Last Saturday, I attended the Second Annual National High School Sports Analytics Summit with one question burning in the back of my mind: what can I learn from this that I can apply to my own life? After attending the conference and speaking to a student organizer I can confidently say I found the answer to my question, and a lot more with it.
Doing the Little Things – Shane Battier
The first speaker of the conference, two-time NBA champion Shane Battier, shared his unique journey as one of the league’s most underrated, yet valuable players. Playing with the likes of Lebron James and Dwayne Wade, while matching up against basketball legends such as Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, Battier talked about how he used analytics to fill a role that played into the success of his teams. When discussing his impact on teams he played with, Battier exclaimed, “I have never been on Sports Center because I was a hustler and ran back on defense. But you know what? That simple play, running back on defense, just by showing effort, takes away the most dangerous play in basketball, the fast break.” Battier’s talk about the little things that can impact the game in a big way really opened my eyes to the importance of statistics within the game. Battier’s message is applicable to other sports as well, because no matter the sport there are always additional things that may not necessarily be shown in the box score, but they still are vital to individual and team success.
Following Your Passion – Michael Lewis
Another marquee speaker for the event was Micheal Lewis, New York Times Bestseller and author of “Liar’s Poker,” “MoneyBall,” and many more well known books. Michael Lewis dove deep into his journey as a writer, and how he found his passion for what he did. While Lewis did not entirely focus on the topic of sports analytics during his talk, his life advice for aspiring students was inspirational and moving.
“It was really cool to meet him,” said sophomore and NHSSAA contributor Ginny Choe. “He’s so chill and a really nice guy to talk to. We took a picture with him afterwards and he signed my copy of Moneyball.” Ginny interviewed Michael Lewis at the event and has also contributed heavily to their first conference last year. On top of her commitment to the association she rows three seasons at her The Winsor School, really epitomizing the combination of hard work and the pursuit of extracurricular interests. One of her questions to Michael Lewis about his best advice to the younger generation stood out to me in the interview in terms of its applicability to myself, and also students of any age. After considering the question, Lewis stated, “my best advice would be to step back from your life and enjoy it. You have a lot more room for error than you think. People think if you screw up once your life is ruined but that’s just not true at all. Find new things and don’t be afraid to fail.” Lewis grew up not knowing he would be a writer until after college, it came to him more as a passion for learning and sharing ideas with the world, proving that oftentimes if you focus on your interests, interesting opportunities will come your way.
Student presentations
Throughout the conference multiple high school students from around the country shared individual projects that they had conducted within the realm of sports analytics. Students talked about building the ideal NBA lineup; optimizing pickleball performance; and even optimizing long jumping. Each presentation showcased a specific niche from a sport, and incorporated sports analytics into it to craft an answer to their question. A particular presentation that stuck out to me was the one about optimizing the long jump with Arya Shah. She flew all the way from Texas to present her findings and built a machine learning algorithm to act as a personal training coach of sorts for long jump. Her software was very complex and hard to explain as a result but seeing the fruits of her labor was very impressive and inspiring. “I think it was amazing that she was able to come and represent women in STEM and women in sports as well,” added Ginny Choe. Women in STEM is still an underrepresented but growing aspect of the field and by representing the female STEM community, Arya shared a second message about unity and equal opportunity on International Women’s Day.
Takeaways
Obviously Sports Analytics is not the only field the message of this article applies too. If I learned anything from the conference, it is the importance of following your interests and challenging yourself every day. The world is full of great resources, and unlimited opportunities, it’s just a matter of finding them and using them to your advantage.
