A diving catch into the endzone, a successful charge through the crowd and a jarring tackle, all to the beat of heart-pumping music. Players on the boys varsity football team create highlight videos for multiple purposes, such as maintaining memories from their season, showing off their skills and attracting college interest.
The athletes make the videos using a website called Hudl. Once footage is uploaded to the website, athletes can pick out clips, organize their highlights into a video and add music.
Senior Daniel Bedjanov said he made his first video this school year in order to be able to reflect on the season.
“I made it to look back at the positives that I had with my season and to show everybody what I had,” he said. “We had a bad season, but there were also positives that could come out of it. I just wanted to show what I brought to the table and how I helped the team out and contributed.”
Senior Dashawn Richardson said that his primary intention in making the highlight videos was to get recruited to play football in college. He said that a number of schools have reached out to him and that he has communicated with about 15 schools over the past two years.
Hudl provides a profile with the player’s information (including height, weight, positions, bench press, dash and squat), which colleges can view in addition to the videos.
“The coaches praised [my video] and were very happy and excited with what they saw,” Richardson said. “They gave me feedback on how I could get better and improve my game.”
Richardson said he wants to choose the school that takes the most interest in his skill set, which is currently Western New England University, although he has not yet committed to a school.
Bedjanov said he is unsure whether he will send his video to schools, as he has not yet decided whether he wants to commit to football in college. However, he does think that highlight videos are effective for college recruiting.
“Hudl is very popular,” he said. “A lot of college people know it. It’s basically just your gateway into recruiting because it’s published all over the Internet.”
Senior Alex Jaynes created a highlight video for several reasons: “to have memories from the year once I’m done with the football season, to show coaches from colleges and to help other players, underclassmen, by watching me play and seeing what they can do better in order to play well.”
Jaynes sent his video to a couple of colleges and has heard back from one. He was going to continue communications with the college, but decided to join the Marines first. He said that afterward, he will reach out to colleges that contacted him this year and will try to speak to them about playing for them.
Jaynes agreed that making a highlight video can increase a student’s chances of being recruited.
“For Brookline High, we’re not on the map, so no scouts are going to come over,” Jaynes said. “So by making a highlight tape, you can send it to other coaches, and instead of just taking your word for it that you’re good, they can actually see what you’ve done and how you’ve played.”
For Dashawn Richardson’s highlight video, click here.
For Daniel Bedjanov’s highlight video, click here.
Alex Johnson can be contacted at [email protected].
