Keeping football stats for preps

What Ty said. It helps to add info such as "it was a 12-play, 76-yard drive," or "facing a third-and-12 at midfield, Jimmy Runningback gained 14 yards on a sweep to keep the drive alive."

 

The advantage is that it allows you to keep track of and write an actual story, not just a box score.

I always kept play-by-play in a way that sounds similar to what others have described. On a regular lined, 8.5x11 notepad, I made columns for Possession/Team, one for Down-Yards-To-Go-Line of Scrimmage, one for Play (with player number and short description of play), one for yardage gained/lost on the play or penalty, and then, a last column that was for notes (where I could cite special plays, scores, or anything else I felt needed noting for possible use in a story, like the time of a score, a summarization of a scoring drive, with number of plays and yards on it, whether a field-goal conversion was a school record, or whether there was some confrontation on the play, etc. I generally used one of those four-color pens, with a different color used for each team and red used for scores. Each drive was separated/underscored with a line, and ends of quarters and the score at the time were noted.

I just used two pieces of graph paper (one for each team) to keep running individual stats, with player totals per play and the running game-total tallies (again, for each player) underneath. I also had a place on the bottom of the graph-paper pages for penalties, and, for defensive players, sacks and interceptions-return yardage. I taped one team's graph-papered individual stats page to one side of a clipboard, and the other team's to the other side, and just flipped back and forth as needed upon changes of possession.

All that said, if I ever fell behind or if I had to choose to keep either the play-by-play or the running individual stats, I would advise keeping the play-by-play.

That's because when it comes down to it, you can always tally up the stats from running play-by-play anyway. Might take a few minutes, but in the end, you still have both the play-by-play and the individual stats. A lot of people do that and don't bother with running individual stats, just tallying up from the play-by-play at halftime, and then adding the second-half totals after the game for the individual and team totals. I always marked the breakdown of each player/team's totals by half with a red or otherwise distinctive line or slash on the pages of individual stats.

 

I do my own play-by-play, as well as a stat sheet that I created myself.

It's a challenge, and I sometimes have to ask who ran the ball. And I don't even try to keep up with tackles.

Play-by-play is easy in shorthand:

20a k/o 40 yl to h12 ... 15h ret to h42 (#20 on the away team kicks off to the home 20-yard line. #15 on the home team returns the kickoff to the home 42-yard line.

On the bottom of the stat sheet, I compile kickoffs-end zone, kick ret-yds, punt ret-yds, punts-yds, int-ret yds, fum ret-yds, sacked-yds lost, and sacks.

For 1st downs, 3rd and 4th down conversions, fumbles-lost and penalties-yards, I add up at halftime and at end of the game. If I have time, I'll do time of poss at half and at end of game.

That way, when I'm writing on deadline, I have very, very little to add up. The stat sheet keeps a running total of rush att-yds, pass comp-att-yds and rec-yds.

Send me your email address in a PM and I'll send you a copy of my stat sheet.

 

Awesome, thanks for the input. I am going to try keeping a play-by-play this Friday.

 

I often was doing photos while covering games and I kept a play-by-play going. It's not easy at all under ideal circumstances, basically impossible in inclement weather. I had a legal pad and a plastic container (for lack of a better term) to keep the pad in if it rained. In either case, I would get photo(s) of a play, then quickly jot down what happened, i.e. P7 run 5 yd, 2&5 @P25. Then on to the next play. Obviously, that doesn't work too well if you're covering a team like Oregon with so little time between plays, but it usually worked for me. After a score, I would tabulate how many yards the drive was, how long it took, time left on the clock, etc. Space or line between between drives so I wouldn't get them mixed up. When someone scored, I would write down the file number for the photos and any relevant notes about that play (i.e. the score happened in spite of a botched snap or the runner made a nifty move to spin away from a tackler).
On the left margin I kept a summary of yards. For example, I had passing (keeping track of pass attempts and completions, plus yards for each completion), rushes and receiving stats for each player involved. During breaks in the action I would tally up the numbers and write it on the bottom of the page, i.e. 1st quarter stats: P5 rush 5-27, 1 TD. P10 pass 4-5, 80 yd, 1 TD, 1 INT. Halftime I would compile first half stats, then same at the end of the third quarter.
To me, the main advantage was I could quickly see when a key play happened. I might have gotten a good pic of P5 running, but if I know that pics 1480-1485 are of his touchdown run on a different play, I can use one of those pictures instead. The notes can also help highlight trends, i.e. the team wasn't getting anything going on the ground in the first half but did in the second. It also helps me form better questions for players and coaches afterwards.
I can't even imagine doing that plus trying to do video and live tweeting games all at the same time.

 

The Pilot ones are great, though you have to write small and have a clipboard that can handle legal-sized paper (or shrink it to letter and write really small.

 

An old-timer showed me how he did it when I started and I do it that way to this day. Very simple, easy to decipher and tabulate stats. Get a yellow legal pad and make four very thin columns got up and down each edge of the paper. First one is the yard line, second is rushing, third is passing, four is yard. Then divide the middle of page in half and use each half for the teams.

So, say a drive starts on the 20. You write "20" in the yardage column. If Running Back A goes for 10 yards on the first play, you put a "10" in the rushing column, a "30" in the yardage column and you can note what he did on his team's half of the middle of the page. When the team crosses midfield, you move the yard line entry to the other side of the page.

To designate a first down, I just put a "1" with a circle around it before the next play. Very easy and as I said, you can tabulate your stats fairly quickly. When a team scores, I write the score 0-7 or 7-0 in the middle of the page and note the time.

 

Might be a little late since tomorrow is Friday but if you're not familiar with doing play-by-play AND stats at the same time, practice by doing it with games on the TV, preferably with the sound off. That way you have to pay better attention to what's happening, rather than having the talking head tell you.

 

Better yet, come to Podunkville and cover this scrimmage for me tonight. Write me a 20-inch story on your observations. I'll be glad to critique it.

 

It used to be possible to take photos, jot down play-by-play and do running stats by yourself. Then the hurry-up, spread offenses kinda made that impossible. By the time you've put your camera down and started writing, you've missed the next play.

 

When I was pulling double duty in those situations, I would rely on the standard non-action shots that I knew would always come up - team busting through the banner, coaching yelling in a huddle, upset/tired player on the bench, celebration hugs after the game. I never wanted to be a photographer, so this was my loophole when I had to be one.

 

As some members of SJ.com know, I've come up with a couple of spreadsheets I've used over the years to keep track of stats ... one of them you can use on your laptop or print out (on 8x14 paper) to keep manually; my newest version is laptop-use only ... if anyone wants me to send them copies or either or both, just PM me ...