As a former head football coach, Max Kattwinkel learned firsthand how Hudl Assist could be both a competitive advantage and a time-saver for a coaching staff.

“It’s very time-consuming to get film broken down,” he said. “[Hudl] cut our time in half as far as preparation.”

Assist was only the beginning. Now the athletic director at Lubbock Cooper ISD (Texas), Kattwinkel brought those benefits program-wide by upgrading to Hudl’s athletic department package.

“Football is king in Texas,” he said. “But we have a lot of other sports that deserve that same type of preparation, ability and efficiency.”

Two sports in particular have really blossomed while using the athletic department package under Kattwinkel’s watch. “Our soccer programs are in love with it as far as filming and preparation,” he said. Kattwinkel also mentioned baseball as a surprise beneficiary. “I wasn’t familiar with how they’d use it, but they’re raving about it and what it does for them.”

An Indoor and Outdoor Solution

Lubbock Cooper started using Focus Indoor last year and immediately saw the benefits. The hands-off nature and easy usability of the camera are embraced across the program. Coaches have especially loved the ability to record practices—having all the different phases of each practice on film is invaluable to them.

Kattwinkel is excited to bring the same capabilities outdoors. “Sign me up,” he said of Focus Outdoor, which Lubbock Cooper will install this year. With how much basketball and volleyball enjoyed the automatic filming of their practices and games, his decision to bring those capabilities to their outdoor sports was a no-brainer. “The ability to get all our sub-varsity games covered and livestream them as well is a huge, huge component for us,” said Kattwinkel.

Bringing Sports into the Community

Both Lubbock Cooper and the broader community have felt the impact of Hudl. During a challenging year filled with capacity restrictions and distancing measures, livestreaming events to the public was vital.

Lubbock Cooper broadcasts their games for free, giving fans both near and far the ability to tune in safely. “It’s been received very well,” Kattwinkel said.

Parents and athletes alike have also bought into Hudl’s recruiting tools. Many young athletes at Lubbock Cooper have intentions of playing at the next level, and Kattwinkel points to Hudl highlights as an important way to get them noticed. “It’s a good way to broadcast those kids—parents are very receptive to that.”

When talking to Kattwinkel, his vision for running the athletic department comes down to two things: save time and be efficient. Hudl’s athletic department package has helped Lubbock Cooper do just that.

Ready to take your school’s athletics to the next level? With Hudl’s athletic department package, it’s easier than ever.

In my last blog, I discussed how booster groups can be the answer to a sports team’s fundraising problem. But even once you have a booster club, you still need to come up with successful ideas for fundraisers and events.

So in this blog, I’ll highlight some of the most profitable fundraisers I’ve been a part of in the last fifteen years. These are all large scale fundraisers that produced strong returns.

Sell a Locker

When you can tie the fundraiser to what you need the funds for, it only makes sense. We once needed to upgrade our boys’ and girls’ varsity locker rooms. The benches, flooring and lockers all needed replacing—we basically had to gut them.

We got quotes for the project and divided it by how many lockers we needed to install to get a locker price. Then we gave alumni the opportunity to “buy” a locker for $250, which included a nice plaque on the back of “their” locker.

Many donors put their name, the sports they played, and the years they attended the school. Some local businesses donated to have their business name on the plaque. Families with kids who played sports would get together and put their family names on it. We even had plaques in memory of former students and athletes.

It was a great way to renovate an existing area for our kids and honor the tradition of the town’s athletic department.

Raffle a Car

For this fundraiser, we were trying to raise $50,000 to pay for new stadium lights. Having a specific, simple goal is the key to a successful fundraiser.

We decided to get there by having student-athletes and community members sell $50 dollar raffle tickets for a new car. In this case, the dealer gave us the car under cost, but in return got great publicity for his dealership. And we got to keep all of the funds raised over that initial cost.

