How Microsoft 365 excelled my American football team to back-to-back northern championships

As a tech enthusiast who’s been immersed in the digital world for years, I can wholeheartedly relate to this individual’s journey. It’s fascinating how technology has become an integral part of our daily lives, and even more so when it comes to something as dynamic as coaching a youth soccer team.

Among my greatest interests lie in both technology and American football. Whenever opportunity knocks, I strive to intertwine these two passions. Throughout the years, I’ve leveraged diverse technologies to strengthen my American football team, Nottingham Caesars U19.

Over the years, I’ve taken shelter from the rain while watching practices on the sidelines, with an Acer Enduro rugged tablet as my companion. From a distant office, I control pole-mounted cameras to capture these practice sessions, including filming the Great Britain Men’s team – a role in which I’m also part of the staff. Furthermore, I’ve utilized ChatGPT to develop a gym plan that has significantly influenced our fitness strategies. However, through it all, Microsoft 365 has been a reliable technological ally of mine.

Nottingham Caesars U19

How Microsoft 365 excelled my American football team to back-to-back northern championships

This article delves primarily into the technology aspects of how I utilize Microsoft apps and services to aid my team. However, since some readers might be unaware that American football is played in local UK areas like Nottingham, it’s beneficial to provide a brief introduction about the Nottingham Caesars before diving deep into the tech details.

The Nottingham Caesars U19 is an American football team situated in Nottingham, England. We compete in a league that caters to players aged between 16 and 19, with the upper limit being determined by their birthdate. More precisely, we participate in Division 1, which represents the highest level of play within our age bracket.

Six years ago, I took on the role as head coach for Nottingham Caesars U19. Due to the global pandemic, our first season was delayed, making it five seasons since then. After some time spent rebuilding, the team found its groove and in 2022, we ranked #5 in the UK. In 2023 and 2024, we won back-to-back northern championships and made appearances in two consecutive national finals, positioning us as the runner-up for two years straight.

Frankly speaking, I prioritize the growth of players and coaches as individuals over the outcome of games, since these experiences often hold deeper, less measurable significance. That said, let me share some concrete achievements our team has made:

2024 Northern champion
2024 National finalist
2024 Youth Coach of the Year (I technically won this award, but I view it as a team accomplishment)
2023 Northern champion
2023 National finalist
2023 U19 Club of the Year
10 Great Britain U19 Players
1 Great Britain Men’s Player
1 NFL Academy player
3 British university scholars
17-4-1 record over 3 years
60+ university players since 2018

Yesterday marked the end of our season, allowing me, an ardent fan, to reminisce about this past year, compare it with earlier seasons, and start compiling my personal highlight reels.

Microsoft Excel

How Microsoft 365 excelled my American football team to back-to-back northern championships

In everyday language, you could say: “I rely heavily on Microsoft Excel when managing my American football team. It serves as a tool for regular tasks like monitoring finances, which many people are familiar with due to its association with finance spreadsheets. However, let me elaborate on some less-common ways I utilize Excel.”

Our team has had more than 50 players this season, with over ten individuals contributing in coaching or supporting roles. Unlike many U.S. teams, we don’t have ties to a specific school or larger organization (except for our adult team). This gives us a wider geographical reach. Our season extends across crucial examination periods like GCSEs, A-Levels, and university exams – significant milestones in the UK education system that shape where students can study, their field of study, and potential career paths.

The cloud-synced spreadsheets and other digital documents are transformed into tangible player experiences that can be enjoyed by coaches, relatives, and peers in reality.

Caesars U19 and other American football teams based in the UK grapple with managing numerous conflicting schedules due to logistical challenges. While this is common for any youth team, they lack some advantages of a school-based setup, such as synchronizing practice times and academic events to minimize student stress. For instance, at my university, specific days were set aside without lectures or seminars to facilitate student athletes participating in games without compromising their academic performance.

To keep things organized, I utilize an attendance tracker for our team. This tool helps me identify which players have consistently attended sessions prior to a game. The lineups are then formed based on this information. It’s not about disciplining players who have missed practice, as important exams can significantly impact a career. Rather, it’s about understanding who has been present to learn new strategies, hone specific skills, and who has been accessible for team preparation.

Earlier this year, I showed you my method of monitoring attendance using Excel. This tool, though currently undergoing testing, has been an indispensable resource for our team.

