GameChanger and prep agate

[cisforkoke]

The movie is not on during the HBO preview weekend. Disappointing.

 

[baddecision]

We've been steering baseball and softball coaches to GameChanger for about three years now, with about 75 percent acceptance. Most of the coaches who don't use it have their own system in place and have always been dependable post-game call-ins.
The GC company has given us an account -- one glitch is that it's only one user at a time, so if a colleague wants to grab a box score it throws you off and you have to log back in, thus throwing your colleague off. Contrary to another post, they have always been quick with customer service questions.
It's convenient and quick and it takes another task off the long list of stuff a coach has to do on game day. It also makes it easier to get box scores when area teams play at host schools outside our call-in area.
I'd estimate our response on baseball/softball is up from 70 percent/40 percent before GameChanger to 90/75 now. Some coaches, particularly softball, still insist on inputting the data the next morning, before school or whatever. We warn them twice, then we just don't run those day-old boxes.
Problems: 1) I hear feedback that some GC data inputters (coaches, student managers, whatever) have no idea what they're doing and because of that, the data is way off; 2) when coaches are not thinking of the big picture, the other team has a lineup listing #12 and #14 instead of Bill Smith and Mark Jones; 3) it bombards you with email, up to four or five per game. When you have 80 games in a day, that can be a data management issue.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

We had our issue resolved over the weekend. The original GC person who responded to the first email didn't set up our account correctly, thus leading to the frustration when we couldn't access stats.

 

[fossywriter8]

Many of our coaches also use Game Changer, with many of the above pros and cons listed.
I don't know if it's a program or coach thing, but I wish the box scores also included records.

 

[stix]

I guess I haven't inquired into the ins and outs of GC enough, but yes, many of our coaches are using it. I thought the impetus for getting the "good" stuff was on the teams.

Like one of our local baseball coaches (also the AD at the school, which is one of the biggest in the state) has always been super dependable and detailed. Told us he was going to GC this season, which made me skeptical. But he called after the first game and made sure I could access everything. I could see the score, the box, even a play-by-play via a scorebook function. And he has his schedule up there, which updates the record every game. We didn't do anything with GC, other than use a free log-in and password.

He said it's all because he paid some premium fee to make sure we get all the info. We have another team that uses it (tiny school, never really good, so we're not too concerned), and we can't see anything but the score and a couple minor highlights. We've emailed the coach, and he doesn't seem to care. So we don't either.

I guess I could contact GC, but so far we get what we need, I guess. I do sometimes miss the call-in days, though. Sometimes it's nice to know not just that a game ended 6-5, but also that it was 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 7th when a kid hit a bases-loaded walk-off gapper.

Amazing to me how coaches often just leave that stuff out as if we're supposed to know.

 

[cjericho]

Do most teams have a coach entering stats or a kid/team manager? Not sure how it works with free stats, but my buddy did it for one of out softball teams and everyone on the team was able to see stats. My other buddy's son's hs team has it and on there I can only see boxscores, inning scores.

 

[Batman]

Do most teams have a coach entering stats or a kid/team manager? Not sure how it works with free stats, but my buddy did it for one of out softball teams and everyone on the team was able to see stats. My other buddy's son's hs team has it and on there I can only see boxscores, inning scores.

Just like there are two levels of access for fans, there are two levels of access for teams. The higher one lets everyone see scores. The second restricts the full box score and play by play to a limited number of fans and requires admin approval.
Of course, if you have the paid subscription you can see everything for every team. Just have to follow them, but you can follow and unfollow teams as needed. The free subscription just keeps you to the very basics.

 

[MNgremlin]

I do sometimes miss the call-in days, though. Sometimes it's nice to know not just that a game ended 6-5, but also that it was 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 7th when a kid hit a bases-loaded walk-off gapper.

Amazing to me how coaches often just leave that stuff out as if we're supposed to know.

I love it when parents then accuse us of "not giving their team kudos" when we don't report it.

 

[JohnHammond]

I love it when parents then accuse us of "not giving their team kudos" when we don't report it.

I really don't care what parents think of my writing.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Just like there are two levels of access for fans, there are two levels of access for teams. The higher one lets everyone see scores. The second restricts the full box score and play by play to a limited number of fans and requires admin approval.
Of course, if you have the paid subscription you can see everything for every team. Just have to follow them, but you can follow and unfollow teams as needed. The free subscription just keeps you to the very basics.

We have the media account, which is supposed to give us access to everything. But teams can still limit what people can see, like season stats and box scores. It's weird how it's set up.