FiWhen Catapult developed the GPS tracking system for teams for the Australian Olympics for over ten years ago, it never knew it would be serving and collaborating any other group of people than elite teams which wanted scientifically proven methods that would be similar to metrics in a laboratory setting.
A number of 800 and more teams have been using this system, considering that, it was inevitable that high-schools and colleges would implement the technology.
Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in Bradley, Illinois, is the first school of USA to have adopted a monitoring technology for their athletes.
Guided by Assistant Athletic Director and Head Football Coach, Mike Kohl, and Strength and Conditioning coach, Adam Vogel, Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School is going to use Catapult for football, soccer, cheer-leading and field and track.
Mike Kohl shared his delight and excitement about getting ahead with the new system.
“It monitors all their movements. From total distance traveled, to how fast they are moving, to how much they change direction,” Mike stated.
“I wasn’t totally in at the beginning and I think the biggest thing was I didn’t know how it worked. But after we went to Notre Dame and saw it in action, we wanted to see if this was something we could get done and I’m excited about the possibilities of it”.
Vogel first came across Catapult when Jimbo Fischer, the football coach of Florida State endorsed the value of the product. It captivated Adam Vogel and after doing tons of resear he finally decided to install the system.
“I wanted to try to be ahead of the curve on something like this,” Adam retorted.
“Coach Kohl wants to be different, and this was definitely a good different. We’re not trying to take out the art of coaching, because it is an art, we’re just trying to give Mike a better way to answer the questions he has in his head. Or a way to give him validation of what he’s thinking”.