For the Wolfpack , football is no longer the only sport that utilizes technology to get the job done. Its volleyball program has stepped into the future with one of the most innovative consumer electronics products around, the iPad.
One application for the iPad that the Pack’s coaching staff has been utilizing is for recruiting.
“We use it for recruiting,” coach Pete Hoyer said. “There’s a database that’s used for all of the major club tournaments. Recruiting wise, there’s an organization called University Athlete. When we go to major tournaments with multiple courts at a convention center those tournaments hire university athlete to put all of the rosters in a schedule for every hour with who’s playing and on what court.”
University Athlete is not only a great tool for tracking players’ stats, but also for contacting players as well.
“In university athlete we tag athletes that have contacted us or that we’re interested in contacting,” Hoyer said. “We know where they’re playing, on what court, what time, against who. If we see an athlete that we haven’t identified before we can bring up that roster and tag them on our iPads.”
According to Hoyer, the technology has been around in coaching circles before, but its recent availability on the iPad has allowed it to expand its features.
“We’ve been using it on our PDA’s and Blackberrys ,” Hoyer said. “There’s an app for Blackberry and iPhone as well as the other platforms. The advantage with the iPad is that you have that built in camera and a large screen so it’s easier to video athletes and identify them. If we watch hundreds of athletes in a weekend we can come back to it.”
The iPad can not only be used as a recruiting tool, but it is also used by the coaching staff to record player stats during the matches.
“Right now I use the iPad to stat our passing, our serve/receiving passing, and the other teams’ passing,” coach Stevie Mussie said. “It’s just to know that we have good serving targets and we know exactly what their efficiency is immediately instead of having everything calculated out or do math,” coach Stevie Mussie said. “It’s a program called Tap Recorder. You can set up the formulas anyway you want. It’s an awesome program.”
Tap Recorder is more of an original concept that is being used by the coaching staff in comparison to another program called DataVolley , which is highly utilized by other college programs.
“We actually had just thought about it,” Mussie said. “Other coaches around the country mainly use DataVolley . DataVolley is a very intensive. You have to code every touch of the ball. It’s impossible for me to coach and do that. So right now I just get to touch my pass and I’m done.”
As college athletics is moving into the future, so are the Wolfpack . With the desire to gain a competitive edge in every aspect of competition, it is clear that N.C . State is striving to stay ahead of the curve.
