Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/867320
24 UCW AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS Reviewing Games: Then and Now by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Golf Preview by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Terry Sanford assistant football coach Bill Yeager recalled the time several years ago when a local dentist invited him to play golf one weekend. Yeager declined. At the time he was head coach at Terry Sanford. He explained to the dentist he would be spending the weekend with his football coaching staff viewing film of last week's game and next week's opponent and developing a game plan for the following Friday. "He was a little taken aback that we didn't just show up Friday night and play,'' Yeager said. The technology involved in reviewing video and making game plans each week has improved by leaps and bounds since Yeager's days as an assistant under former Terry Sanford coach Mackie Hall. In the 1970s, the game was filmed with a movie camera, then the film was bussed to a processing company in Wilson. It was returned by Sunday so the coaches could watch it, find out what they needed to know, then prepare the team for the next game. It was around the mid-1980s that the first big change took place with the arrival of home video recording. Coaches balked at first, not sure if they could find a way to project the images from the VCR onto a large screen so they and the players could see what was happening. At Terry Sanford, they borrowed a projector from the library that blew the video up where it could easily be viewed. Video transitioned briefly from VHS to DVDs that were burned after a game was over and then shared with opposing teams so they could prepare. Terry Sanford's current head coach, Bruce McClelland, spent his entire career as a Bulldog player in the late 1980s watching his games on VHS tape. It was not until around 2010 and thereafter that video took a quantum leap with the arrival of HUDL. HUDL was a company offering online cata - loging and sharing of football game video. The technology is light-years ahead of the old film in cans and reel-to-reel projector method. Almost the second the game is over, coaches can load digital video onto a computer. HUDL allows them to break the game down play-by-play, and it's pos - sible to share the video via the internet with the entire coaching staff and team members. Players can get individual plays to study on their home com- puters so that the coaches don't have to bring the whole team together just to watch film. It also makes the sharing of video with other teams much eas- ier. In the past, Cumberland County coaches would meet at the old Shoney's in Westwood Shopping Center on Saturday morn- ings, sometimes enjoy breakfast and swap videos to prepare for the next week's game. For the state playoffs, they'd travel to a halfway point between the other team and swap video there. Now, it just takes a few computer clicks to send the full game report across the county or the state. It isn't cheap, though. "The base package is $1,000,'' McClelland said. "We also have the endzone stuff. That's another $1,000.'' The endzone view, which McClelland said teams don't trade with other schools, gives the coaches a sideline-to-sideline perspective of play in the line so they can ana - lyze the splits between linemen, blocking assignments and other aspects of the game. The goal of all the technology is the same as it was when they were watching black-and-white film, Yeager said. "You just want to eliminate mistakes and get better.'' Bruce McClelland and Bill Yeager hold artifacts from the ways they used to view their games. Toni Blackwell from Cape Fear and Carmen Tucker of Terry Sanford are two of Cumberland County's best return- ing girls' high school golfers this season. They'll be seeing a lot more of each other on the course now that Cape Fear and Terry Sanford have left the confer- ences they were in last year to join the new Patriot Athletic Conference. "I think we'll match up pretty well,'' said second-year Terry Sanford coach Jennifer White. She expects Cape Fear's team to play a role similar to the one Lee County did in the old Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference and provide the Bulldogs their chief competition. Meanwhile, Cape Fear coach Todd Edge said expectations are high for his team. "We made the state championship as a team in 2013,'' he said. "We want to get back. That's our goal.'' Blackwell, a sophomore, was Mid-South Conference Player of the Year last sea - son and advanced to the regional and state 4-A tournaments. Blackwell averaged 87.2 over the six-round Mid-South regular season last year, shooting a low score of 80 at Stryker Golf Course. Although she's only 4 feet 11 1/2 inches tall, Blackwell is a long driver. "I swing with a lot of power and hit them far,'' she said. "I think I'll be able to shoot upper 70s this year.'' Blackwell's been working on her mental game and wants to improve her chipping and putting this season. Edge said she needs to working on lowering her putting average. Tucker finished second to teammate Preeya Shah in last season's Cape Fear Valley Conference regular season play and made All-Cape Fear Valley Conference. She averaged 84.4 in five tournaments and shot 82 twice, both times at Scotch Meadows Country Club in Laurinburg. Like Blackwell, Tucker's strength is driving. "I can outdrive my dad and most girls I play,'' she said. She said she's also accurate with her irons but needs to improve her short game. White said Tucker will take over as the team's No. 1 golfer with the gradua - tion of Shah, and will get a boost from her younger sister, Gabby, who joins the team this season. "I expect them to go out and have fun,'' coach White said. "If they're not hav- ing fun, they're not going to play well. I expect them to work hard and give it 100 percent. "Hopefully we'll come out on top again.'' Toni Blackwell Carmen Tucker Attention Students: Let Your Voice Be Heard Get published in our award-winning community newspaper Up & Coming Weekly Send in your feature articles, editorials, short stories, movie and music reviews or original poetry and artwork to: highschoolhighlights@upandcomingweekly.com Subject line: High School Highlights Please include your photo and school information. EARL VAUGHAN JR., Sports Editor. COMMENTS? EarlUCWS- ports@gmail.com. (910) 364-6638.