[swootton]

Hey Team 88,
I don't know if you've seen our scouting process at any of the New England event but we didn't do much real scouting up till we went to districts. The first year we made a concerted effort was 2014. We had 2 3" binders and had several teams joke about it. Last year at champs we were not picked and one of our local teams, 2836 BETA, had no scouting data and needed help. We meet with them for 2+ hours on Friday night and came up with a plan for them. As the morning progressed we revised our selections for them right up to the last match based upon current ranking and anticipated picks. They to be assured our info was correct and had two other teams that had "electronic" data sit in and they found our information was not only the same as the other two teams but we had more of it and valid reason to pick or not to pick certain teams.

RAW data and the process of compiling the numbers and using just that information does not always give you the best results. We have two students that want to develop an app to use for scouting. Our scouting captain and the drivers don't want to give up all the valuable notes on each and every scouting sheet. It is also way easier to spot a trend or an anomaly looking at the paper sheets. The electronic versions can be prone to errors and you can't easily filter out one badly scouted match. It becomes obvious when looking at each paper. One prominent NE team that uses electronic scouting has our team as scoring 2 high goals at the Hartford district event this year and we no longer had a high goal shooter. I asked about it and was told it happens sometimes. They had no way to back track and find out where that erroneous data came from.

We are planning on doing a scouting seminar at CT University day this year at CCSU. It will be based on our scouting experience and how well we have been able to use it. Many CT teams have told us we have some of the best scouting information in our area. It is surprising how many teams either do not scout or don't take it seriously. It is one of the most important things the team can do to support the drivers and strategy team to be successful. My scouting captain was asked for contact information last year as CCSU and no one from your team ever contacted her. We would be more than willing to help you refine your process to make it more efficient.