Pay-to-Play High School Sports

If your parents don’t have money, does that mean you shouldn’t be able to play team sports in school? Here are some Statistics from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital:

- Over 60% of children who play school sports had an athletic pay-to-play fee; only 6% received waivers for the fee.

- Only one-third of lower-income parents report their child participates in school sports, while more than half of higher-income parents have a teen playing school sports.

- In lower-income households, nearly 1 in 5 parents report a decrease in their child’s school sports participation due to cost.

Check out the latest report by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital here

GameFilm360.com is a free video technology for school sports programs, trying to help even the playing field.

AAU and Pop Warner League Budgeting

A recent report by Up2Us.org shows the dismal state of youth athletics budgets such as AAU and Pop Warner in its article “Going Going Gone, The Decline of Youth Sports“. Youth sports is taking a major decline and with it the leadership and social lessons which playing sports brings to each generation. Cutting sports budgets and youth sports programs is in the interest of no one, so please join us in supporting youth sports, tomorrow’s leaders will thank you for it. You can help us by spreading the word about our FREE software to fellow AAU and Pop Warner coaches.

Everyone involved with AAU and Pop Warner knows how difficult both the time dedication and costs associated with putting together a team can be. You need to factor in practice facility expenses, travel costs, tournament fees, and equipment costs . While some AAU and Pop Warner leagues turn to fundraising, others do away with unneeded expenses. What better expense to cut from your budget then unneeded video storage, editing and exchange costs. GameFilm360.com is a free service for storing, distributing and analyzing game film. It also helps save time distributing video between coaches, athletes and recruiters.

We recently updated our other sports section to accommodate video editing and tagging functionality for any sport including baseball, volleyball and soccer. We are really excited about the recent number of AAU and Pop Warner signups that we have received, we wish everyone the best of luck with this season!

April 15 – The Spring Evaluation Period and What It Means

April 18th, 2012 – by JC Kibbey

“The Trojans’ staff has been at work on the class of 2013 for months,” says ESPN.

Those months of work led up to April 15, the start of the spring evaluation period for football.

For USC, like every big football school, recruiting begins long, long before signing day. If you’re a Division I prospect, coaches have been following you all through your junior season.

April 15 is the first day that Division I coaches can call the players they’re recruiting. If you didn’t get a call on the 15th, it’s always possible that a coach is waiting to call – they have until May 31 to do it – but think about this: if you were a coach playing extremely competitive Division I football, how long would you wait to call the players you want, knowing that other coaches could lure them away?

For the guys getting calls from coaches, this period is a time where you find out what coaches are chasing you and start to shape up a list of which of the Division I schools pursuing you you are interested in. Think about the schools that are calling you and ask yourself: what do you want in a school? Which is more important to you, playing time or a big name? How much do you value academics? Do you want to stay close to home? Would you prefer a bigger or smaller school?

For the guys not getting calls from coaches – it’s not the end of the road. There are a lot of things to start thinking about. Click here to talk to a College Scout and make a recruiting game plan

Read more: College Recruiting Blog – Athletic Scholarships Blog | NCSA http://www.ncsasports.org/blog/#ixzz1tYi1lUic

GameFilm360 Named League Video Provider for the Professional Developmental Football League

GameFilm360.com, a sports video technology for storing, breaking down and analyzing game film has partnered with the Professional Developmental Football League to bring video analysis solutions to players and coaches looking to make their way to the NFL. “We are very proud to align with a pioneering leader in football” says Dan Voell, President of GameFilm360.

The PDFL is designed to give high caliber athletes and coaches a platform to display and improve their skills with some pursuing professional careers at the next level. As part of the partnership GameFilm360 will provide a system for PDFL teams to easily exchange tapes during the season. This enables the PDFL to store and share game films for athlete preparation and scouting purposes. GameFilm360 makes it easy to privately exchange game films, the system will also be used to send game clips to NFL and CFL scouts.

In addition to partnering with the PDFL, GameFilm360 will also be working with North West AAU to provide a seamless video exchange program for AAU teams. Recent studies by Up2Us.org show bleak budgets for youth programs around the country. Youth sports provides learning and leadership opportunities for the next generation. GF360 and Northwest AAU were created to offer more opportunities for youth in sports while also enabling coaches and athletes to prepare for success in sports and life.

About PDFL - What is developmental professional football?

It is 11 on 11 football played under N.F.L./PDFL rules. It is designed to give high caliber athletes and coaches a platform to display and improve their skills with some pursuing professional careers at the next level.

The Professional Developmental Football League vision.

The vision for the PDFL is to create a professional league based on integrity in everything we do. The league focus will be on giving former collegiate/professional athletes an avenue to continue to play competitive football with ultimate goal of getting an opportunity to be invited to an NFL training camp. The reality of making it in the NFL is that the percentage of those athletes in college or other professional leagues is very small. With that in mind we are developing a mentor program for the players that will focus on resume writing, interviewing, networking, etc. The league will also provide internships in the players degree area in order to help them find future employment.

