Basketball coaches used to drive to each other’s homes or schools or meet halfway to trade tapes on each other’s games prior to 2010.
These days, technology has improved to the point where coaches can upload game video from other schools in seconds, saving countless hours on the road and associated travel costs. The Columbus East and Columbus North boys and girls teams do that through the Hudl software system.
“It’s real easy,” North boys coach Paul Ferguson said. “Back in the day, you used to have to mail your film, and that was kind of tedious. Now with Hudl, with the click of a button, you can send your game to someone, and someone can send you a game. So it’s really made scouting a whole lot more efficient.”
Hudl is a Nebraska-based company that provides tools for coaches and athletes to review game footage and improve team play in 10 sports, including football and basketball.
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East assistant boys coach Sean Miller said he has used Hudl for about seven years. The Olympians also used a competitor, Krossover, for one year before finding out just about everybody else was using Hudl.
“Now, if I want to see somebody play, I just have to e-mail their coach. He’ll send me the game on Hudl, and it’s immediately available. I don’t have to drive anywhere. If we’re scouting a team like Floyd (Central), I don’t have to drive to Evansville to pick up their Castle game. I just talk to their coach, and they send it right away,” Miller said.
For the past three years, the East boys have used an advanced version of Hudl called Hudl Assist, an analytics tool that can break down game film by statistic or by player.
For example, if a coach wants to see video on a player’s turnovers or on offensive rebounds the team has given up, they can enter that info and see all of that player’s turnovers or all of the team’s offensive rebounds allowed for a game or season.
“So I can look at everyone in every situation, and it does that for about 20 different stats,” Miller said. “It gives me a better view of really what’s going on. If we have a game where we’re not rebounding very well, we’re giving up a lot of offensive rebounds, I don’t have to go through the whole film and try and figure out a certain spot. I just go to the other team and click ‘offensive rebounds,’ and I get to see every one of them. It’s just an awesome tool.”
The basic Hudl program costs $400 each for boys and girls basketball, or $800 for a school to purchase it for both the boys and girls teams. Hudl Assist is an extra $700.
North athletics director Jeff Hester said he pays $1,800 a year for Hudl for football and $400 each for boys basketball, girls basketball, volleyball and wrestling for a total of $3,400.
North’s boys and girls basketball teams both used Hudl Assist for one year, but now are just using the basic Hudl program.
“(Hudl Assist) was helpful,” Ferguson said. “I just don’t think it was worth the money it cost, and I wasn’t using as much of the advanced statistics. So we just use our regular statistics now.”
North girls coach Pat McKee said his team also used Krossover for one season, but the Bull Dogs now are just using basic Hudl.
“We do it all old school,” McKee said. “I review the film by hand. I do the stats by hand.”
East girls coach Danny Brown said assistant coach Kylie Weichman deals with most of the Hudl work for the Olympians.
“Kylie Weichman is a technology guru,” Brown said. “She’ll put in the information, and she keeps me updated on those things. We couldn’t do it without her.”
Brown said his players also have access to video on Hudl. He said they have used Hudl for four or five years and also used Krossover one year.
Brown said Hudl has been a big help.
“You can go back and look at the previous year, and even before that, if you need to and find out what worked and didn’t work and try and improve,” he said.
Ferguson said for every North opponent, they try to see the team once in person and at least once on video, if not more. Then, they’ll clip certain things from the video to show the team.
Each of the North boys coaches is the lead scout for about five to seven games during the season.
“The lead scout on that game brings the report to me, and we look it over together,” Ferguson said. “I watch film on every game, but I’m not always the lead scout. I’m a big believer that you can’t show kids too much. You have to try to keep them focused, so we show some video, and then we have a written scouting report that we give the kids.”
East head boys coach Brent Chitty said he and Miller get more specific with a Friday night opponent on Thursday. Then, if the Olympians play again on that Saturday night, they’ll review that film on Saturday morning or afternoon.
With Hudl Assist, they also don’t have to keep their own statistics.
“Before we got this, I had to get every game film and go home and stat it on a piece of paper,” Miller said. “Now with Hudl assist, as soon as the game is done, I upload it, I send it to Hudl, and in 24 hours, they send me all the information back, and the game is clipped. I can just click on anything I want to see, and there it is.”
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The Columbus East and Columbus North boys and girls basketball teams use the Hudl software system for scouting opponents and breaking down film on themselves. Here are a few facts about Hudl:
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: Lincoln, Nebraska
Sports covered: Basketball, baseball/softball, football, golf, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, volleyball, wrestling
Cost: $1,800 for football, $400 each for other sports.
Additional cost for enhanced Hudl Assist program for basketball: $700
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