Ballard Bombers Bombard Inaugural iHigh Traffic Contest

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When iHigh announced their first-ever Traffic Bomb contest, the folks at Ballard Memorial High School took it as a sign.  The school's mascot: the Bombers.  The omen was apparently a good one, as the small school in Barlow, Kentucky topped all schools on the iHigh traffic list for Wednesday, October 28th.

"Our school has always been about showing pride in our community, and we definitely showed that yesterday," BMHS multimedia teacher Korrie Purcell said on Thursday.

Purcell said that the school used a number of different methods to promote the contest, including radio spots, text messages, emails and on Facebook.  "I even had a friend in Peoria, Illinois helping us out," she added.

Ballard Memorial, a school with an enrollment of 400, had an astonishing 183,747 page views on Wednesday.  The Bombers narrowly edged fellow Kentucky school Paul G. Blazer in Ashland, who notched 175,122 page views.

"Well, we're sad that we didn't win, but it was a great experience," said Paul G. Blazer athletic trainer A.J. Stadelmeyer.  "The whole community really got into it.  I had a couple of 80-year-old fans stop me yesterday and ask how the contest was going."

Purcell says that BMHS' Student Technology Leadership Program plans to use their success in the iHigh Traffic Bomb contest as part of their state competetion in May.

Ballard Memorial is a relative newcomer to iHigh, with their site going live in August of 2009.  Stadelmeyer says that Paul G. Blazer signed up about 3 years ago.  "We're old school," he joked.

The iHigh Traffic Bomb contest was designed for to encourage schools to drive as much traffic as possible to their iHigh site.  "We want everyone to know how great of a job you're doing and show people where they can go to get all the latest sports/activities news about their school," said iHigh marketing associate Erin Kirkpatrick.

Ballard Memorial High School will receive an autographed football from the iHigh Team in Lexington, iHigh t-shirts for the administrators, and their own personalized iHigh banner to hang at games.

CLICK HERE to see the standings.