Now this was fairly easy for us to set up because the organizer had a friend who owned a car dealership. Remember to work your network for these sorts of fundraisers. You might be surprised by the big response you get!

Wrestlemania

This one was my favorite fundraiser while I attended high school, and while I was employed by my hometown school. Our special education department would rent a wrestling ring and put on “Wrestlemania” every two years. It was a big production, which took quite a bit of work, but they have raised thousands of dollars over the years.

Here’s how it worked: students could create tag teams of two, with personas, uniforms, the whole thing. There’d be 10 tag team wrestling matches, with students as wrestlers, managers, round card holders, etc. Teachers were the referees and ring announcers.

In the lead up to the event, the “wrestlers” would go down to the middle and elementary schools and sign autographs in their costumes. There’d be teams like “The Pizza Boys” and “The Dorks.” They’d have theme music and make a big production of it, which the little kids loved!

The biggest expense was the ring—the rest was just volunteer hours. Tickets were $10 to get in, and believe me, the gym would be packed.

At the end of the matches, there would be a “Royal Rumble,” which a student in special education always won. This wasn’t just a fundraiser, it was a community-wide event that everyone looked forward to.

The Great Reunion

This is exactly what it sounds like. All classes in school history got to be part of this reunion. Alumni could come alone, mingle with friends from town, or even organize with their class to rent several tables and hold their own class reunion at the event.

There’s a few logistics with this size of an event. A 50 x 50 tent would be rented and set up on our stadium field. The school board even approved a one-time allowance for liquor to be sold on school property, so beer and wine could be sold with dinner. We made it 21+ and had a Hawaiian theme when I was there. There were silent auctions, raffles and a live band.

We had hundreds of attendees, and even created sponsorship opportunities for local businesses. This event regularly brought in tens of thousands of dollars for co-curricular activities at my alma mater.

Make these ideas your own. Add your school or program’s touches to make these ideas work for you. And if you’re in need of a booster group to help support your fundraisers, here’s my earlier blog on how to set them up.

James Coffey attend­ed Endicott College in Beverly, MA where he got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Management. He has spend the last fifteen years as an ath­let­ic direc­tor at three dif­fer­ent high schools. Coffey was named the Massachusetts Secondary School District A Athletic Director of the Year in 2012. He has also spoke about the pos­i­tive effects of social media on ath­let­ics at sev­er­al New England conferences.

When Don Kurth was first introduced to Hudl, he was dubious. “When things are too good to be true, they usually are,” he stated. But after a year with an athletic department package, he’s singing a different tune.

Expanding the Opportunity

Last year, technology use exploded. Every industry was affected by the power the internet gave consumers during a pandemic. With this change came a learning curve, especially for those who never had this digital connectivity before.

This was the case for Brookfield Central High School’s athletic programs. Kurth needed to find a solution that would help all of his sports teams maximize their development, even when they couldn’t be on the field or court. That’s when he turned to Hudl.

He was immediately impressed by the ease and reliability Hudl’s school-wide package provided. Though some sports had used Hudl before, this upgrade allowed new teams to experience the impact of video and data.

As Kurth’s coaches adjusted to this new opportunity, their adoption accelerated. Anyone who used Hudl got more time back in their day—for teaching their players and personal time. It was a win-win scenario for continued development and work-life balance during a very hard year.

People Were Watching

Hudl also changed the game for Brookfield Central’s livestreaming.

After upgrading to the athletic department package, Kurth was able to receive, set up and use his Focus cameras to stream games to a school YouTube channel in no time. Since Nov. 1st, 2020, there have been over 100,000 views. In short, “People were watching,” Kurth said.

Even with the school’s internet interruptions, the benefits of livestreaming were extraordinary. It scaled the reach of their teams’ games, providing access to all community members for both home and away contests.

Not only did the community appreciate the new video service, they now expected it. Livestreaming will continue at Brookfield Central, even as in-person attendances begins to return. And as Kurth looks to meet these fan goals, he knows Hudl will be a staple of Brookfield-Central’s athletic system.

