Rebuilding the Gettysburg Wrestling Website

Moving mats is hard work, but moving an entire site off a rented platform might be harder. Here is how I rebuilt Gettysburg Wrestling from a Squarespace template into a site we own, shape, and grow on our terms.

Why Leave Squarespace?

The old site looked fine, yet I kept running into walls-limited code access, recurring fees, and sluggish performance during traffic spikes. Rebuilding from scratch let me tighten the codebase, and drop monthly costs. Most important, it gave us true ownership.

Putting Our Story Up Front

The home page now opens with a full width action photo and a concise mission statement: Gettysburg Wrestling is a K-12 program with over 160 student athletes who learn life skills on and off the mat. That headline tells visitors exactly who we are before they scroll.

Site Architecture at a Glance

• Teams dropdown navigation takes you to High School Boys, High School Girls, Middle School, or Elementary in a single click.
• Each team page carries its own Google Calendar. Parents no longer hunt through a master list to find the right schedule.
• A "Program History" link showcases milestones and records, honoring the past while recruiting the future.

Calendars on Every Team Page

Separate Google Calendars keep Varsity, Junior High, and Youth squads synced. I wrapped the embed codes in a responsive container so each calendar resizes cleanly on phones.

Staff Page That Fits Every Photo

I cropped all headshots to the same ratio and used object-fit: cover inside a CSS grid. Whether you view on a 6 inch screen or a 27 inch monitor, every coach looks sharp and centered.

Sponsor Links That Give Back

Sponsor logos appear in a scrolling gallery and each one opens their website in a new tab. It is a quick thank you that drives traffic to the businesses that keep us on the mat.

A Contact Page That Works

Visitors can complete a short form, tap a mailto link, or call us directly. Submissions route to a dedicated inbox, and an auto reply confirms receipt so no parent is left wondering.

Mobile First, Always

More than sixty percent of our traffic comes from phones. I leaned on Flexbox and CSS Grid, used generous tap targets, and tested each page in Chrome DevTools plus real devices before launch.

Tiny Polishes With Big Impact

• Social icons in the footer link to Facebook and Instagram for fresh photos and match highlights.
• A favicon and optimized meta tags help with branding and SEO.
• All images are compressed to WebP and lazy loaded for speed.
• Alt text and semantic headings improve accessibility and search ranking.

Final Thoughts

Building the site from the ground up took extra time, yet the payoff is clear: faster pages, cleaner design, easier updates, and zero platform lock-in. Calendars stay current, photos look crisp, sponsors shine, and every visitor finds what they need with a single tap.