The Players

The majority of players on PDFL teams, have college football backgrounds playing previously at the D1, D2, or D3 level and have achieved their college degree. This ensures a higher level of professionalism, competition and dedication to the game. The PDFL teams also offer more to the community with the ability to advertise local businesses and attractions on televised games.

About GameFilm360 – GameFilm360.com, founded by coach David Ricci in 2010, is a leading online sports video management tool for coaches. The software enables users to easily store, view, break down and edit game videos while providing instant secure access to the rest of the team.  It provides a fast, free and efficient way for coaches, college recruiters, and athletes to view and exchange their games on demand whenever and wherever they have Internet access.

If You Love Something, Set it FREE

We’re Free

As coaches, it can be difficult to set players FREE at the end of the season. We must have faith that they will make the right decisions and the confidence to know we prepared them for success. At GameFilm360, we love our product so much we have decided to make it 100% FREE. We want it to be available for all players and teams to prepare for success. Powerful analytics, powerful play break down and simple free game film exchange at no cost.

We’re Growing

GameFilm360 is also proud to announce that we have been growing and recently added a president, Dan Voell. Dan joins founder and CEO David Ricci who recently started coaching at Eastern Michigan University. Prior to joining GameFilm360, Dan developed software tools for a wide range of organizations from fortune 50 clients to national musical acts. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and an MBA from Marquette University. He enjoys talking about sports and is a self-proclaimed stats geek.

We’re Accessible

GameFilm360 was created free so that all teams in your school and league and all athletes have a better opportunity at success. Quite simply, players who watch themselves on film, improve their game. Please spread the word to other coaches at your school and in your league. We have created an email to help you easily spread the word, click here and it is ready to send.

We Help With Recruiting

Make sure to check out our Recruiting360 page to find out more about the college recruiting process.  We have closely partnered with NCSA to provide education for coaches, parents and athletes.

@5 Star Kings

D1 5 Star High School recruit Yuri Wright was expelled from school because of his offensive tweets.  Several schools even quit recruiting him because of said tweets.  Social Media is the world we play in now.  Or shall I say Anti-Social Media.

Do we really care about what’s on Antonio Cromartie’s mix tape? Or where LeBron ate sushi last night?  I may not, but millions other do.  The question is who follows Yuri Wright?  His friends?  Well, if so, do what most high school kids do when talking about girls, Lil Wayne or the mean Spanish teacher, vent to your friends in the 7/11 parking lot.

I understand we live in a social networking world and with athletes it is no longer an option, it is a necessity in order to strengthen their marketability.   I know of another way to increase your marketability. How about hitting a clutch three, or a bases loaded triple in the ninth?

The reality is that most superstar athletes don’t even do their own tweeting.  They have handlers, they trust, do the tweeting in order to create a social presence and appear normal to the average fan.

Most young athletes like Yuri Wright, fall prey to the “Be Like Mike” syndrome and think they have to top Rashard Mendenhall’s F-bomb fueled tweet.

Now I am not opposed to athletes sharing their ideas and opinions. There is something about athletes letting their guard down when tweeting while cooking a burger that promotes honesty. Especially since all you get nowadays is the robotic cliché riddled responses on sports radio talk show and interviews.

What I am opposed to, is the narcissistic vitriol that fills the social media ether from 5 Star Kings whose biggest accomplishment was leading their team to a state championship and passing the mean Mrs. Dunbar’s Spanish class.  Gimme a break!

Let’s dial it back a minute and see what the past would have looked like when social media consisted of Muhammad Ali running the streets of Zaire amongst hundreds of screaming fans,  Babe Ruth holding court at Toots Shor, or Joe Namath sitting pool side with fans doing interviews.

Think about how entertaining tweets would have been.  Intimidator (Dale Earnhardt) “Got me a 4 Lb. Bass this morning” or TheGreatOne (Wayne Gretzky) updating his Facebook page to “Stuck in Traffic.”  LEW33 (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) becoming the mayor of “The Brown Derby” on Foursquare.

The ironic thing about Yuri Wright is that now he probably has 100 times more Twitter followers because of his expulsion then before.  We can only hope he learns from his mistakes and other young athletes can learn from Mr. Wright that Twitter, Facebook or any other social networking site isn’t a locker room.

My whole point behind social media and the young athlete is that nobody cares what you have to say, they only care about how you play.  Now that’s a Tweet!

#BERESPONSIBLE

WHAT OFF SEASON?

The Mrs., our sons and Yours Truly

WHAT OFF SEASON?

Coaching is a year round job and if you want to run a competitive program, you better be prepared to work twice as hard as your players.   We push ourselves as hard as college coaches with the only difference being that we don’t get paid nearly what they do.    Heck, I am thrilled if I get reimbursed on gas money for taking a group of kids to a combine.

