Still more former Little Hawks are reaching milestones in the world of online media…

Just last Friday, Jon Myers, former Little Hawk editor, and JD McCullough released a new app called Spectator DOWNLOAD HERE. It is an app designed to act like a digital program and scoreboard for high school sports in Iowa.

When Myers was on The Little Hawk he developed an iPhone app, which at the time was the first in the country, and pushed the website to become a Pacemaker Finalist.

The app was actually inspired by the fact that there is nothing of like it available.

“Originally, we saw whenever someone goes online to find high school sports information, it’s like they have to step into a time machine and get sent back to 1999,” Myers said.

Myers is referring to the fact that current sites and companies that provide stats and information for high school sports haven’t developed something on the App Store to expand their market. With hopes of taking full advantage of this glaring opportunity, Myers and McCullough decided that it was time that high school sports were brought out of the paper age.

So last November the two began their quest by bringing on an additional member, Brandon Kiefer, to handle the technical side of the project. Fast forward a couple of months and the team had a prototype that they entered into a business model competition through the University of Iowa.

“We ended up winning some prize money and decided to triple the size of our team and bring on three developers, two marketing students, and one graphic designer,” Myers said.

Around the same time, the team was accepted into John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center’s summer accelerator program. This would allow them excellent learning opportunities and support throughout the course of developing of their app.
Though the app is currently available for download, its capabilities are still limited.

“Spectator is now launched at the two Iowa City schools (City High and West High) for this football season where we plan to perfect our product, add features and gain traction,” Myers said. “Looking ahead, we plan to scale to all 4A schools by basketball season and every school in the state by the 2015 baseball season.”

So why will Spectator succeed? Spectator is not just a sports app, but it has an even broader purpose.

“One thing we learned quickly is the problem of schools and booster clubs, which was the loss of connection with students after they graduate. So Spectator’s goal is to bridge the gap with Alumni through sports information, which will then in turn spark game attendance and donations, while also reducing the waste/cost of printing paper programs,” Myers said.

For more information on the app, visit the Spectator website here.

Spectator App Videos