What Is Sportsheadz and How Does It Power a Minor Hockey Association Website?
Sportsheadz is a web platform used by sports organizations to run their public-facing websites, and you can see it in action at wngha.ca, the site of the West Northumberland Girls Hockey Association (WNGHA). If you have landed on a minor hockey site and want to know what the platform does, how to follow a team, or how to tell whether a site runs on Sportsheadz, this explains the common pieces you will encounter.
What Sportsheadz is
Sportsheadz is the software behind the site rather than the association itself. The WNGHA site is described as "powered by Sportsheadz Web," which means the association uses it to publish news, schedules, registration information, and team details in one place.
It is aimed at community and minor sports organizations — in this case a girls' minor hockey association — that need to keep families informed across a full season without building a website from scratch.
What a Sportsheadz-powered site typically shows
A site like WNGHA's organizes information into recurring sections that visitors use most:
- Latest News — dated posts with a submitter, view count, and a "Read More" link. Examples on the site include a House League update, a learn-to-play program announcement, coach recruitment, registration opening, and a golf tournament.
- News Archive — older posts collected in one place so nothing disappears when it scrolls off the homepage.
- Upcoming Games — a list of fixtures with date, time, home or away, opponent, and venue.
- Calendar — a day-by-day view showing how many events fall on each date, with practice and game times.
- Sponsors — logos and names of local businesses supporting the association.
- Other News — a sidebar of shorter items such as anniversaries, team sites, AGMs, scholarships, and coaching announcements.
Following schedules, teams, and venues
The schedule area is where most families spend their time. On the WNGHA site, upcoming games show entries such as a U15 BB away game at Donevan Recreation Complex, or a U13 A home game against the Peterborough Ice Kats at CCC (Bowl). Each entry pairs the matchup with a time and a location.
Two features make this practical:
- Venue Info — a link next to each game or practice that gives details about the rink, so you can find the address before you drive there.
- Game Details — a link that opens the specific matchup, useful when you want more than the one-line listing.
Practices appear alongside games in the calendar, for example a U15 B practice at Baltimore Recreation Centre with a start and end time. Team pages group this information by age and division, which is how you track a single team rather than the whole association.
Subscribing and staying updated
The site offers a Subscribe link, which is the standard way to receive updates rather than checking the homepage manually. If you want to follow a local association, subscribing is the simplest step — it keeps news and schedule changes coming to you instead of relying on you to remember to look.
Beyond subscribing, the recurring news posts are the main channel for time-sensitive information: registration opening, program announcements, and volunteer calls all appear there first.
How to tell whether a site runs on Sportsheadz
Look for the platform credit, usually in the site footer or description. WNGHA's site carries the line "powered by Sportsheadz Web," which is the clearest signal. Once you recognize the layout — Latest News with view counts, an Upcoming Games list with Venue Info links, a day-count calendar, and a sponsor strip — you can navigate a different Sportsheadz site quickly, because the same sections tend to appear in the same places.
What this means if you are a parent or a volunteer
For families, the practical value is that news, schedules, registration, and rink details live together, so you are not hunting across separate pages or social feeds. For volunteers, the same platform is where the association posts openings such as House League coaches and staff, and where registration for a season is announced.
If you are new to an association, start with the Latest News section for the current season's key dates, then check Upcoming Games and the calendar for your team, and subscribe so updates reach you directly.