
6) Which racquet should I use?
Alaska Racquetball side-steps this issue by linking to every online racquetball retailer that they could find. Most of the links were broken long ago.
3 points.
7) How/where can I get a racquet restrung?
This does not appear to be addressed at all.
0 points
8) Can military members find a place to play?
This does not appear to be addressed at all.
0 points
9) Are there places to play outdoors?
This does not appear to be addressed at all.
0 points
10) How do I contact these people?
Alaska Racquetball has an email address and three phone numbers on the main page. No mention is made of any social media accounts. There is a Facebook group and a Facebook page, but it appears that only the group is active.
4 points.
11) What is this organization about, who makes it up, what are their goals and processes?
The Alaska Amateur Racquetball Association has a dedicated page on the site, with board members, articles of incorporation, and by-laws all listed.
8 points.
12) Is this organization still active?
The Tournaments & Programs pages mark the organization as very active. The Articles feature of PHP Nuke gives the appearance of having been abandoned, but the “current” articles all display on the front page.
7 points.
Bonus points opportunity: Are there ways listed to volunteer or for new players to get started?
If a new player dug into the Programs page, they would find good content. I didn’t find any specific calls for volunteers.
1 point.
What are your opinions of the review and the site?
Drop me a line on my Contact page or via my Facebook Page Daily Racquetball.