Three years ago Desert Vista’s booster club gave the football program a major boost into the future. The club provided an instant replay system for the sidelines that enhanced the program’s game-time strategy.

 

Originally the set up was less advanced and posed to be more of a distraction to coaches and players due to the difficulties operating the system during the game.

 

 “When we first started out it was really hard and distracted from what was going on during the game,” defensive coordinator Mike France said. “Our booster club president, Darrell Couch, has a team of dads that do it all for us now this year. It takes such a load off our coaching staff, they are awesome.”

 

Before the use of this high-tech equipment, coaches relied on the athletes’ recollection of what went wrong on each play. Now the advanced systems allow the players and coaches to immediately evaluate what happened from the sidelines during the game.

 

“There have been so many games where I will make the wrong read that leads to a really big gain for the other team,” said linebacker Larry Davis. “My coach pulls me over after the play to show me what I need to do to make a tackle. The next drive teams run the exact play and I can be right there to make my tackle.”

 

Quarterback Derek Kline added: “The video replay system we have definitely gives us a hand up. Not only can we see what we have done wrong and then correct those routes ran wrong or missed blocking assignments, but we can see the good plays and build off of that too.”

 

Prior to the use of instant replay systems at the high school level, teams were limited to weekly film viewings to watch and make adjustments. Now, in addition to weekly team film sessions, the instant replay system helps to create students of the game. Players are more eager to watch and learn from their mistakes when they are learning in the moment.

 

“Using the system is just like what we do in school,” nose guard Brett Johnson said. “We have to study our homework to make good grades. We have to study what happened on the field to learn from our mistakes and win games.”

 

Kline, along with other teammates, sees the benefits of both methods of watching film.

 

“The video replay we have on the sideline during games is instant and the impact is greater when you can fix stuff during the game,” Kline said.

 

Although almost every team in Arizona uses some sort of video replay system, the teams’ success is a matter of how well they can use these tools and resources.

 

“It helps our coaching staff when it comes to making adjustments to our game plan,” France said. “Overall it makes us better coaches and them better players because we are all constantly learning about the game. It doesn’t make our team perfect but it allows us to continually get better.”