“I love (stats), they are important to me, and I will always use them,” said David Brown, Eagles Head Coach of the No. 1 ranked NJCAA volleyball team in the nation.
In every sport there are statistics and you can find one for any quantifiable action found in any sport. Passes thrown in football, shots attempted in basketball and pitches thrown in baseball are all examples of stats.
They can be used as a reference to see how an athlete performs while also being a way to determine how an athlete could perform in the future.
Stats are being implemented more than ever in sports right now, and the teams at Kirkwood Community College are no exception. Each head coach at the college applies statistics to their coaching.
The 29-2 Kirkwood volleyball team’s gameplay is reliant on statistics. “Whoever is hitting the best in the system is going to play, whoever is passing the highest is going to play,” said Brown. “If I didn’t have stats, then I would probably be coaching more off emotion and bias, and I don’t do that.”
Stats are the most important factor of gameplanning for Brown, and he ranks them as a top three factor of coaching. “In my mind they are an inescapable part of the game, and I really like them,” he said.
In a sport like baseball where there are millions of possible outcomes that can occur in a single game, statistics still find a way to be applicable.
The baseball coaching staff uses statistics the most while game planning. If gathered over a long period of time. and from a large sample size the tendencies of the opposing players makes game planning more efficient.
“We are trying to get as much information to help our players succeed,” said Kirkwood athletic director and baseball head coach Todd Rima.
“I don’t think it’s the end all. I don’t think it’s everything, but it can play into a plan. If we get caught up in stats and that’s all (players) worry about, then it will affect stats in a negative way,” Rima added.
“Stats don’t lie,” said reigning national champion men’s basketball head coach Tim Sandquist. “Stats can tell us who we need to be shooting more or less. Stats can tell players what areas of their game they need to work on.”
While what matters most on the basketball court is the game itself, Sandquist noted that he uses statistics as he sees fit.
The use of stats assisted in the Eagles men’s basketball program winning its fourth national championship during the 2024-2025 season.
However, in some sports the usage of statistics is not as prominent.
Golf, for example, has external variables such as weather, different courses and ball placement that prevent stats from being beneficial due to the uncertainty.
Eagles golf head coach Darin Pint said he prioritizes his athletes to be instinctual on the course instead of thinking analytically.
“Players have to be instinctual on the course. You have to learn how to be a shot maker rather than going off of statistics,” he said.
Categories: Baseball, Basketball, Golf, Sports, Volleyball
