Homewood Athletics installed a new 10 by 17 foot video board in the school’s competition gym to spotlight athletes’ performances and achievements.
Athletic director Rick Baguley oversaw the installation of the new audio-visual equipment. He believes its a multipurpose addition to campus that is all about enhancing the gameday experience
“I think they are a great way to highlight your athletes, your teams, your community,” Baguley said. “There’s a lot you can do with it, with fan interaction, with hype videos, with instant replay at our ball games, something that the kids will really love seeing.”
The board can serve different purposes outside of use during games. Coaches can use it to analyze players during practice or add graphics for families during signing day. Non-athletic programs can also use the video board for events.
“We could use it with a student cam [for pep rallies], we have our Black history assembly in February, have band concerts,” Baguley said. “It’s something that we’re obviously very willing to share with anybody in our school.”
The process of deciding what new technologies best fit the school’s needs is a lengthy and complicated process. The athletics department did not rush into any decisions.
“We’ve been studying it for over a year looking at different options, and we ended up taking a trip up to the actual warehouse where they manufacture these video boards,” Baguley said.
Assistant athletic director Jonathan Lunceford focuses on the technological side of school sports. Lunceford created the new app and runs Waldrop Stadium’s video board at football games. He also handles the football broadcasts and Homewood athletics’ new Youtube channel.
“It took a lot of coordination between the [Board of Education] here and then the company that did it, but it took about three days total to get up and now it’s all set and ready to go,” Lunceford said.
Homewood athletics looks at other area schools’ programs and the technologies they employ to get inspiration for avenues where they can improve.
“[Companies] come to us sometimes or we seek it out because we see a lot of schools will look and say, ‘Oh, this school has this cool thing’,” Lunceford said.
As a parent and athletic director, Baguley understands the positive impact of the new technology to the community.
“The spotlighting of kids is something that every parent wants to be able to see,” Baguley said.
