2015 HS Football Preview

Page 2 August 27, 2015 Geauga County Maple Leaf Page 3 Upgrading Film How 2015 Technology is Changing the Game – Again By Jamie Ward In the 1960s in Maine, it is told that a high school football coach first filmed a team’s games, then used that footage to teach. Now this is so crucial to the sport that players, even at the pee-wee level, have the experi - ence every week. For high schoolers, it’s the Saturday morning after Friday night when players, buoyed or sullen, gather to be coached. It’s a rite of passage, studying A screenshot from one’s heroic self. Or is some - Chardon assistant coach Don Navatsyk’s iPhone 6 shows how hudl.com allows coaches to film anywhere at any time. times the case, failing to meet a coach’s expectations. websites like hudl.com, and looks good,” Walton said. “Kids “Like Knute Rockne, where game-day preparation, in 2015, don’t go to class anymore with the film is going click-click-click- has never been better. backpacks, books and binders.” click. And they’d back it up like The click-click of reel-to-reel Walton himself does not use a 19 times. It would always click- is now the tap-tap of the tablet. tablet. He admitted his projector click. And it’d go forward and Revolution is still closeted away somewhere backward, forward and back - at Hawken Upper School. He ward,” remembers Cardinal “They always have the device remembers the switch from head coach Eric Cardinal of the in their hand anyway,” says Cliff 16mm film to 8mm. In the 1970s early-used 16-mm projector he Walton, who has spent 40 years in Walton would drive a game tape watched in college. “I mean, you high school football. “Kids are downtown to a developing com - used to dread those things, espe - just now more in tune to do that.” pany. “You’d drop it in a mail cially if you screwed up. And, of This is the first year Hawken chute, and the next day you’d get course, that was the whole point does not have a physical play - a copy. That was about as old of it — that you’d screwed up.” book. The offensive and defen - school as you could get.” It’s still called film. But the sive coordinators are installing Film went from 16 mm to 8 pictures now taken from multiple new packages day by day, mm before VCRs became popu - angles on digital cameras never online, and emailing updates to lar. Soon VHS tapes were being even touch the ground; they’re players. Coaches can even see passed around from coach to downloaded and edited and then who has viewed these updates, coach to scout that week’s emailed out. Most of the work is and for how long they studied. opponent. But there was a prob - now done at home, or in study Walton’s son, Dan, has led lem: each new copy was never hall. Technology has streamlined this conversion. quite as good as the original. what players scrutinize on “It’s clean, beautiful and “By Week 10 you could barely Page 4 August 27, 2015 see what was going on,” said from last year of kids doing it board. Now that coach will swipe Cardinal. right,” said Bombers head coach across a tablet, allowing players Digital video discs, or DVDs, Jeff Grubich, who has seen sub - to watch themselves within sec - still used sparingly, fixed that stantial technology changes in onds of leaving the field. problem. The video was clearer, the past five years. “You use it a “If they’re going to use tech - but now copies were made in real- lot with these young bucks.” nology on the sidelines, we’ll use time. If the game was two hours, The Bombers also shoot digi - it no doubt,” the Bombers coach it’d take two hours to make the tal video from two locations, a said. “We’re not trying to let copy. Then there was time lost to high aerial view from the end- someone one-up us and have an “snail mail” or drive time. zone and a wide view from the advantage.” Some schools’ programs, of press box. Chardon, through its Grid- course, have more technology The Bombers plan to use all iron Club, is also full of new than others. Mark Iammarino, the technology available to resources, as Don Navatsyk head coach at Chagrin Falls, them, and to utilize a recently demonstrates on his iPhone 6, started using technology in 1983 changed rule by the Ohio High sitting at a coffee shop during when he started in Texas. He School Athletic Association. lunch. It’s an end-zone view used to make Powerpoint pre - Coaches with the technology from last season’s Week 1 game sentations for players. Now it’s will now be able to film and against West Geauga. The an iPad behind the offensive line. review video from the sidelines Hilltoppers are lined up with a Kenston uses hudl.com to during the actual game. Once tight end to the right, yet the draw its playbook, then uses there was a gesticulating line - Wolverines’ defense is loaded clips from last season to high - backers coach, grabbing a player toward the left, the wide side of light the play. “Like Scat Switch, by the pads to demonstrate tech - the field. Chardon’s offensive kids get on there and see cut-ups nique, scribbling on a marker play-caller wasn’t sure why. Geauga County Maple Leaf Page 5 EXCELL IN YOUR FIELD )+')'$ When you need an easy-to-use tractor to do real work in smaller spaces the XJ2025H delivers what you need with superior performance and superb agility in a powerful, small chassis 4WD compact tractor. Advanced engine technology delivers the horsepower you need while reducing noise, vibrations and emissions. 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He DVDs or into digital files to middle of defense, reacting in wants to say more about it, but store on thumb drives. real-time against a play he’s like - stops. Coaches can be leery of “We transfer and save a lot ly to see Friday night. technology, and he also doesn’t of home and sports videos,” said Walton remembers the feel - want to tip his hand before Aug. co-owner Chris Grau. “Our cus - ing he had scrimmaging Beach- 28, when Chardon again opens tomers want to preserve and wood, as a drone shot video at West Geauga. share their family memories. from above plays. “It sounded Like Navatsyk, many coaches Many of the tapes we save have like a bunch of bees over your talked openly about how they not been viewed in years.” head,” Walton said of the use technology in the preseason For players of all sports try - Hitchcockian experience. but stopped short of too many ing to play in college, Lake Erie Does all it help? details. Some coaches fear other Video also converts and edits At least it gives coaches, who teams will cheat — think the the many videotape formats work lots of hours for little pay, NFL’s Spygate controversy — into recruiting tapes. A player’s a break. or push the bounds. How teams highlight reel is no longer on a “You used to meet another prepare for games are some - reel; it’s a YouTube link that can coach at a gas station,” Walton times like state secrets. be shared instantly with any remembers. “You’d say, meet me For the 20 years they’ve been coach in the country. over at the station over by the in business, Lake Erie Video has Of course, it doesn’t end here. thing, and we’d drive out there, watched the transition of video It’s not science fiction to imag - trade and drive off.” tape.

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