At the 2012 Fall Sports Jamboree, I was approached by the assistant coaches for the Varsity Girls Basketball team about keeping statistics for the team. Word had gotten out that I had taken accurate stats for the football team the previous year and it had opened doors to other sports.

My main motivation for keeping statistics started when I became interested in the communications aspect of college athletics. In order to pursue my interest in a student communications position in college I knew I would have to get experienced in taking stats and strengthen my writing skills giving me advantages over other people wanting to interview for the same position.

In November I took the position of statistician for the girls basketball team, and I was told it was mandatory that I attend practice on a daily basis. At first I only wanted to go to games, keep player stats, report them to the coaches and go home. But attending every practice was an eye-opening experience.

I was not only keeping specific player stats like turnovers, rebounds, and assists, I was also recording where shots were taken from and whether or not a play was being run correctly. The biggest change from keeping football stats is that for basketball I had my own specific sheet to chart possessions, where as in football I did specific player stats.

This season the coaching staff wanted to time possessions to get a shot attempted every twenty seconds, and as a result of shooting every twenty seconds the players would  attempt fifty five shots a game.

At games I sit on the bench equipped with my own specific sheet and a timer, every new possession I start the stopwatch and run off twenty seconds and depending on the result of the possession I mark a tally under sub categories of “Under 20 seconds” or “Over 20 seconds.” These tallies get added up at the end of each quarter, halftime, and at the end of the game.

During timeouts or at halftime, the coaches will ask how the possessions are looking, and depending on the response I give, they address the team with what they to do in order to pick up the the pace and make their goal of  55 shot attempts, or maintain the constant  pace.

The experience of recording stats for multiple sports has allowed me build my resume as a senior in high school, and will assist me in the future to be better experienced working in the athletic department at the University of Kansas next fall.