Microsoft Forms

Managing such a large team, with many members, requires careful organization. I find it essential to obtain signed photo release forms from parents or guardians and frequently seek input from multiple individuals. To help me keep things in order, I utilize Microsoft Forms as one of my tools for handling important data and documents. The versatility of incorporating various media types in polls and surveys is incredibly helpful. As we move into our off-season program, we’re prepared to distribute several playbook quizzes that were crafted using Microsoft Forms.

Additionally, I employ Forms for gathering votes for our yearly accolades, which is quite a task due to the size of our team. With more than 50 players on board, a division championship, a playoff victory, and a journey to the national final, there are numerous noteworthy plays and moments that require recognition. Forms streamline the nomination and voting procedure.

OneDrive

Instead of storing all the team photos and game videos solely on Qwikcut, I ensure their safety by uploading them onto OneDrive as well. This way, I can keep high-resolution copies while having an additional backup in the cloud. Furthermore, I also save archived footage onto a hard drive for storage purposes.

One of the biggest advantages of OneDrive is I can create folders for simple sharing. Parents, players, coaches, and friends of the team can drop images into folders after games, which is especially useful given we’re an amateur team and players all want a million photos to post on Instagram. Obviously, there are several cloud storage solutions with the same functionality, but I happen to use OneDrive, and it’s been rock solid for years. Also, since I keep our piece on the best Microsoft 365 prices up-to-date, I can stack up on a subscription at a good rate.

OneDrive functions as the foundation for several Microsoft services I employ. Excel files synchronize through OneDrive, allowing me to modify workout plans and spreadsheets on any device. Additionally, Clipchamp works seamlessly with OneDrive content, simplifying my video editing tasks.

Clipchamp

On numerous computers worldwide, you’ll find the user-friendly video editor known as Clipchamp already installed. Although it may not possess the same level of power as Adobe Premiere Pro or Da Vinci Resolve, its ease of use is undeniable. Clipchamp boasts a straightforward design and several features that make learning and creation more accessible.

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I primarily create the Caesars U19 highlight videos using Clipchamp as my main tool. However, on occasion, I need to switch to a more robust app like Da Vinci Resolve for specific tasks, such as player tracking. Nevertheless, Clipchamp has been invaluable for our team, reducing my workload significantly. The user-friendly templates and intuitive interface make it simple to customize videos. I must commend the Clipchamp team for being responsive to feedback, continually improving the app over time. Although there isn’t an Android version yet (Microsoft, are you listening?), the software has shown considerable progress in many essential aspects.

No Microsoft Teams

As a analyst focusing on Caesars U19 communication, I previously used Microsoft Teams given my extensive reliance on Microsoft services. However, my team switched to WhatsApp communities a few years back due to changes in the free tier of Microsoft Teams. While Teams offers robust features, we’re an amateur team with limited resources that prioritize spending on equipment, field bookings, and transportation. Upgrading to a paid version of Teams is not feasible for us, and I found that the current free version did not meet our needs effectively.

Merging the virtual and the physical

On various occasions, my time with Caesars U19 has seemed unreal. As one might anticipate, the sensation when a team secures two northern championships is intense and profound. In all honesty, there are instances where it seems almost too good to be true. The heartwarming anecdotes from players and alumni about how belonging to this team readied them for university, careers, and parenthood evoke deep feelings as well.

As an analyst, I’ve had moments of profound reflection, such as when I pondered about the responsibility I held for organizing a 14-hour journey to Scotland, ensuring the safe and timely travel of over 40 individuals. Yet, a recurring idea has surfaced in my thoughts throughout the years – the fusion of the tangible and the intangible, or simply put, the merging of the physical and digital worlds.

Every evening prior to a game, I create an Excel file called a “wrist coach sheet.” This document contains plays selected by my offensive coordinator, coaches, and players after analyzing videos we’ve watched online. Later, I print these sheets, laminate them, and cut them to the right size. These physical tools prove crucial for our offense during the game. Using these resources, our offense runs plays and creates impressive moments that we later upload to the cloud, initiating a continuous loop (it should be noted that the defense and special teams unit also generate their own highlights, using distinct tools in their process).

It seems quite unruly to me. These cloud-synced spreadsheets and various digital documents effectively convey real-life interactions among players, trainers, relatives, and acquaintances.

2024-09-02 18:10