West Catholic is dominating their division, and one coach attributes it to Hudl Sideline.
West Catholic High School had established itself as a dynasty in Michigan, winning four straight Division 5 state titles from 2013-16.
But the glorious run appeared to be coming to an end in the Falcons’ semifinal matchup with Frankenmuth last fall. The Eagles came into the game with a new offensive front that West Catholic wasn’t prepared for and built a 21-0 lead. But the West Catholic staff used instant replay on the sidelines to make adjustments and stymie the Frankenmuth attack for a 25-21 win, propelling them to a fifth straight championship one week later.
The players and coaches certainly deserve the credit for mounting the comeback, but assistant coach Justin Michalowski doesn’t believe it would’ve been possible without Hudl Sideline.
“We won because of Hudl Sideline,” Michalowski said. “We were ready for every game plan, but they came out in a front offensively that our kids couldn’t line up against. We were able to identify it through Hudl Sideline and shut them out in the second half to win 25-21. That alone got us to the championship. It was 100 percent the reason we got to it.”
In fact, Michalowski is confident the West Catholic dynasty wouldn’t exist without the ability to make on-the-fly adjustments during games. With seven iPads spread out among the coaches, both in the press box and on the sideline, the staff can catch breakdowns quickly and relay the information succinctly and effectively to the players.
“Everyone is filming their game and watching it after to make adjustments,” Michalowski said. “But if you want to get ahead of that, you’ve got to have that Hudl Sideline technology."
“We’ve won five state championships in a row, and the Hudl program and the ability to rewatch plays immediately is probably responsible for three of them.”
The West Catholic coaches have become masters at making adjustments. If they notice an opponent tendency when they motion a receiver or line up in a certain formation, they’ll tweak their original game plan and exploit it.
Having the video to back up these modifications to players is critical. Instead of simply telling an athlete what needs to change, the coaches are able to specifically show him what’s happening, and with a different angle than what they see on the field.
“Let’s say we have to punt because our quarterback makes a poor read,” Michalowski said. “We can show him immediately, ‘Listen, if the corner steps up or he bails one way, this is the read for the next play. So next time they call this play, watch the corner instead of the safety because he’s telling us the read now.’
“We do the same with the run game. We’ll go to an offensive lineman and say, ‘When we’re in this formation, you can see how they’re lining up. The whole week in practice we thought he was going to stack the linebacker, but instead he’s coming through the C-gap versus the D-gap.’ We make that adjustment and we’re ready to go. We make adjustments every series. It’s absolutely critical to what we do.”
West Catholic is thriving thanks to the game-changing insights they receive from instant replay. Want to see the same impact with your team? Get hooked up with Sideline this season.
