AFM Home | Back Issues | May 2005 | Technology

Technology and Your Budget:
Hints and Suggestions

By Richard Scott


NFL teams are spending millions on video technology and complex computer systems. Division I-A teams are spending hundreds of thousands on their own versions of the same technology.

So what? What does that mean for NCAA Division II and III, NAIA, junior college and high school programs with limited budgets and resources? Do you find yourself at clinics and conventions walking right past the tech booths and ignoring the tech seminars, afraid you’ll never be able to comprehend and operate such a system, let alone afford one?

“A big-time program can make mistakes, so I don’t want to hear what some big-time school is doing,” says Jim Gagliardi, the offensive coordinator at Saint John’s (Minn.) University. “It doesn’t matter what they’re doing because they can go back and correct it.

“I’ll give you an example. The University of Wisconsin in Madison put in artificial turf in 2001, and Wisconsin-Stout put in the same turf. Now everybody’s putting this rubber infill stuff down but Wisconsin-Stout is stuck with their artificial turf for probably another 10 years while the University of Wisconsin ripped there stuff up and put in the new infill stuff.

“We’ll get salesmen in here telling us what Minnesota, Ohio State and Florida have, but we don’t care. We need to make sure we buy something that won’t fail, because we can’t afford to make a mistake. A $20,000 computer system is nothing for them but for us it’s part of our budget.”

It wasn’t that long ago when coaches were happy with their 16-millimeter projectors, cut-ups and clickers, only to be replaced by videotape, VCR’s and remotes. These days, the biggest budgets rely on computer stations, digital editing, CD’s and DVD’s and precise “cut-ups” that help a coach and his players study every specific situation. Those systems allow coaches to use their time more effectively and efficiently, but the cost for high-end systems is also prohibitive for most programs.

Yet many programs are finding ways to make the most of their video technology budgets, proving it is possible to use advanced technology at all levels of football. “More companies are starting to do some thing for the smaller programs,” says Dan Hott, defensive line coach and video coordinator at Division II Findlay in Ohio. “They’re making some nice products that smaller programs can use without huge budgets.”

The keys for coaches are research and asking the right people the right questions. “Coaches often assume they have a very limited budget,” says Mike Bokulich of U.S. Sports Video. “I was the vice president at our booster club for eight years so I know how that goes. But we’re working with coaches for a common goal, trying to give them the best value for their money to fulfill their needs and their budget.”

According to the industry insiders AFM consulted for this article, the first step in the process for any program is determining budget and needs. The first priority in building an effective video system is the camera equipment needed to film games and practices. Super VHS has been the standard for a long time but high-end systems are now using digital and transferring film straight to computers.

“Digital has an advantage in that you can download that digital video right out of the camera into your computer and what’s in your computer is still in its original form,” says Bruce Williams of BW Software. “The quality of what you’re watching is much higher.”

The second priority is a team viewing station. Most schools rely on a VCR and a LCD projector, although DLP (Digital Light Processing) projectors are starting to replace many of those LCD projectors and digital discs and CD and DVD players are replacing VHS tapes and VCR’s.

“I know there are still a lot of coaches out there that prefer to work with a VCR and a remote and they make it work,” says Barry House of LRSSports Software, “but there is just so much more information they can see more quickly using digital video analysis than they’ll ever be able to see by going back and forth with a VCR.”

The next priority is an editing station where the original film is edited into a more useable form, gathering information into specific categories such as all short-yardage plays or all pass plays on third down and more than eight yards. An editing station requires specific editing software for football. Those same computers can also be used to draw plays with playbook software.

Most schools can’t afford to buy everything at once, so the key for most programs is to build a system over time.

“We can help coaches build a plan, show them what the first step should be, what the second step should be and so on,” says Jason Lamb of CoachComm. “It’s impossible for most coaches to spend $15,000 in one year, but the great thing about it is that it can be a 3-4 year process, where you can spend $3-4,000 a year, and by the time that 3-4 year run is over, you have everything you need.

“The important thing is coming up with a plan for what you need and where you want to go. Before you know it, you’ve reached your goal.” Before coaches dismiss that as a cheap answer to a complicated question, it’s important for coaches to know that the combination of rapid advances in technology and increasing competition often produce lower prices.

