Alpha Anywhere Helps Junior and University Hockey Get in the Analytics Game

About Brock University Men's Hockey Team

The Brock Badgers are a university hockey team in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada co-led by Assistant Coach Gary Miotto.

Situation

Alpha Anywhere surpasses all other RAD platforms for building simple yet robust apps."

- Gary Miotto, Assistant Coach of the Brock Badgers University Men's Hockey Team

Sports analytics are crucial to understanding opponents' strengths and weaknesses, and fine tuning game-day strategy. While professional athletic teams use high-end analytics technology, university sports teams typically record game stats on paper or with basic computing tools. This was the case for the Brock Badgers, which were using an Excel spreadsheet to track in-game statistics, such as each players' shots, the positions they were in at the time of scoring, and more. Assistant Coach Gary Miotto wanted to create an app that would let him automate this process so he could measure in-game action and player performance from the desktop, web, or mobile device. He also wanted to slice and dice the data into custom reports that he could review with his coaching staff after each game to help shape strategy for the next match up. The app had to be simple to use in between the lightning-fast plays on the ice. And with no programming experience, Miotto needed a platform that let him build the professional "moneyball for hockey" app of his dreams without coding.

Solution

Miotto took a shot at using Alpha Anywhere to build his comprehensive hockey analytics app. Over a period of a few years, coaching with travel youth hockey teams, a Junior team, and a university hockey team, he had created a world-class app customized to his exacting requirements. Using Alpha's myriad RAD components, wizards, and "coding optional" technology, he rapidly and visually designed the database, forms, and business logic; and then connected that design to mobile, cloud, and desktop user experiences—all with no past programming experience. He also manually integrated the app with Corel Draw to add additional tools for designing reports. Miotto was confident his finished app, the likes of which was never before seen in a university hockey league, had the potential to become a secret strategic weapon for building his team's success.

Benefits

Miotto is now using his app to easily track, store, and analyze the data most critical to increasing his team's competitiveness. The app's customization lets Miotto record high-level to granular statistics, such as which players scored from what positions, where the goalie was at the time of scoring, and over 24 other competitive stats. The app's simple UX lets Miotto record all this action as it happens, without missing a beat in coaching his team. Post game, Miotto distills the analytics into a dozen custom reports which he dresses up in Corel Draw, prints on huge sheets of paper, and hangs in the locker room for the coaching staff and players to review and analyze. With accurate data in front of them—data no other team in the league has access to—the coaching staff has the precision insights they need to make better decisions about game-day strategy and player development. Miotto's app has become a coach favorite, and is now an integral part of the staff's secret sauce to support players' growth and the team's winning record. The app is so well-tuned for capturing and analyzing sports analytics that Miotto is now working to bring his app to the NHL level.