University of Delaware Athletics
Sport Performance Receives Grant, Partners with STATSports
3/1/2022 1:44:00 PM | Delaware Athletics
NEWARK, Del. - The Delaware Athletics Sport Performance department has made strides to operate at the highest level in college athletics, and that includes being a game-changer when it comes to analytics and statistics.
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Delaware has been intentional when it comes to serving the student-athletes, getting and keeping them ready to perform at the elite level. A part of the process is to provide technology that will give the sport performance team assets needed to stay up-to-date with the latest trends to help minimize the occurrence of injuries while competing for conference championships.
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Through the College of Health Sciences, the Sport Performance department was a 2021 Unidel Foundation, Inc. grant recipient. The grant will help to fund its research on Reducing Injury and Improving Performance: The Impact of GPS Wearables and Force Plate Data (2021I).Â
"By leveraging the strong partnership between the College of Health Sciences and the Athletics Department, we can maximize the athletic performance of student-athletes by monitoring their physical load, reduce occurrences of injury, and improve our return-to-play procedures by analyzing data from GPS wearable devices in games and practice," said Dan Watson, Senior Associate AD, Sport Performance.Â
The grant will give undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to be engaged and operationalize translation research with first-hand experience of working with Blue Hen student-athletes.Â
"While other Universities have begun using this technology, none have integrated its data with force plate technology while providing student research and learning opportunities," Watson said. "Informed by years of collaboration, this partnership is uniquely positioned to become a global innovation leader in the burgeoning Sport Science space."
STATSports is an advanced wearable GPS technology tool, which captures game and practice metrics that include Total Distance, Max Speeds, High Speed Running, Intensity and Strain levels. This tool will be utilized by the Sport Performance team for conditioning, return-to-sport, practice, and game load management.Â
To continue its quest in supporting student-athletes at the highest level, the department has restructured its staff. Christina Rasnake was promoted Director of Sports Science and Analytics. Rasnake has played a critical role in leading Sports Science and Analytics work. This new role solidifies UD's commitment to the day-to-day functional integration with Sport Performance in which Rasnake will take the lead.
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"Having the opportunity to engage with powerful technology will assist the Sports Science and Analytics area with managing the student-athlete's load and volume at all sessions," said Rasnake. "The technology we have at UD provides high-level information that can be applied by making data-informed decisions by sport team coaches and support staff to attain an optimal level of performance in our student-athletes. The data is not our competitive advantage, our competitive advantage is how we utilize the data in our daily best practices of training."
Melanee Johnson, Paul Lowry, and Kelly Stafford have all been promoted to Associate Athletic Trainers. They will continue to work with their current sport teams while adding personnel supervision as well as oversight of facility and/or programming. Mikey Stant will move from 10 months to 12 months while maintaining his sport assignments. Â
Annie Stock, Christina Gotthold, and Megan Smith were all hired and added to the staff as Assistant Athletic Trainers. Messiah Polycarpe was hired as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Austin Mark has been hired as a full-time Assistant Performance Dietitian. With Mark's hire, Delaware becomes the first school in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) with two full-time dieticians in the athletics department.Â
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For more information on the Sport Performance department please click here.
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Delaware has been intentional when it comes to serving the student-athletes, getting and keeping them ready to perform at the elite level. A part of the process is to provide technology that will give the sport performance team assets needed to stay up-to-date with the latest trends to help minimize the occurrence of injuries while competing for conference championships.
Â
Through the College of Health Sciences, the Sport Performance department was a 2021 Unidel Foundation, Inc. grant recipient. The grant will help to fund its research on Reducing Injury and Improving Performance: The Impact of GPS Wearables and Force Plate Data (2021I).Â
"By leveraging the strong partnership between the College of Health Sciences and the Athletics Department, we can maximize the athletic performance of student-athletes by monitoring their physical load, reduce occurrences of injury, and improve our return-to-play procedures by analyzing data from GPS wearable devices in games and practice," said Dan Watson, Senior Associate AD, Sport Performance.Â
The grant will give undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to be engaged and operationalize translation research with first-hand experience of working with Blue Hen student-athletes.Â
"While other Universities have begun using this technology, none have integrated its data with force plate technology while providing student research and learning opportunities," Watson said. "Informed by years of collaboration, this partnership is uniquely positioned to become a global innovation leader in the burgeoning Sport Science space."
STATSports is an advanced wearable GPS technology tool, which captures game and practice metrics that include Total Distance, Max Speeds, High Speed Running, Intensity and Strain levels. This tool will be utilized by the Sport Performance team for conditioning, return-to-sport, practice, and game load management.Â
To continue its quest in supporting student-athletes at the highest level, the department has restructured its staff. Christina Rasnake was promoted Director of Sports Science and Analytics. Rasnake has played a critical role in leading Sports Science and Analytics work. This new role solidifies UD's commitment to the day-to-day functional integration with Sport Performance in which Rasnake will take the lead.
Â
"Having the opportunity to engage with powerful technology will assist the Sports Science and Analytics area with managing the student-athlete's load and volume at all sessions," said Rasnake. "The technology we have at UD provides high-level information that can be applied by making data-informed decisions by sport team coaches and support staff to attain an optimal level of performance in our student-athletes. The data is not our competitive advantage, our competitive advantage is how we utilize the data in our daily best practices of training."
Melanee Johnson, Paul Lowry, and Kelly Stafford have all been promoted to Associate Athletic Trainers. They will continue to work with their current sport teams while adding personnel supervision as well as oversight of facility and/or programming. Mikey Stant will move from 10 months to 12 months while maintaining his sport assignments. Â
Annie Stock, Christina Gotthold, and Megan Smith were all hired and added to the staff as Assistant Athletic Trainers. Messiah Polycarpe was hired as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Austin Mark has been hired as a full-time Assistant Performance Dietitian. With Mark's hire, Delaware becomes the first school in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) with two full-time dieticians in the athletics department.Â
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For more information on the Sport Performance department please click here.
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