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Friday,
September 20, 2002
Hard hits and hard drives
Computers help BHS develop a competitive
edge
By Kelly Josephsen
Pantagraph Staff
BLOOMINGTON -- Rich Baldwin used to use a blackboard, chalk and X's
and O's to show high school football players how to make a tackle or slip
by a defender.
Now the Bloomington High School assistant football coach just revs up
his computer and feeds the team video footage of bone-jarring hits from
past games.
It's not hard to guess which strategy makes the most impact on a young
athlete.
As the Purple Raiders enter tonight's 7 o'clock Big 12 Conference game
at Intercity rival Normal West, Baldwin and BHS head coach Rigo Schmelzer
have -- as usual -- spent many days prepping players for a classic battle.
The difference is, this year they went high-tech to do so.
BHS bought Pinnacle's "Linx" software in the spring, and
Baldwin spent the summer learning to use the video editing program as a
coaching tool. He came up with a program that cuts time spent watching
film -- a necessary evil for all athletes -- from over an hour a week to
10 minutes.
Teams in the Big 12 Conference West Division must share game tapes, so
coaches can scout what plays their opponents run and tendencies they
show. It's helpful to everyone, but players used to sit through a lot of
video that didn't apply to them, Baldwin said.
Offensive players watched other teams' offense. Defenders saw rival
defenses.
But they would never be on the field against their counterparts,
Baldwin noted, and there's also a lot of down time in any football game:
Time outs, "wasted plays," huddles.
In all, the old-fashioned videos held about 140 plays. Baldwin's
version has under 30 -- he uses Linx to capture images from the tape and
arrange them in a logical order. "We can show run plays and then
pass plays," he said. "It allows you to teach it in an order
that makes sense."
Coaches still gather the team at the start of each week to talk about
Friday's opponent, Baldwin said. His edited scouting report -- which
takes an hour to prepare -- is shown on a 10-foot screen.
All week, players can watch the report again on their own using a
laptop or hand-held computer. BHS also takes the hand-helds on the bus to
away games for last-minute reviewing.
"We've been using it every week. We've been taking the hand-held
to away games, so we can watch it on the bus on the way there,"
added Baldwin. "It really shortens the time the guys have to spend
watching film."
Baldwin said high-tech lessons are more appealing to players.
"This makes the X's and O's come alive," he said. "Our
players are used to visual things, so if you can show it to them it's
better. They just pick up more things."
BHS athletics director John Szabo agrees: "Anytime you show kids,
they understand better and comprehend it quicker. Plus, I think they get
more excited about it and pay a little more attention."
Most players use computers all the time, so there isn't much of a
learning curve. Plus, Baldwin did a video playbook this summer, so the
team already learned its own plays via computer.
"It's just like any other computer program -- click a couple
things and you're there," said Jake Callahan, a sophomore
quarterback. "I'm glad Coach Baldwin put so much time into it."
Senior tackle Andrew Kernes, who is drawing the attention of numerous
Division I programs, uses the hand-held device in study hall.
"I can watch the whole thing in the first part of study hall and
still have time to do my homework," said Kernes. "It's really
neat because you can see both sides of the ball and see where your
mistakes are.
"You can slow it down or pause it and see what the other team is
doing or what you are doing. I feel like I'm much more prepared for games
because I know the plays and formations of the other teams we play."
Junior linebacker Dane Ramirez agrees, calling the program easy to
navigate. "Coaches know better than we do what plays the other team
runs, so they can pick out what we'll see the most," he said.
"It's a good wrap-up, and it gives us a different way to see
things."
With players taking to his system, Baldwin plans a greater infusion of
technology: New software mixes video with Power Point X's and O's, and he
likes the idea of putting the two side by side.
He also has plans for his four-year-old Web site
(www.district87.org/bhs/athletics/football).
The site has schedules, rosters, statistics, photos, previews, maps to
away games, Raiders' history and a tongue-in-cheek ranking of conference
concession stands (Mattoon is the hands-down winner).
By the end of the year, Baldwin will add live video, which he thinks
will be popular not only with players and their families but with college
coaches who want to recruit BHS standouts.
He'd do it right away, but that would make it too easy to scout BHS.
So for now, fans will have to visit Fred Carlton Field to see how
technology blends with the gridiron. Baldwin makes no guarantees, but
he's optimistic: "It lets us be efficient and answer the question,
'How do I cram all this information into one week?'" he said.
"But I'm not going to promise that it's going to mean more
wins!"
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