SSUSA New Webpage Designed to Be Interactive, Help Players

Feb. 1, 2009

SACRAMENTO – Senior Softball-USA (SSUSA) unveiled a whole new world for players and teams in January; capping a 18-month project that’s introducing electronic rosters; a sophisticated electronic team ratings system, an interactive home page, a Super Senior Store, and expanded maps on request of fields, hotels and other attractions at SSUSA tournaments.

“This is just the beginning,” said SSUSA Webmaster Scott Flodin, “within the next month, we will have an on-line payment system for Player Cards, Team entry fees and registrations. In addition, players will be able to fill all of our forms out on line and send them to us.”

SSUSA officials said the project is designed to simplify senior softball paperwork for players and teams – and to give managers much more control over their rosters.

With more than 90 percent of senior softball players using the internet for information and services, the project became top priority for SSUSA.

“We felt that these services were part of a natural evolution in information that will help our players in ways that would be impossible under our old paper systems,” said Terry Hennessy, SSUSA chief executive officer.

The longest part of the project was developing the sophisticated on-line roster and ratings programs.

“Many managers started using the electronic rosters last year in our pilot programs,” said Hennessy, “and the response was very positive.”

Using the electronic rosters, managers are able to see immediately if players are on another team, if they need to register, if they are in the correct skill level and region.

The ratings program takes the scores from all SSUSA tournaments and calculates run differentials based on teams playing other teams in the same skill and age divisions. The program also sorts scores and differentials when a team plays out of it’s skill level and age group.

“This is an extremely valuable tool for ratings,” said Hennessy. “It helps us to make sure teams are playing in the right skill level – which makes tournaments more enjoyable for all teams.”

One of the most visible changes on the web page are the two interactive maps.

One of the maps shows every SSUSA tournament. Users can click on a dot representing a tournament on the map and an interactive box appears. The user has the option of clicking on the tournament and will be taken immediately to detailed information on that tournament.

A second map shows SSUSA Regions. Users can click on a region on the US map, which brings up a detailed Region map with information not only on SSUSA Regional Directors, but on each of the Clubs and Leagues in the SSUSA network.

“This feature is a public service for SSUSA Clubs and Leagues,” said Hennessy. “It is designed to be a directory for players looking for local Clubs and Leagues to join.”

The SSUSA website is www.seniorsoftball.com.