Stats

Even though I don't need to, I still do a running play log when I cover college and pro games, otherwise I wander off into la-la land and I can't get myself to focus so much on the game.

 

Buck, I do something similar, but I actually add up the numbers as I go along. So it'll be:

Rushing
Jones 9 12 13 47 54 60 57 59, etc. (8 carries, 59 yards).

That way I can kind of visualize at halftime which kid is having a big game.

 

When I covered preps, I always got to the game early enough so I can track down and copy the rosters since it was never a given that they'd have extra copies available. I had a self-made stat sheet and a notepad to do play-by-play on. My stat sheet was something like thisk:

Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
QB name/number X 8/15 X INT 83/10 X

RB1 name/number 2 2 -4 17 20TD ....
RB2 name/number 2 6 8 17 20TD ....
and so forth

My play-by-play looks something like this (H and V are abbreviations for the team names):

HOME TEAM 10:21 2ND (start time of drive)
1-10-47H: #8 10 pass right to #6
1-10-43V: #7 -2 run left; swarmed
2-12-45V: #8 25 pass left to #3; caught at 49, broke tack and down left sideline.
....

On my play by play, I try to jot down notes about particular plays whenever possible (e.g.: #88 8-yd run right, dragged 3 tacklers in EZ). It helps me reconstruct a drive. Of course there are times when the action is going so quickly that I don't have time to fill out the stat sheet and the play by play after a particular play. In those cases, I write down the play-by-play and then go back and fill out the stat sheet at the next break. When I first started, I liked to stand with the chain gang since it made it easy to keep track of yards on each play, and being on the sideline allowed me to pick up on things the coaches/players might be saying that can provide more angles to work with. But it can be tough to see plays that are on the other side of the field, and a bit hard to write down stats while you're flipping between the stat sheet and the notepad and walking with the chain gang and trying to keep an eye on the action all at the same time.

 

Mine is similar. I have a pre-printed worksheet that I got from someone (hi slappy). You put the total for each carry and then a running total. And circle the scoring plays.

Rushing
Jones 5/5 4/9 25/34 3/37 -2/35

I always found it just as easy to keep stats on the sideline. You can get a little more accurate with stats in terms of where the ball is lying. Plus, I'm tall so I can see over the players when the ball is at the 40s or 50.

One clipboard with legal pad on it for play by play. Double-sided stat sheet underneath the clipboard. Record the play on the legal pad, turn over and record the stat.

 

This is very similar to what I do, Hank. The only problem I have is remembering how much each person had in the first half, so at halftime I try to remember - I didn't last night - to put some sort of line in to show on the totals what is first half and what is second half.

As far as on the sidelines, I am torn. In Idaho I always walked the sidelines, but part of that was because there were either sketchy press boxes or no press boxes. In Texas, every stadium, even at the 1A level has press boxes, so I tend to sit upstairs.

 

Shortly after I got into this nearly 20 years ago, I made up my own stat sheets on Quark and have used them ever since. I put a header at the top with each team, their records and where/when the game was played and print off a custom set for each game.

All sheets are legal size (8 1/2-by-14) and I use a different color of ink for each team, usually red and black but I also have blue and green pens to use for notes so they will stand out.

I keep all stats by jersey number, but make sure before the game that the rosters are updated.

For play-by-play, I have columns for down and distance, spot of the ball, the rusher/passer/punter/kicker, rushing yards gained or lost, the receiver and yards gained or lost, incomplete pass, intercepting player/return yards, punt distance, return man/yards, kickoff distance, return man/yards, fumble not lost, fumble lost and penalty/yards penalized.

Each play-by-play sheet has lines for 50 plays and I use a separate sheet for each quarter (I always have a fifth, just in case of overtime). The game I had last night had 41 plays and five kickoffs in the first quarter, using up pretty much the entire sheet.

I also have separate sheets for each team for individual stats. There are 15 columns for ballcarriers, a passing section and 10 columns for receivers. The rushing and receiving sections are simply a column for each player with a diagonal line in each box with yards on the play/total yards recorded. The passing section has a column for the passer, number of attempts, number of completions, yardage (just like rushers and receivers), interceptions and TDs.