“Coaches know they can’t afford systems that cost half a million dollars, but with what you could do back when I was at Ole Miss - when I was the video coordinator from 1997 to 2002, we spent about three-quarters of a million dollars to upgrade our editing systems – these days high schools can spend $15-20,000 and do what I was doing 6-7 years ago,” Lamb says. “And with all that you’re getting remotes and upgrades and tech support if you need it.”

Some of the most convincing evidence comes from other coaches. One of Williams’ customers, coach Gary Barlow of San Joaquin Delta College, caught the attention of other coaches with the quality of highlight CDs he made to promote his players with four-year colleges.

“One of the coaches from a four-year school called him back and said, ‘I want to know how you do your video because yours looks better than ours,’” Williams said. “The four-year coach said, ‘give me the name of your video coordinator’ and Coach Barlow said, ‘you’re talking to him.’”

At Saint John’s, legendary coach John Gagliardi is known as much for being the all-time winningest coach in college football history, as much for his innovative methods such as no blocking sleds or dummies, no compulsory weightlifting program, no whistles, no tackling in practice and short practices that last an hour and a half or less. Perhaps Gagliardi should also be known for making video technology a high priority and a key to Saint John’s success over the years.

“My dad’s always been pretty frugal,” Jim Gagliardi says. “There probably aren’t too many coaches around anymore who were part of the Great Depression, so he’s always been pretty frugal and maybe that’s one of the reasons why we’ve done things the way we have. We don’t have blocking sleds, blocking dummies, all the gadgetry of football. The only thing we need for practice is footballs.

“But he’s always talked about the importance of video. I still remember cutting the 16-millimeter film tape and hanging them on clotheslines. I also remember back in sixth or seventh grade videotaping with what they called ‘portable VCRs.’ Those things were mammoth but he saw that he could watch the film immediately after the game and it was a coach’s dream.”

Jim Gagliardi admits Saint John’s spends more money than the average Division III team, simply because the program’s strong attendance makes it possible. Still, when the program paid LRSSports for two video systems, a peer-to-peer network and a total commitment to digital technology, it was a matter of budget priorities. Since that original investment, the program has invested more funds on various upgrades and equipment.

“We’re probably at the high end of what small schools have done, but it’s become a priority for us,” Gagliardi said. “He’s been around football a long time and he says the two biggest evolutions in football were computer systems and the new artificial infill turf. He sits on his computer now and pulls up stuff from 2-3-4 years ago. It’s amazing the information you have at your fingertips if you just learn how to use it.”

Think about it: in the world of coaching, what is more priceless than time? You can’t create extra time. You can only use the time you’re given.

“What do coaches spend the most time doing?” Jim Gagliardi asks. “If you talk to the good ones, most of them are watching video. You can make that time more efficient and more informative. Outside of game and practice equipment, what’s more important? We don’t buy a lot of frivolous stuff, we try to spend our money wisely and our uniforms haven’t changed in forever. Instead we put video as one of our top priorities.”

When Hott came to Findlay from West Virginia, where he had been a graduate assistant with extensive video responsibilities, he was presented the challenge of overhauling Findlay’s video system. “When coach hired me here they had two VCRs and one little tape machine and all it did was mark a play so you could go back and get that play,” Hott said. “It couldn’t intercut those two angles. All it did was make cut-ups out of one single view.”

The Findlay coaches raised money for an editing system from U.S. Sports Video that enabled them to intercut all their tapes and make their own cut-ups.

Of coach Dan Simrell’s overall budget, about $4,000 per year is committed to video technology, so Hott has to make it stretch. Hott spends 60 percent of his tech money on maintenance and service contracts and another 25 percent on tapes and other hardware.

“What I do here at Findlay is very similar to what we did at West Virginia,” Hott said. “We intercut all of our game and practice tapes. We’ve got digital video for the wide view and we have an end-zone camera system that uses Super VHS for our end zone. We take those two views to our editing system. It’s a lesser version of what we had at West Virginia, but it will do the same things and pulls out all the clips we need so when we have our individual meetings we have the films we need.

