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Football Stat sheet

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by moonlight, Jun 23, 2008.

  1. moonlight

    moonlight Member

    Like most of you, I have to keep stats during high school football games. But after 3 years of using graph paper, I'm looking for a sheet to keep track of rushing, passing and receiving.

    I've Googled it and most of what I find is for fantasy football.

    Doed anybody know where I can download a sheet for stats?

    Thanks.
     
  2. Jeremy Goodwin

    Jeremy Goodwin Active Member

    There have been some previous threads on here where people posted their sheets. Try a search.
     
  3. azmgb

    azmgb New Member

    If you go to a sporting goods store, you might be able to find the same type of book coaches use.
    Personally, I always just made my own on notebook paper or whatever I had handy. I preferred it that way because I could organize it however I wanted.
     
  4. Rex Harrison

    Rex Harrison Member

    I once asked a desker to help me make a custom stat sheet in Quark. Just .5 pt rules in a neat grid and categories clearly labeled. Once we got it perfect, I copied it like crazy. Usually the best system is your own.
     
  5. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member


    My shop has an unusual, but very effective way of tracking stats.

    At the beginning of each season we get a pile of Account Book Journals like these: (http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/177212/Account-Book-Journal-11-x-7/)
    We use them for running play-by-play and running team stats.
    The pages are broken up by columns and each column is used for a different category as follows (in order as the columns appear left-to-right:

    Ball position (If it's on Penn State's 20 you might write P20), fumbles/lost, Play description, first downs, Rushing attempts/yards, penalties, pass completions/attempts/yards/interceptions, and punts. That's eight categories and eight columns. If you can't visualize one of these pages, I'll tell you the play description column is the widest column on the page. The column for fumbles is extremely narrow, you don't need much.

    You need two different color pens and each team gets a color. So the home team's plays may be in black ink, the visiting team in red ink. Since the specific stats are in columns, it's easy to keep a running total. If a team runs for three yards on the game's first play, then doesn't run again for 10 plays, all you have to do is look up the rushing yards column and find the last running play in that team's ink color. And you can keep a running total. If the first play is for 3 yards, then the second play is for 4, after the second run in the rush column you write "2-7."

    At halftime, I usually pull out a reporter's pad, go down the play by play (In a 48-minute prep game, a quarter usually fills up about a page of the journal) and put together the individual stats. This takes 5 minutes tops. Often, I find a discrepancy between my individual stats and team stats, but usually, another 2-3 minutes of checking finds the mistake (I failed to record a rushing play in the running rush total in the ledger, for example).

    Usually, when I go back to the office, I quickly add up the second half individual stats and add them to the first half, then again proof them against the team totals in the ledger. Another five minutes, tops.

    The great thing about it is there are several ways to proof your stats as you go.

    Another thing to do is get a copy of the running play by play programs colleges use now and do it that way. But those things aren't cheap and I don't know if they are available for Mac.
     
  6. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    Brian, that's almost exactly how I keep my stats, except I do it on homemade Excel sheets, rather than buying a $27 notebook.
     
  7. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    Well, the ledgers are a perk. We get them from accounting and the shop has been doing it so long that accounting knows to order extra ledgers every July.

    Excel would work good too. I like being able to stick a sticker on the ledger that says "2008 season" and pile them up in a box as past references. However, I don't know if I've ever actually needed them, especially now that I just do preps a little on the side (I'm on a college beat, but my paper has all hands on preps on Fridays) and I'm almost never doing prep features, columns, etc. ...But it could happen, so the box of old ledgers stays...
     
  8. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    I have an Excel worksheet that you can either print out (on legal-size paper) or put it up on your laptop and keep running stats ... PM me with an e-mail address, and I'll send it to you ...
     
  9. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    Google football score sheets. And these were the first two entries.


    http://www.psal.org/psalsports/Football/psal_footscore.htm

    http://www.scorebookstore.com/foscst12ga.html


    The second is kinda similar to the one I used, that I got years ago from a co-worker.
     
  10. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    I created a Word documents, which help me keep everything in order. If you'd like, PM me an e-mail address, and I'll send the sheets your way.
     
  11. fossywriter8

    fossywriter8 Well-Known Member

    BrianGriffin,
    I use a similiar method, only with one pen. I use one of those multi-color pens, like the kinds Bic makes (red, blue, black, green), and a stenographer's notebook.
    I have columns for ball position, down and distance, play and result.
    I also add up the first half stats at halftime.
    Unlike others on here, I can't use a computer program or even a big notebook because I'm on the sidelines taking photos and marking down plays. Ah, the joys of a small-town paper.
     
  12. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    I simply cannot find the multi-colored pens any more. Who carries those these days?
     
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