When teams have more than one player attempt a pass, I use a different color ink to mark off each player's attempt(s).

Each column has 50 lines just like the play-by-play sheet. It's a little cramped, but I've had games where a team has used 12 or more ballcarriers or where one guy has 48 carries. I've also had teams with 10 or more players catching passes (I put the 11th receiver in the last rushing column, made a note and prayed they didn't start handing off to everybody on the team). Two weeks ago I saw a quarterback throw 54 passes (I was squeezing consecutive incompletions into one line in the fourth quarter to make it fit).

The individual sheet also has a line along the bottom for the punter. It's just a horizontal version of the rushing/receiving columns.

Finally, I have a box score sheet with score-by-quarters (and space for six overtimes) at the top, a scoring summary section with space for 30 scoring plays (I've covered six-man; those suckers can rack up the points) and a team stat section just like it appears in a box. The scoring summary has columns for scoring team, quarter, time, scoring play and game score to that point. I also note the drive stats (plays, yards, elapsed time) when applicable.

There is also space to keep up with running totals for first downs, penalties/yards and fumbles-lost.

This may seem like overkill, but I tried to set these up to cover all possibilities. When I first did this, I could get an entire college quarter on one play-by-play sheet. Now I have a hard time getting 12-minute high school quarters to fit.

Needless to say, I work from the pressbox so I can have space to write on three separate sheets (play-by-play, individual and box score) at the same time.

 

Well, yeah. But a) ain't nobody else keeping the stats; and b) that's the challenge in it. If you can cover high school football well, you can cover anything.

If all high school football were like Texas high school football ... the world would be a vastly different place.

To each his own, part I. Like I said, once you have your own system down pat, it quickly becomes second nature. I wouldn't want to use a pre-printed stat sheet -- and there's no "trying to figure out what the fuck you've done" if you know what you're doing.

To each his own, part II. We have this debate every August, no?

I have a little mini-binocular that I use when the spot is hard to tell or I can't discern a player's number at the bottom of the pile. It's just as accurate as being on the sidelines (which I did find to be just as easy to keep stats from, too. I just prefer the press box; and I think "gleaning game-day wisdom by eavesdropping on players/coaches" is vastly overrated.)

 

I just found my stat sheet, which served me very well when I covered high school football.

I did pretty much what Buck does. Except I made the sheet in a word document, so I can change the names, numbers and teams every week.

I've got two spots designated for quarterbacks for each team with columns set for completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns and interceptions.

For receivers, I've got several spaces, again, for each team's players with columns for receptions, yards and touchdowns.

For running backs, several spaces with columns for rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns.

Punters (yeah, it's that complete), one space with columns for punts, yards, then average (to be completed after the game, of course).

I have a section for interceptions with columns for the defender -- and it's big enough for a brief description.

A fumbles section with columns for fumbles and fumbles lost -- with room for descriptions.

A penalties box with columns for flags, yards, then the total (flags-penalties).

A section for first downs, just a running tally board.

Then the score by quarters for your box.

And at the end, I list the teams (records): coaches -- New York (0-2): Eric Mangini.

It sounds really big, but it's not. It's two pages long, but if you've got enough room in the press box to set up a laptop, you've got enough room to use these sheets. The best part is, at the end of the night, writing up the box takes about five minutes.

I'd be glad to share this sheet with anyone via the PM if you want. It really made reporting high school football games a breeze for me last year.

Oh, and I always bring a notebook to write descriptions for anything eventful, like scoring and things like that -- but that's a no-brainer.

 

Then, we would live in Texas, right?

 

thanks for everyone's advice. I tried keeping up with the stats in the sideline, it was a bad move. Press box is easier for me. I can see the whole field. But it sounds like everyone has their way. I'm using the different color pens and grids. it works ok for right now. just hard keeping up with totals as i go along.

Anyone got any advice on how to cover 13 schools when you are the only sports writer and manage the sports department for a 7-day/week paper in south mississippi? This sucks. I'm not even the editor.

 

Thirteen schools and one writer? Are you serious?

 

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