Center Grove High School Dives In With Daktronics Video Boards

Center Grove High School in White River Township, Indiana, near Indianapolis, has found a way to help students shine – a beautiful new aquatic center, or natatorium, featuring a 5.9mm 12 x 40 video scoreboard and a 2.5mm 15 x 9 records board. This new aquatic center will add value to students and the school overall, and their video boards are a big part of that.

Here, Kevin Trammell discusses all the surprising ways they use their video boards from Daktronics.

The boards will be used for much more than a simple scoreboard/timer. We have already used the board once for a 12 and under meet and it worked fabulously. We were able to display many of the athletes’ full names as well as club affiliation. We did not have that ability in the past. Center Grove had only been using the pool for one week before we pulled that meet together so since that time, we have had time to really add to our capabilities and uses of both our primary video board and the records board.  

I coach both Senior swimmers and Age group swimmers and I have been using a GoPro to video some of my swimmers’ strokes underwater from multiple angles. Then it only takes me about one minute to dump that footage onto the laptop, create a script button and display that video on a 40-foot screen. I have done this for some of our college alumni down to a 10-year-old, and the look of awe is the same!

This has been one of the best training tools for stroke analysis I think I have ever used! The quality is so good my athletes can see exactly what they are doing underwater and are simply excited to see themselves on that giant screen. If there are other swimmers in the water, they will inadvertently stop their practice to watch the video of the stroke analysis as well. I am quite certain this was not the intent of the scoreboard, but it has proven to be a fantastic tool to grab athletes’ attention and I get constant requests to have some underwater video stroke analysis. 

Since our first meet, I have created another scoreboard for dual meets that pulls RTD for the Omnisport to update and display the meet score. In addition, it will display the school mascots. This can be used for High School or college meets. The template can also easily be modified for a Tri Meet or Double Dual. 

The large video board has also been adapted for club practice to be multi-functional. 
We are using it to address the needs of the ongoing swim practice, swimmers waiting for their practice to start and the parents in the stands.

The board is partitioned into at least three distinct sections for each:

• One block will be dedicated to a pace clock and at times specific practice notes for whichever team is practicing at that time. 
• A second partition is used to display information for parents that may have missed the myriad of emails, Facebook posts and other communications that our Communication Chair sends out. I often use flashing text on important items that require some action on the part of parents. Contact names and numbers are also included so if anyone has any questions, they immediately know who to contact without having to look any further than the big board right in front of them. 
• The third section is reserved for those swimmers waiting or finishing their practice. It shows motivational slides from USA Swimming and swimming training videos to get them ready to practice hard and strong.  

The Records Board

The records board is at an ideal viewing angle for parents and swimmers at the end of the pool. The content echoes some of the same information, as well as photos of coaches and club board members so parents know who they are emailing and calling when they have a question. 
The records board is being used as an extension of the video scoreboard and as a supplemental content delivery board. For example, when we play the National Anthem, the American Flag is keyed to display on both screens. The same with certain scripts such as ‘Great Finish’, ‘Great Dive’ and ‘New Record.’ 

But the records board will also be providing supplemental content such existing high school and middle school records. I have also taken the additional step of including the photos of the current record holders. 

As an added bonus, we will use the records board to highlight sponsors without taking up too much real estate on the primary video board during a competition. We have also used it for quick messages like, ‘Who is missing an Apple Watch? See Coach Sam.” 

Why choose Daktronics?

Daktronics is the industry leader, and no one compares to the quality of the equipment. More importantly, the customer support is where Daktronics shines. I have worked with multiple Daktronics systems for years.