“It’s still a lot like what we had at West Virginia. The only difference was that at West Virginia we had all computerized stations. The coaches didn’t use any videotapes at all. Here we still use video tapes and we have VCR in every meeting room with a remote, but our tapes are edited to help us work with our kids.”

Hott would like to see Findlay go totally digital someday, but waiting for systems to be more affordable or more funds to become available.

“We like our setup now and we’d like to be all computerized,” Hott said. “I get more information about how to go completely wireless every year, with everyone on wireless networks and laptops and no tapes at all, but here we don’t spend all that much on our video and 60 percent of what we do spend is on maintenance and service. Plus our coaches are in two different buildings, so unless that changes it will be difficult for us to go completely wireless or tapeless because of our setup.”

Some of the nation’s most successful small college programs, such as Division III Mount Union, NAIA Carroll College and Pearl River Community College, are making good use of video technology. That’s also true at the high school level.

One good example is Cypress Falls High in Houston Texas, which purchased an editing system from CoachComm before the 2004 season and made it to the playoffs for the first time, advancing all the way to the state semifinals.

“They were able to scout opponents and even themselves and use so much more information than what they could ever gather in the past,” Lamb says. “With our system, and with other systems, you can get percentages and tendencies and other information on what opponents are doing in certain situations, whereas in the past you just had to watch film and do it all by hand.”

Price was also a major part of research in putting together an editing system on the high school level. APEX Sports Software developed their system after having discussions with more than 90 coaches on the prep level. According to Frank Girardi of APEX a major criteria in developing their product was making it affordable for all high school coaches. “In our discussions with many coaches the number one priority was keeping it within budget and affordable,” said Girardi. “The general feeling was to keep the cost under $3,500.

“While price is one thing, being functional is another. If you’re going to buy a system make sure it’s functional. The system must be set up to save the coach time. We’ve made our product a click and point editing system. Ideally, the system every coach wants is functional, easy to use and within budget constraits.”

Sonora High School in LaHabra, Calif., provides another good example for other prep programs. Head coach Mark Takkinen and his staff started with hand-held PDAs and scouting software for scouting opponents and self-scouting, entering data and drawing plays by hand. The Sonora staff replaced their PDAs with digital scouting and editing system. They also rented a lift for their sideline and end zone cameras, only to determine that buying a lift would be a better investment.

“For the amount we paid just to rent it for three months if we paid one thousand dollars more we could own a lift outright and have it for years and years,” Takkinen says. “The best thing is that we can videotape anywhere we want on our practice field at an angle because we’re up high, and it’s so beneficial to our kids and our coaches. Now we show two views to the kids when we show our own game film – a wide sideline view and a tighter end zone view for the offensive and defensive linemen. It’s great, too, because we can put the two views together through the editing system.”

The Sonora staff added two digital cameras last year.

“We’d been using Super VHS so we had to take a lot more time to break things down, take it from the Super VHS back to the editing system,” Takkinen says. “It wasn’t hard, it was just time consuming. Now with our digital cameras every time we stop the camera that’s a marking point on the editing system and all we have to do is label it offense, defense or special teams.”

The Sonora coaches now use three laptop computers, two desktop computers and three LCD projects to show the practice and game film on a 10-foot scene.

“We can hook up and go backward and forward right off our computers,” Takkinen said, “but we can also make copies for the players to take home and use on their own computers. It’s instant feedback. That’s the key. You can make a copy of practice in two minutes while they’re changing and then get it to them by the time they’re ready to leave. If they don’t have computers at home we have computers at school they can use. We give them CDs and they can just ask a teacher if they can use a classroom computer for 10 minutes.”

The staff’s next goal is to add workstations so they can edit the game one time and then send it to all the coaches’ workstations. They also want to add high-speed DVD burners.

Takkinen is convinced the time, effort and money Sonora has put into its video technology has all been worthwhile, “especially when it comes down to the efficient use of time,” Takkinen said. “That’s one of the reasons we got it for the coaches, plus we’re able to make copies for our kids pretty quick – of not only game situations but practice situations and anything else we want to show them.”