Marysville High School offensive coordinator Chris Craig (right) views a play on the big screen TV with quarterbacks Walker Heard (2) and Nathan Morey (14). The screen helps Monarch coaches and players make in-game adjustments.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Chad Williamson)
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The world of Marysville High School football has gone high tech.
Fans who attended last Friday’s Monarch-Jonathan Alder football game saw an added piece of equipment on the sidelines … a big-screen TV.
It’s an innovation that began a year ago with schools such as Upper Arlington and Dublin Coffman. Now, it’s come to the MHS sidelines.
The television is one that already belonged to the high school.
“The administrators said we could use it during games,” said Monarch head coach Brent Johnson. “We really appreciate that.”
The Quarterback Club, which is the football program’s booster club, purchased a software package called “Sideline Huddle.”
“We went to the Quarterback Club and they were willing to pay for it,” said Johnson. “I’m not really sure how much it cost.”
The club uses money it gathers during fund raisers to assist the football program.
The software program includes one camera in the press box and another in the end zone that, through the software, transmit pictures of plays to the team’s I-pad. In turn, those plays can be transferred to the big screen in order for players and coaches to view previous action during games.
“I don’t understand all of the technology involved,” said Johnson. “However, it’s a good way for us to watch plays and then make in-game adjustments.”
The software program was new to high school teams in 2016. Upper Arlington and Dublin Coffman were two of the teams that played Marysville last year that used the new technology.
“We decided to wait and see how it worked (for those schools),” said Johnson. “Quite a few teams are using this technology now and we felt that this was the way to go for this season.”
“I think Jonathan Alder was using it (the same type of program) last Friday as well.”
Johnson said the screen is a good way of showing players what went right and what went wrong on each play.
“It’s a visual means for the kids,” said Johnson. “With this program, we don’t have to wait until Saturday morning to watch tapes and show the kids what happened on each play.”
The season-opening game at JA was the first time the screen was used by the Monarchs in real-time.
“The more we learn about it, the more we will get out of it,” said Johnson.
“We don’t use it during practices,” the Monarch coach said. “We tape all of our practices with an end zone camera, but we don’t have a press box camera during our practices.”
As with many walks of life, the technology surrounding gridiron films has advanced.
During the formative years of the National Football League in the 1940s and 1950s, coaches in the press box would send Polaroid-type pictures down to the sidelines for other coaches and players to view.
That advanced to grainy black-and-white films and on to computer-based technology.
This software program is the latest step in the progression of technology to assist football programs.
“We’ve come a long way in technology for football,” said Johnson.