Diamond 9/SportsBoard Partnership Extends Softball’s Measurement Initiative to the East Coast

New Jersey-based Diamond 9, which produces many elite club softball events including the well-known and well-attended Sun Classics (Winter, Summer and Fall) held at the Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla., has announced its series of 18 showcase and exposure clinics for 2015-16.

All of these events will include SportsBoard’s player assessment technology, allowing what Diamond 9 President Kevin O’Donnell says will be three significant upgrades to help college coaches recruit prospects more effectively.

O’Donnell, who also runs the nationally competitive Jersey Intensity program that has 14 teams ranging from 10U to 18U says: “The first upgrade will be for the showcase tournaments, where we’ll use SportsBoard for the college coaches so they can go paperless with rosters and schedules as well as bring in video so clips of players can be dropped into the recruiting database and shared.”

“The second big opportunity,” O’Donnell continues, “is at Skill Camps and Combines, where we’ll have on average 150 to 250 players per event. Coaches will be able to do voice-over video-based recruiting assessments and evaluations which are delivered to each athlete’s Player Locker.”

“The third element,” he states, “ties into former UCLA coach Sue Enquist’s vision of collecting objective measurement at events. This collaborative effort involves the NFCA standards task force identifying the measurables and communicating them to the softball community. Now parents, players and coaches will have player benchmarks throughout the country, and players will know where they stand in comparison to their peers–and even college players.”

“We’ll have a leaderboard at events so athletes can see how their results compare to other players in all the tested categories. Then, after the event, they can go home and see how they compare to athletes all over the country based on the scores in the national leaderboard.”

“For example a shortstop can see what a Div. I shortstop does in terms of bat and foot speed and compare herself to a player at the level she wants to play at. A young club or high school shortstop might be in the 57th percentile from a measurement standpoint in an area such as bat speed and know that’s where she’ll need to improve.”

O’Donnell says the exciting aspect of this is that it can be implemented within club organizations of all sizes.

“Coaches can have three teams or 30, and all the players can be tested and see where they stand in relationship to their age group,” he said. “Then, they can identify areas requiring further development/improvement to help their athletes make it to the next level.”

College teams were tested in various drills this spring at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, Calif. to give a baseline of how Div. I athletes perform in athletic and skill tests. O’Donnell says more college players will be tested including at his Citrus College Classic in February of next year.

In the meantime, Diamond 9 will produce events this summer and fall in five states—Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas and Virginia—where athletes can get their data measured, recorded and distributed through SportsBoard at all D9 events.

“We feel Gregg Jacobs, CEO/Founder of SportsBoard, is the right person with the right technology to make this happen and it just came to be two months ago,” O’Donnell continues. “This has to be scalable and consistent, but we feel this is the next step in the development and advancement of performance data in softball.”

The first event where Diamond 9’s expertise in producing events integrates SportsBoard’s digital technology will be the June 4^th National Skills Sun Classic Exposure Clinic in Orlando, Fla.

“We are thrilled to partner with Diamond 9,” states Jacobs. “Their commitment to SportsBoard and offering the college coaches AND athletes the most comprehensive digital recruiting experience is so exciting to for us to be a part of.”

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Below is the complete list of 2015-16 Diamond 9 events that will implement SportsBoard:

2015 Event Schedule

• June 4 – National Skills Sun Classic Exposure Clinic (Orlando, Fla.)
• June 5-7   Sun Classic Showcase Tournaments (Orlando, Fla.)
• June 10 – National Skills Top Gun Exposure Clinic (Kansas City, Mo.)
• July 7-8 – National Skills Bluegrass Exposure Clinic (Elizabethtown, Ky.)
• July 21 – National Skills Houston Exposure Clinic (Houston, Texas)
• Aug 11 – National Skills Virginia Exposure Clinic (Loudon, Va.)
• Sept. 13 – National Skills Head of the Class Clinic (Loudon, Va.)
• Oct. 29 – National Skills Sun Classic Fall Exposure Clinic (Orlando, Fla.)
• Oct 30 – Sun Classic Fall Showcase Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• Nov. 5 – National Skills Inspiration Exposure Clinic (Orlando, Fla.)
• Nov. 6-8 – The Inspiration Showcase Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)

2016 Event Schedule

• Jan. 15 – Sun Classic Winter Showcase Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• Feb. 13 – Orange Blossom College Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• Feb. 19 – Citrus Classic College Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• Feb. 26 – Citrus Classic II College Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• Mar. 11 – Spring Break College Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)
• June 2 – National Skills Sun Classic Exposure Clinic (Orlando, Fla.)
• June 3 – Sun Classic Showcase Tournament (Orlando, Fla.)

For more information on Diamond 9 events, go to: www.d9events.com.  To learn about SportsBoard and its digital technology solutions, go to: www.SportsBoard-Win.com.