January 2, 2001
D3Hoops.Com Web Site gets new design from Calvin graduate
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Thanks to the work of a Calvin graduate, one of the
most popular internet sites devoted to NCAA Division III basketball has
a new design.
Now in its seventh year on the Web, D3hoops.com (WWW.d3hoops.com)
underwent a facelift this past summer with the help of 1993 Calvin
graduate Martin Wondergem. A computer science major at Calvin,
Wondergem became interested in the web site while following Calvin's
top-ranked men's basketball team through the NCAA III Tournament last
March.
"I've always been a big Calvin basketball fan and I came across the
D3Hoops web site when Calvin was ranked number-one in its top-25 poll
for the first time last year," said Wondergem. "When I looked at the
site, I thought it could use a little sprucing up so I started putting
together a new design. I thought it would be something that could give
a boost to the site and to Calvin basketball."
Shortly after, Wondergem designed a new logo and background for the web
site on his basement computer, designing the logo in one night. He then
pitched the new design by email to D3hoops editor and publisher Pat
Coleman who operates the D3hoops.com web site out of Reston, Virginia.
Coleman's response to the new design was immediate. "Marty sent me an
email out of the blue last year, leading me to a URL (web address) where
he had taken the content that was currently on our front page and
reworked it into a new design," recalled Coleman. "I took one look at
it and was blown away. I had worked most of the previous summer in
trying to come up with a new look for the site and ended up not changing
a whole lot. In the end, I like publishing and getting news out there
but I am not a graphic artist. I knew right away that this was what I
wanted to base the new look of the site around, once the offseason came
and I had time to do so."
Wondergem's logo design features a basketball intersected by the
D3hoops.com address shaded in bright orange and outlined in blue. The
remainder of the site features a blue backdrop trimmed in orange.
"I am thrilled with the design of the site and how clean and bright the
pages look," said the 27-year old Coleman. "The parquet floor
background we had been using since 1998, while very appropriate for
basketball, was dark and sometimes hard to read on older computers."
Originally conceived and maintained by Steve Ulrich of the Centennial
Conference, the D3hoops.com site has been operated by Coleman since
December 4, 1997 and is devoted solely to NCAA Division III men's and
women's basketball. Since that launch, the site reached its one
millionth visitor last January and went to 1.5 million shortly
thereafter. The site has been featured in Sports Illustrated, ESPN
Magazine and the Wall Street Journal among other publications.
Among the features of the web site are conference chat-boards, news
updates, feature stories, nightly scoreboards, links to Division III
basketball team sites around the country, and live broadcasts of
Division III basketball games via exclusive streaming audio.
"Our traffic starts building in mid-October to a low rumble before the
holidays, but after the students come back to school in January it
really skyrockets," said Coleman who also serves as assistant operations
editor for USA TODAY Baseball Weekly. "Each year our traffic has
increased about 50% over the previous year, and this past year, we
averaged about 10,000 visitors to the front page and 80,000 total pages
viewed per day for the last two weeks of February. The day the NCAA
tournament pairings are announced is always our biggest day of the
year."
A year ago, Coleman and partner Rick Seidel provided live play-by-play
of the NCAA III Final Four in Salem, Virginia where Calvin captured its
second-ever national championship. Coleman is scheduled to travel to
Grand Rapids next month to broadcast the Calvin-Hope men's basketball
game scheduled for Saturday, January 20.
The new D3hoops web design is not the first for the 29-year old
Wondergem as he has also designed web sites for various churches as well
as a site (WWW.RiverCityImprov.com) for the Calvin Alumni River City
Improv Team of which he is a member.
"Designing web sites is something I do in my spare time," said Wondergem
who is employed by Allen Extruders in Holland as a systems analyst. "I
put together the design for Pat free of charge. It's something that is
nice to have in my portfolio but I also love Division III basketball,
particularly Calvin basketball. It's a level of basketball that does
not always get as much attention as the large Division I schools but it
still has a great following. The D3hoops web site is a great place for
fans to follow Division III basketball around the country."
-end-
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