New and Next 

In fact, coaches are already discovering how Hudl’s products complement other technologies. Take Brookfield Central’s women’s soccer coach Daniel Makal, who combined Focus camera footage with GPS wearables. This enabled athletes to recognize how their on-field movements could be more efficient.

So now what does Kurth say about these products? “This is no longer an old guy using VHS,” he laughed. He’s right. It’s an army of resources to help programs, athletes and coaches adapt, innovate and connect.

If those are your goals, learn how you can bring Hudl to your athletic department today.

Celebrate the season.

Take time to remember each game’s best moments by creating season highlights. You (or your coaches) can add team photos or slides with season stats and athlete awards—whatever information is most important to your teams and fans.

Another year later, we had attracted even more students and clinched another state championship. And finally, when a school on the other side of town closed, we got a gym of our own.

Because of sports, we cemented our identity. Because of sports, I began to see more parents at games and meetings. Coaches can easily see the inherent value of sports—our challenge is to get kids to believe in themselves, change their course and inspire others.

Throughout my years as a five-time state championship coach, I’ve learned there are three major components in building a program that will provide student-athletes the best experience and character development possible.

Culture

Not only do coaches need to do whatever it takes to help players believe in their own value to the team, they must also understand that it’s not always the game plan that wins the game—it’s the team’s identity and philosophy.

Think of culture as a loose ball. You gotta dive for it. My focus is on making sure my players handle the honorable variables of being an athlete, like time on task, engagement, random acts of kindness and, most importantly, the two “extras” that help you win in the classroom—extra credit and extra help.

There are so many things coaches can do to build a strong culture. I spent my first paycheck as a basketball coach on making 300 t-shirts with our team logo and mantra. I handed those out to anyone who would listen. Months later, many of our freshmen showed up to school with New Mission t-shirts already on their backs. These kids had never played for me, but they were already connected to our team culture. They were Titans.

Relationships

If you have no idea what your players’ home situations or backgrounds are, how can you expect to coach them? Player development is not exclusive to skills and drills anymore.

It’s the conversations that happen after practice. It’s the bus ride to or from games. It’s the impact a coach can have on a player in their most vulnerable moments. You don’t even have to talk—it’s more important to listen.

Relationships help players buy in. I always kept an identity chart of my players so I could help them understand the value of being their best self even when it was hard. Be the example—teach them how to show who they are by showing them who you are.

The Extra Mile

Coaching is a job where when you win, someone else gets the credit, and when you lose, “It’s on you bruh.” It’s full of ups and downs. But when all else fails, trust in your players.

As coaches, we need to remind ourselves of the impact going the extra mile can have. It matters if I drive the 20 miles to take a player to a college visit or show up to a parent meeting. It might be the difference between life or death if I don’t check up on a kid in the summer to make sure drugs or violence hasn’t swallowed them whole.

How to Get Started

1. Build relationships with all of your players.
2. Have the NCAA qualifying conversation with them in 9th grade, and use the guidelines to help them in their academics.
3. Create an environment that reflects success and family. Develop mantras, post quotes about your program philosophy or create incentives—whatever it takes to help them understand that who they are on the court is who they are off of it.
4. Be intentional about your goals. Every step forward is a step closer to a championship.

Everyone seems to hate the phrase, “Ball is life.” But from my experience, it is.

Cory McCarthy spent more than a decade coaching basketball. As Director of School Culture and Climate at New Mission High School, he has helped lead the school to being named the 2012 EdVestors’ School on the Move, 2013 National Blue Ribbon School for Improvement, and the 2017 Title One Distinguished School. McCarthy has represented Boston Public Schools at conferences such as ASUGSV Technology Summit in San Diego and COSEBOC in Boston, MA and New York, and has been a guest lecturer at Emerson College and UMASS Boston.