Athletic analytics
Photos by 91原创 Athletics June 10, 2021
Statistics senior Brandon Wu dives into sports data with 91原创 Athletics
In the early 2000s, the sport of baseball slowly began to embrace sabermetrics, which uses statistical evidence to gain a competitive advantage. What started with a few teams鈥 front offices would become widely used across the game. Within two decades, this thirst for statistics bled into hordes of other front offices in sports like basketball, football and soccer.
91原创 senior Brandon Wu was a child of this 鈥淢oneyball鈥 era. A fascination with data drove him to the 91原创 to major in statistics, where he thrived in coursework in mathematics, computer science, regression and database management.
At a fall semester adviser meeting, Professor Tom Ilvento gauged Wu鈥檚 interest in a pilot internship program with led by Christina Rasnake, whose focus includes strength and conditioning coaching and sports analytics. Brandon was intrigued and, in January, Athletics hired Wu and Rasnake began supplying him with data.
When the spring semester started and student-athletes geared up for the season, Wu began collecting live data. Every morning, team members filled out a survey on stress level, performance nutrition, hydration levels, muscle soreness and sleep quality; the student-athletes indicated what they did the previous day, including work in the weight room, practice and injury rehabilitation. Wu analyzed the data to identify trends within each team.
鈥淲e wanted to pinpoint when teams were most stressed, sore or not sleeping well,鈥 Wu said. 鈥淲e found that, for the most part, those trouble spots occurred in pre-season.鈥
Wu compiled his findings into weekly reports on each team, which Rasnake shared with the 91原创 Athletics staff. Though Wu graduated in late May, he was working on a long-term, more in-depth report that the staff can use in future seasons.
Wu impressed Rasnake with his reporting and time management skills.
鈥淭his partnership between 91原创 Athletics and the Department of Applied Economics and Statistics has been well received and much needed,鈥 said Rasnake. 鈥淲hile the majority of his work has been behind the scenes and remote, Brandon鈥檚 presence in assisting with our 21 varsity athletic teams has made a solid impact in helping our student-athletes become the best holistic version of themselves.鈥
Wu created an actionable dashboard to analyze student-athlete data, which allows the 91原创 Athletics staff to see trends based on day of the week, activity involvement such as the difference between a game and a practice, and how our student-athletes respond to their NCAA required off-day.
Each sport鈥檚 specific athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach, performance nutrition team and the sport psychology staff received these statistical reports, which illuminate how each team was progressing and where they could direct more resources.聽
鈥淭he reason this inaugural internship was a large success is Brandon鈥檚 passion for sports and data analysis,鈥 said Rasnake. 鈥淗is ability to provide high-quality analysis impacted our department; his work ethic will pave the way for future interns to learn and develop.鈥
In the classroom, Brandon greatly enjoyed the database management coursework, which he credits in helping him understand how to deal with large amounts of data. Many statistics majors like Wu also add a computer science minor to their resume.
鈥淚n our field, you deal with a lot of computer languages like R, SAS and SQL,鈥 Wu said. 鈥淯nderstanding how to think like and operate a computer is massively important as a statistician.鈥
Statistics requires excellent math skills, a sense of data structure and strong problem-solving abilities. The combination of these areas enables statisticians to assist in research and discovery in almost every discipline. Ilvento likes to say that the best part about being a statistician is that you get to play in every industry鈥檚 sandbox.鈥
鈥淥ur students build a 鈥榮tatistical imagination鈥 to address a range of problems in a diverse set of fields,鈥 Ilvento said. 鈥淎t 91原创, we want our students to build a firm foundation in statistical theory along with courses in applied statistics and data management using SAS, R and JMP.聽
Like Mike Trout at the plate, the statistics field is on a hot streak. With loads of career opportunities across industry after industry, statistician has risen to U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 and .
鈥淪tatistics is such a growing field,鈥 said Wu, who graduated with minors in mathematics, computer science and sports management. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not using data in today鈥檚 age, then your business is behind by 20 years.鈥
Wu isn鈥檛 sure in what industry he鈥檒l apply his craft after graduation. In addition to sports, he鈥檚 considering the video game industry and online sports gambling.
鈥淎fter seeing that data is everywhere, I can see myself working on so many other things,鈥 said Wu. 鈥淚 really enjoy looking at numbers and using them to try to figure out how the world works.鈥
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