Developing your passion & side gig

A late-night drive in mid-March 2014, after spending the weekend at the 2014 NCAA Tournament in Raleigh, N.C., resulted in the formation of my sports analytics company in my mind which came to fruition three years later.

That weekend I had compiled in-game notes for the host institution (NC State) and was a first-hand witness to 16th-seeded Coastal Carolina holding a slight edge over No. 1 seed Virginia at halftime of the game. When asking the question ‘how many times does this mark a No. 16 holding a lead over a No. 1 seed at halftime?’ I received the response “I am not sure exactly, let’s Google it,” when I thought that the unnamed individual would have the data immediately.

It was a moment that stuck out to me because as a sports historian and lover of statistics I was baffled that the individual didn’t have that information readily available about an event that is not only one of the most watched in all of sports, but one that has only had seedings since the 1979 season. As I frantically searched to find the information myself to include as part of my in-game notes for the game, I couldn’t help but think of a way to put together a template that would detail everything from a team perspective about all of the games that make up the NCAA Tournament since 1979.

Those ideas dominated my train of thought over the next two days and as I drove home late that Sunday evening, after the opening round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament concluded, I was free to think of the way that I would construct this idea into creation. The template was locked in my mind, the idea formed when it dawned on me that it was not only useful for this project but could benefit other schools, collegiate conferences, professional and minor league teams as well as professional and minor leagues overall to have instantaneous information at their fingertips.

THE PURPOSE OF THE BUSINESS

A sports analytics company (Jon E Stats) that is focused on the digitization of records (career and game-by-game), player honors (league and national) as well as data for both collegiate and professional organizations and leagues.

The templates that I have designed for the information compiled will allow broadcasters, SIDs and media professionals to quickly and efficiently decipher the data—both pregame and in-game—to enhance the experience for viewers and readers alike.

One of the specialties throughout my career in college athletic media relations has been to digitize and overhaul the historical data in order to showcase the accomplishments and achievements of teams and players, past and present, through pregame notes, postgame stories that is both user-friendly and time efficient.

PROCESS OF DIGITIZATION

The digitization process—patented by the US Patent Office—includes all sports. It begins with the gathering of all boxscores and schedules, which are organized eventually into three-ring binders for future use. The information is deciphered from the boxscores and schedules, entered into Excel, for easier sorting methods, before placing the data into website and InDesign formats—which allow for quick reference.

Once this process is completed, all boxscores and schedules are collected, information is digitized into Excel, a copy of the information is then printed and provided to the client for their historical purposes. The data is a thorough breakdown of team and individual statistics. It provides unique and well-organized information that goes in-depth for broadcast purposes.

Once the digitization process is completed, I then take the information and put it into a well-organized record book or website (which could be limited to the league / school / team with a login and password required, or made public depending on your preference). The data would be placed in an easy-to-read format for quick reference by announcers, writers and other league members to make reference to records established in postgame and pregame notes.

WHY EXCEL?

Microsoft Excel has been my chosen method to build the templates for one major reason—speed. It provides the user with the ability to quickly look up the data by sorting and filtering the information.

For anyone that has worked in athletic media relations the key to getting out the right tweet, graphic or note in some form of social media is to find the information instantaneously. Excel offers you the chance to do just that because you can build a template that allows you to add team (or opponent) information, individual achievements, etc., and when the data is there you can sort it and quickly find things such as best free throw shooting percentage in the second half only of a game against a league opponent.

It also helps in building the information for a individual and game-by-game accomplishments at the close of the season. You can enter your data at the bottom of the selected category and quickly sort the information to see where the athlete(s) or team accomplishment(s) rank among the program’s top accomplishments.

I also utilize StatCrew as well, building the information for specific clients in the program so that they can generate the career reports for the specific sports and transfer the HTML information following each game.

BENEFITS OF EXTENSIVE RESEARCH

The benefits of extensive research are endless with alumni appreciation, instant information for social media outlets and data for graphics just to name a few.

Documenting the achievements and accomplishments of college athletics is important to assure that student-athletes don’t feel that their contributions were minimal or worse yet, forgotten. It doesn’t matter if the individual took part in one game, one race, one match or participated in every game, race or match and set numerous records while achieving notoriety at the highest level—the passion that they have for the sport was the same.

College athletics extends those that participate beyond the classroom experience and they want to be remembered for their contributions. I have always believed that no one sport outweighs the other because the athletes form a bond toward the institution and each other from the first time that they don their college colors. Those bonds are never severed because their blood, sweat and tears were poured into those jerseys as they enjoy the height of their career over a four-year span, so being remembered for their contributions is highly important.

The thorough and extensive research with comprehensive record books plays a big role in alumni appreciation as the former student-athletes realize that they are not forgotten after their four-year stint is over at the institution. Their names being in black and white forever demonstrate the institution’s appreciation for being a cornerstone to the growth and development to the program that they contributed. These record books and details about the career of these student-athletes shouldn’t just focus on the major sports, but should also include the Olympic sports (track and field, cross country, volleyball, etc.) because their contributions and sacrifices are just as great as that of football, basketball and baseball.

This analytical information, and its setup in template form, is also instrumental in developing social media quick notes and graphics to highlight the in-game success of both the team and individuals in much less time. Realizing that graphics, tweets and Facebook posts get shared so quickly on the national stage it is critical to get the most accurate and up-to-date in-game and post-game information out to the public in order to maximize the coverage of the accomplishment, all while gaining notoriety from major networks such as ESPN, CBS Sports, local newspapers and television as well as others.

WAVE OF THE FUTURE

A recent article that appeared on LinkedIn highlighted the way that the future of analytics and in-depth research in one spot. The article, which appeared on NASCAR.com on June 4, 2019 highlighted the following:

NASCAR designated Amazon Web Services (AWS) — the world’s leading cloud platform — as NASCAR’s preferred cloud computing, cloud machine learning and cloud artificial intelligence provider.

So, what does that mean exactly?

NASCAR will migrate more than 70 years of archival footage to the AWS cloud. Footage of every historical moment, photo-finish, classic pass, breathtaking wreck and championship-clinching race will live in the AWS cloud.

“NASCAR is utilizing the breadth and depth of our cloud services to enhance the way people experience the sport and deliver even more impactful content to fans,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS.

AWS is reviving NASCAR’s 70 years’ worth of archived footage and will introduce a digital video franchise on NASCAR.com titled This Moment in NASCAR History powered by AWS. Each week, AWS and NASCAR.com will deliver an iconic moment from the upcoming track’s illustrious past for fans to relive and experience. “This Moment in NASCAR History” debuts this week and will feature Ernie Irvan’s 1997 emotional “comeback” win at Michigan International Speedway.

This is similar as to what I mentioned when making the suggestion of developing a website that is completely analytics based which allows for beat writers, in-game announcers (radio and television) to have access to information on your athletic programs in order to highlight the major accomplishments of the season and in-game statistics that they see fit.

The addition of videos and various data allows for exponential brand development growth in the industry.

PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS

If you are interested in conducting a research project for their department can reach me at [email protected].