TECHNOLOGY Salem's game film enhanced digitally

More and more area high school teams are using the new equipment.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- If it means gaining a competitive edge, coaches are more than willing to turn to technology.
That's the choice being made by Doug Phillips and Steve Stewart, two Salem High School varsity head coaches.
The two are using computer software and hardware that digitizes game films, allowing them to be dissected and analyzed in ways that are virtually impossible using the old game-film standby, videotape.
Phillips, who guides Salem's football squad, and Stewart, girls basketball coach, explained that the boosters club purchased the nearly $6,000 game-film editing equipment and donated it to the school.
"It's like going from eight tracks to CDs," Stewart said of the technological leap provided by the digital equipment.
"Before, you'd sit and run through tapes," Phillips said.
Fumbling through films is a good way to lose players' attention, Stewart said.
He is preparing to use the digital equipment for his team's upcoming winter campaign. Phillips' football team used it this fall.
The process
Coaches feed videotapes of games -- either their own or their opponent's -- into the equipment, which digitizes it and enables it to be stored onto a computer that's loaded with the editing software.
Game film can then be edited in whatever manner a coach wishes.
Offensive plays can be stored together, as can different defensive formations.
In football, a team's pass plays or its blitzes can be stored in their own files for easy analysis.
Coaches and players can view the edited film on a computer screen or, for larger groups, show it on a television.
"I'm using it to teach our kids instead of getting on the chalkboard," Phillips said.
The edited film also can be transferred to a blank videocassette tape for a player to take home and study.
A quarterback, for example, might want a tape made showing all of an upcoming opponent's pass defenses, Phillips said.
Preparation
"From a coaching standpoint, our time management has improved 100 percent in getting ready for an opponent," he added.
The digital equipment also is handy for assembling a highlight or recruiting film, the coaches said.
So useful is the technology that more than half the area high school football teams already are using it, Phillips said.
Without it, "we were falling behind," he added. "Preparation gives you a chance to win."