Qualyn Barlow
St. George, Utah
General Studies
Leadership Track
My project was helping the SUU Football team with their film of practice, games, and opponent film. My job was to edit and cut together film into a format that allowed the coaches and players to learn from the film they watched. The practice film was usually in the correct format, so I was in charge of making sure there were no blemishes and then share the film with the players and coaches. The game film was put into the program as one whole film so I needed to go through and cut each play out and then put it all back together so that only the plays were part of the film. Opponent film was given to use is five-minute clips that had to be cut and put together in the same format as the game film. After each piece of film was completed, I would share the film with the coaches and players for their own use.
My project went from fall camp 2015 to the end of the 2015 season. During fall camp, I would only be responsible for practices and any game footage that was acquired by other teams for learning purposes. One game film was from the Oregon offense. SUU was using a similar style and wanted input from a bigger school that had been running that offense. During the season, I would receive one SUU game and at least one opponent game to edit and complete. As the season went on, I would receive more opponent games because the teams we played against at the end of the season would have more games to edit then at the beginning of the season.
The reason I chose this project was at the time of thinking about what to do, my career path was going to be a college football coach. I had interned with the team running music for them during practice and got the opportunity to help them with film. I have loved football since I was little and being around the game and eventually becoming a coach was what I wanted to do. Since I was already in a position to help the team, I decided to make a project out of the experience and make it even more fulfilling then just helping the team out. I wanted as much exposure to the coaches as I could so that I could learn from them and start the foundation of what I wanted to become as a coach.
The most challenging part of my project was right at the beginning. I was planning on doing some actual filming of practices and games as my original project but I ran into some problems and could not attend the practices during fall camp. Since my goal was to add and build upon my leadership skills by helping the team with film, I was able to modify my project to only include the editing and sharing part of my original plan. I extended the time table of my project to include the entire season and that became my finished project. At first, I thought that this challenge was going to be too much and I thought I would maybe have to fall on my backup plan. However, I was able to really think about what I wanted to accomplish in this project and come up with the solution I needed to finish and learn from the project.
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NEWSLETTER
The biggest benefactor of my project would be the players that were playing at the time. Film study is a vital part of progressing yourself. Players can’t always remember what happened during a game and so from studying the film they remember what they did and how they can improve. Through my project, I was able to give the players a tool to improve themselves and as a team. They were also able to scout the teams they were about to play. You can learn a lot about what individual players do during certain situations. When the team would watch the opponent’s film, they could catch on to these tendencies and prepare for those situations beforehand. Learning what your opponent might do during games and learning about yourself are excellent ways to improve and become better.
My project taught me a lot about perseverance, change, and communication in the work place. I had to persevere when I ran into my challenges, change my plans, and use excellent communication when working with players and coaches. I didn’t always communicate with the players but I did work a lot with coaches. They always had a vision of what they wanted and I had to make sure they had those tools for their visions. The biggest thing I learned through my project was that I didn’t want to continue to pursue a career as a football coach. I didn’t want that much time away from my family. Even though I absolutely love the game of football and love coaching it, I didn’t want to put that much stress on myself or the members of my family. I will continue to love the game of football and immerse myself in the game when I can but through my project I know that that career is not for me.