Barrett Donahoe’s office is like many high school football coaches in the area.
Along with pictures of family members and mementos from past games, a computer occupies a key position on his desk. In addition to being used to handle all of the assorted duties he is responsible for as Heritage Academy athletic director, Donahoe, who also is the school’s football coach, is quick on the draw to flip the cover of the laptop open to go to one his most widely used destinations: Hudl.
“In the past, when it was VHS before it became CDs (compact discs) or DVD, you would have guys send you films that are scratchy or blurry,” Donahoe said. “With this, everybody has access to you all of the time. You have to adapt and change…you have to adapt and change week to week.”
Hudl, which was introduced in 2006 in Nebraska, is a software program designed for coaches and athletes to review game footage. It initially was designed for college and professional football teams, but it has seeped into the high school football ranks and is now being used by football coaches as well as coaches of other sports, including soccer, basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse.
In the Golden Triangle area, Hudl is used by most coaches to analyze trends and to break a two-and-a-half to three-hour game into smaller segments so players can see formations and tendencies of opponents. In the past, coaches would use videotapes to record games and then drive to meet an opposing coach to exchange films. The process evolved into exchanges of higher quality CDs, to today where coaches now only have to hit a button and share films with other coaches over the Internet.
Donahoe said he likes to have his hands on as many films as possible so he can be as prepared for every play. With a couple of clicks, Donahoe said he can see everything a team has done, which is good and bad. He said the ease in accessing information can lead you to spend too much time breaking down film to try to find a habit that exposes a team’s weakness.
“We really believe in our program that what will separate you is the amount of time and effort you put into whatever you are doing,” Donahoe said. “For preparation for our coaching staff, it is how much time and effort are you going to spend on film? We spend countless hours on film. It is something that consumes us.”
Like Noxubee County High School football coach Tyrone Shorter talked about last week, Donahoe agreed using Hudl cuts down on the time coaches used to have to take to exchange film, either on Friday nights or Saturday mornings. Now the time spent on those two- to three- to four-hour trips can be better used “cutting plays up” and preparing players for particular formations or schemes. But Donahoe said as easy as the technology is to use, he said it doesn’t make the job easier. Coaches still have to figure out what a team is doing and devise a strategy to stop it.
In other words, Hudl doesn’t provide remedies.
“If you ask any coach, that is the first thing they are going to say: Thank goodness I don’t have to exchange film anymore,” Donahoe said. “Hudl is such a valuable tool because it gives you instant access to so many different films. By the ninth or 10th week of the season, we can see every film the team has.”
Shorter said coaches can set up Hudl to tell them how many times a team has run a sweep, and to which side. He said he and his coaches then translate that information to a scouting report they give to their players every week. He said they also use the cut-ups — a series of highlights from a game or a series of games — designed to show the players the keys they need to look for in formations.
Shorter said the pressure to carry on a winning program after a coach like M.C. Miller, who is now at Louisville High, often leads Shorter to think “have I done enough” to prepare his team.
Donahoe said he feels that tug just as much in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools. In fact, he probably isn’t alone in having being told — dare we say scolded — by his wife when he gets an itch to pull up Hudl and look at a film for next week’s opponent. With the information a click away, the temptation sometimes can be difficult to ignore, but Donahoe said it is part of the juggling act coaches have to try to balance between their on and off the field duties and their personal lives.
“I can get on my phone. I can be sitting in my car with my wife driving and I can be sitting there watching Hudl film and, of course, she will yell at me and tell me to turn on the radio or take care of the kids,” Donahoe said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportsditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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