In the ever-evolving basketball world, technology hasn’t kept up at every level. Until now. GameChanger, a free scorekeeping app available on the App Store, allows coaches, players and fans the ability to follow live scores and updates for their favorite amateur and high school teams.
During games, an assistant records where shots have been taken, who made an assist, who grabbed a rebound. Every play can be put into the app with the tap of a finger. After the game, the app instantly records player and team stats, and feeds them into season totals.
Fans get access to their team’s schedule, live scores, stats, play-by-play and game highlights. Big plays and game start times get sent directly to fans as alerts. The app also generates a game recap that can be shared on Facebook and through email.
Legendary Mater Dei High School head coach Gary McKnight says, “GameChanger has been a great tool for our fans to follow our season.” With 117 fans on GameChanger, the Monarchs are the second most popular basketball team in California as of May 1, 2014.
Wellington Smith, head of GameChanger’s Basketball Marketing, says the app’s stats aren’t just for players and coaches. “Parents and fans deserve instant gratification about the team or player they are following online on their custom GameChanger team page,” Smith says, also mentioning that fans have access to stats from previous seasons.
The real game-changer, though, is for players and coaches. Amateur athletes have incredibly easy access to official and thorough stats in a way that has never existed. St. Paul’s School, in Concord, New Hampshire, uses the app. Head coach Grant Edwards says, “Perhaps most importantly, the players on our team have devoured the information gathered via GameChanger, as it has allowed them to better understand where, when, and how they can be more effective on the floor.”
GameChanger offers the traditional box score, shotcharts, individual and team totals, individual and team averages and shooting percentages. Effective field goal percentage, true shooting percentage, assist-to-turnover ratio and how many times players’ field goal attempts have gotten blocked are the advanced metrics available. The advanced metrics are calculated by the app right away.
James Puliatte, head coach of Fort Lee High School in Fort Lee, New Jersey says, “I always take the iPad or iPhone into the locker room at halftime to review the information with our team to devise our second half strategy. No other app really lets me do this.”
GameChanger is the official scorekeeping partner for the ABA. The Nike EYBL uses the app to track stats. Perennial basketball powerhouse Mater Dei also uses GameChanger to keep their numbers.
The ABA’s West Michigan Lake Hawks says GameChanger has really improved their team in many ways. Lake Hawks’ head coach Ron Jenkins says, “[The players] are able to see a visual of what they are doing each game.” The app, Jenkins says, allowed him more time to focus on other parts of the game, because GameChanger does so much.
Teams have flocked to GameChanger because of how easy it is to use and how well it performs. In the brand’s two years of keeping basketball stats, nearly 85,000 squads have registered.
Cody Toppert, head coach of Elev8 Sports Institute in Florida, uses the app in-game for “the plethora of informative statistics.”
“GameChanger is so easy to use, an assistant coach can follow and track the information, providing real time statistical information, without impacting his ability to coach,” Toppert says. “As a result, going into timeouts we can reference this information and make in-game adjustments based upon the data.”
GameChanger is free to download in the App Store. For $7.99 per month or $39.99 for the year, users can get Premium Fan Access. The premium includes live game stream, game replay, in-game alerts, season stats and the app-generated recap stories. Paying for the app is not mandatory. Schedules and results, live scores, team announcement alerts and game highlights can be accessed for free. GameChanger is available for iPhone and iPad only.
