No turning back: Coaching goes digital

This isn't quite Texas, but Illinois can glam up its high school football, too.

We have teams that run out to the field through inflatable tunnels that shoot out smoke.

We have teams that rent JumboTron-like screens to show live action and replays.

We have team after team ripping up the sod in their stadium and installing the kind of artificial synthetic fields that Big 10 teams play on.

And now, we've got teams that show up at games with all the cool little toys and gadgets that the big boys are using as well.

High school football in Illinois has gone high-tech.

Many teams in Lake County are beginning to invest in the kind of serious, sophisticated equipment that will allow them to strategize like they never have before.

They are using nifty end zone cameras, in addition to the cameras typically set up in the press box, to give them all the best angles on their game films.

And they're hooking up sophisticated software programs to their cameras that can chart all the plays during a game in live time. The possibilities with some of these programs seem endless.

For instance, the programs can group all the running plays together, all the third down plays together, all the kickoff returns together and so on. And they can do it fast.

The head coach could literally have a fully categorized game video in his hands before he even walks off the field for the night.

"What's next?" Antioch coach Brian Glashagel laughed. "Pretty soon we actually will be like Texas and every team will have wrap-around stadiums, double scoreboards, 25-second clocks, turf fields and JumboTrons.

"That's where football in this state is going. It's getting very advanced, especially the software programs. They're so exciting. That's the next major investment for our team."

Antioch is simply keeping up with the Joneses.

The video software program wave started about four or five years ago, and now the majority of teams in Lake County have purchased some version of it.

The cost can range from a few thousand all the way up to $15,000 and higher, depending on all the bells and whistles.

Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz purchased the APEX Sports Software system just before the season started. He's already become a big fan.

"It's definitely been worth the investment," Stortz said. "We went to Northern Illinois this summer (for a team camp), came off the field and in 10 minutes we had offensive cuts, defensive cuts, everything. If you run a certain play, you can mark that play during the game or practice and then pull up all of those same plays and watch them on the video one right after the other. You can also mark up your opponents' games films the same way.

"This program makes film sessions with the kids so much easier to navigate."

Of course, this convenience doesn't just happen magically.

There is some work behind it. Every team that owns one of these software systems has assigned either a coach or a volunteer to head up the programming.

Peter Kupfer is Lake Zurich's computer guru.

He sits in the press box with a couple of laptops, one of which is hooked directly to the video camera that is taping the game. He also is equipped with a headset since the APEX program is the only one on the market that lets the user chart plays via voice recognition.

So before and after every play, Kupfer is recording comments into his microphone.

"This appeals to my geeky nature," laughed Kupfer, a science teacher at Lake Zurich who used to work with the freshman team. "But it is really neat all the things this program can do."

"For instance, we're playing Stevenson this week and we've got four tapes of them from the last two years. We can run those tapes through (the program), merge them together, mark them all up and come up with a DVD that's going to group all kinds of things. Like what's been their tendency on first-and-10 or second-and-5 for the past two years. It's all there and you can watch those specific plays one right after the other."

Rewinding and fast-forwarding through the old VHS tapes is becoming a thing of the past. And that makes film sessions much more efficient.

"Twenty years ago, a film session was an hour and a half on a short day, and usually two and a half hours on a normal day," lamented Wauconda assistant coach Dave Mills, who is in charge of the video software for his team. The Bulldogs also use APEX. "Now, the kids are in and out most times in 15 to 20 minutes.

"Kids love this program because they're such visual learners and they're looking at very specific items over and over and over again. Coaches love it because when you want to see only 'Sweep 28s,' you can see all the 'Sweep 28s' right in a row. Before, the fast-forward button was your best friend because you had to fast-forward through all the stuff you didn't want to see to get to another 'Sweep 28.'

"Doing it this way is a much more efficient use of time."

Take it a step further and a coach could cut down film room time even more by sending home DVDs with individual players.

At Libertyville, for instance, defensive players are all equipped with rewriteable DVDs. Each week, they receive a specially cut version of the opposition's offense, including its top 10 most frequently run plays.

At the beginning of each new week, the players turn in their DVDs and they get written over with the new opponent's information.

"They can take those DVDs home and refresh themselves whenever they want," said grade school teacher Dan Henneberry, who works with the youth football program in Libertyville and volunteers his computer expertise to the high school's varsity program, which uses CoachComm's SportsEdit program. "In the past, the kids had to come in to watch film during lunch or study hall or the team would spend a lot of practice time in the film room.

"Now, the kids can be at home looking at the same stuff in a way that is totally tailored for them. I think it's such a better use of time and it makes them so much better prepared."

Players can be better marketed as well.

With the software programs and a touch of a button, highlight tapes can be generated for individual players who want something to send off to colleges.

"In the past, you'd have to do that the hard way, by picking out all those clips by hand," said Carmel computer guru Jerry Rejc, who is in charge of running the team's CoachComm PowerEdit program. "Now, for any kid, you can just mark the really good plays as you go along during the season and then at the end of the year, the computer can group them all together and give you a nice video.

"This is a fantastic tool and I could see this getting even more involved down the line."