From identifying where players are most efficient at shooting from in basketball to determining the best plays on the football field, reports created by interns give Blue Hen athletes a competitive advantage.
“I’m very excited to see our students simultaneously learning and supporting our UD student-athletes to improve performance,” Heintzelman said. “It will be fun to observe improved performance on the court and on the field and be able to attribute some of that to the analysis that our students are learning and doing.”
Rasnake emphasizes that joining the well-established internship with the theoretical courses on performance analytics through the major is something that not many universities can boast.
“There’s no other program out there that’s doing what we’re doing,” Rasnake said. “They might have an analytics major, they might have some interns, they might have performance technology, but they don’t have it all working seamlessly together.”
The uniqueness of the new major can also assist with finding jobs or getting into graduate school after graduation.
“In the past, the internship program has allowed interns to secure real time jobs after graduation or go on to new education paths through advanced degrees such as master’s degrees or MBAs,” Rasnake said.
Careers in sports performance analytics can range from analysts for professional sports teams to working at wearable tech companies, creating tools and wearables to track athlete performance. Some even pursue advanced degrees in data science, sports management or in business.
According to Rasnake, no matter where the students end up in their careers, this new major will change the face of sports analytics.
“It’s going to be game changing, and when I say game changing, it’s going to change the way students work with metrics coming from athletes, as well as really build on top of what we’re already doing and advance our program as a whole.”
Learn more about UD’s new sports performance analytics major.