High School football coaches have seen their list of duties and the times needed to complete each one multiply in recent years.  Unofficially, we are equipment managers, recruiting coordinators, facility managers and strength and conditioning coaches.  Nobody said the job was going to be easy.  At least they didn’t say it to me.

I’m okay with all the responsibilities, if I wasn’t, I be playing in a softball league or sipping a cold Coors Lights during happy hour somewhere.  Not bad options either.    But I’m a coach.  And as a coach I have come to accept the fact that there is so much more to running a quality program then just what goes on after the coin flip.

The post season has gotten longer, with playoff growth in California (CIF) including more teams and extending the season.  Then there is the offseason, which has swelled to include seven-on-seven passing leagues and tournaments, individual combines to measure athletes’ strength and speed and the never ending process of college recruiting.

But for all this hard work stepping back on the field for the start of a new season always invigorates me and makes it all worthwhile. 

Vince Lombardi once said, “A man can be as great as he wants to be.  If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”

Giving up the little things and going for the big things in life is easy to say but many times hard to do but when I have an ex-player return to thank me for helping him get into college, I think that perhaps I’m getting paid too much to do this job I love.

Go Big!!!!

Dave Ricci

TOUGH LOVE

What we say, when we say it and how we say it.

We coaches are constantly reminded about our behavior by parents, players, athletic directors, media, etc.   To me, coaching is a sliding scale.   A team is not a group of robots or clones.  Each athlete requires different communication techniques.  And it is up to us to know the difference.

I once had a player of mine tell me how worried he was that the Head Coach was all up in his grill every practice and I told him that he should start worrying when the Head Coach isn’t yelling at him, because that’s when he’s in trouble, meaning that the Head Coach gave up on him.

One of the most important things sports teach us is how to be tough without crossing the line.  That’s why we have rules.  Any loudmouth jerk with no regard for others can scream at his players.  That’s why we as coaches have unwritten rules.

This reminds me of a story of when I was playing Pony league baseball and we were in extra innings against our rivals.  Just as I was about to step up to the plate, I looked back at my coach with youthful bravado and confidence and said I was gonna go downtown.  Without hesitation he looked me square in the eyes and said, “Oh yeah, on what bus?”

As I stepped into the batter’s box my head was spinning.  Does the coach not have confidence in me?  STRIKE ONE!  Is the coach using reverse psychology on me?  STRIKE TWO!  Or maybe the coach is just a dick.  STRIKE THREE!  We lost the game and the coach lost me.  The next year I played Lacrosse.

The point is we are not building teams but building character.  And character begins with respecting each individual athlete and understanding what makes him tic.   And that, my friends, is tough.   It’s this measure of respect between coach and athlete that brings out the best in teams.

In closing, I am inclined to discuss the events of last weekend and properly equate them to coaching.

When Obama was addressing the question of giving Osama a proper burial at sea and keeping the photos private he said, “We don’t need to spike the football, that’s not who we are.”  We coaches know exactly what he’s talking about.

God Bless America

Dave Ricci

“Do What You Love, Love What You Do.”

As a father of two terrific boys, a husband to a wonderful woman and a coach at a competitive high school, I often get pulled in many directions.   One would think the last thing I need to be doing is launching a new company.  But truth be told, it is all the aforementioned tugging that has brought me to GameFilm360.  I recognized a need as a coach, husband and parent to simplify my life.  Hence, the genesis of creating a website that just flat out makes life easier.

I once had an old coach of mine when I was playing college football tell me, “Do what you love and love what you do.”  Well, it’s taken me about 40 years to finally say that is the case for me.  I am neither a salesman nor a get rich quick dreamer.  Heck, who goes into coaching to get rich?  I flat out dig working with athletes and fellow coaches.

One of my good friends is a screenwriter who has written a lot of sports movies.  He once said to me that sports are a metaphor for life.   I absolutely agree with him.  Nothing is more fulfilling then helping a young athlete set his sights on goal and then accomplishing it.  I live by the credo that sports don’t build character, they reveal it.  As a coach it is up to us to set a standard that must be reached and if the athletes fails, then we fail.  You see it’s not so much about wins and losses as it is about effort and perseverance.  These are the things kids take into adulthood.

When legendary coach, Bo Schembechler was asked by a reporter one year how the team looked that year, his response was, “Ask me that question in twenty years when these young men are husbands, fathers and productive members of society and then I will tell what this team looks like.”

So come check out GameFilm360 and let us help you accomplish your goals.  Gotta run now, boys got lacrosse practice, wife needs me to mow the lawn and I gotta finish up spring football schedule.  There’s that pulling again and I love it! 

P.S.:  Don’t forget that this Sunday is Mother’s Day.  A happy wife is a happy life!

Ready… break!

Dave

Basketball is on fire right now

We’ve had ALOT of boys and girls high school basketball teams sing up over the last month.  It really shows how great GF360 is for time-starved, competitive coaches.  With the 15-Day Free Trial there’s nothing to lose.