COMMERCE — “Number?”
Matt Patton, East Jackson High School’s strength and conditioning coach, asks members of the varsity team this as they enter the field for practice.
He’s not referring to their jersey numbers, but rather the number taped onto the front of a device coaches have been using to track the players’ speeds this season.
“Ten,” senior outside linebacker Aaron Blackmon responds through heavy breaths after making the short run from the locker room. He’s in a hurry to make it on the field and warm up before the strict 3:30 p.m. practice start time.
Patton picks up the corresponding device and straps it into the back of Blackmon’s Catapult GPS vest.
The devices collect data that East Jackson coaches use to customize training and treatment to improve their players’ speed. College and pro teams nationwide, including the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Falcons, are using the devices also.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” East Jackson head football coach Cameron Pettus said. “But you can definitely see the correlation because everybody just runs so much better.”
The Eagles play Friday at Prince Avenue Christian, one of their toughest region opponents. At 4-4 overall and 1-2 in Region 8-2A, they’re hoping to make the playoffs after falling short last year.
The East Jackson football coaches began using Catapult speed-tracking technology and data, along with enhanced speed training, last season. Since then, they have seen a significant increase in the team’s overall speed.
“I mean, you’re going to be limited to your genetics and obviously some other things out there,” Pettus said. “But we can definitely enhance what you have.”
This season, the average top speed of the varsity team has been up to 17.91 mph, and 11 players have hit the 20 mph mark.
Patton, also the football associate head coach and wrestling head coach, became East Jackson’s strength and conditioning coach after last season. He has since become an expert in analyzing the Catapult data. Patton uses the data to decide which speed-training exercises the team will do each day. He also determines what each athlete needs to do in the weight room and in treatment.
“We know where the players are physically each day and we know where we want them to be each day,” Patton said, “which helps us get our players to peak at the right time.”
Every day after practice, Patton downloads the data from the devices to the Catapult website and makes a list of who should receive soft-tissue and deep-tissue treatment to be at their best for Friday’s game.
“By Friday, our legs are regenerated and we’re running fast,” Patton said.
Patton also keeps a speed board in the East Jackson football facility, which is updated every week with each athlete’s top speed and the team’s overall speed. Each week Patton calculates who had the highest total speed for the week and prints a photo of them to post on the speed board.
He also calculates all the players who hit 19-mph-plus and 20-mph-plus during the previous Friday’s game. He enters the data into a graphic and posts the results to East Jackson Football’s X account, announcing the week’s “King of Speed.”
“Not only is this a tool where we can sit here and measure it, but we can also celebrate them,” Patton said.
East Jackson added 10 new Catapult devices to the team this year. Now with 20 devices, most of the team’s starters and “high-mileage players” are able to participate.
Junior safety Deston Mitchell is regularly on the “King of Speed” chart and has been crowned as the fastest member of the Eagles squad twice so far this season, topping 20 mph both times.
“I used to be not so fast, I would say,” Mitchell said. “Like normal, moderate speed. But I’ve gotten a lot faster ever since I started using Coach Patton’s stuff.”
Drew Richardson, starting quarterback and the fastest member of the East Jackson team, usually sits atop the “King of Speed” graph.
“It pushes everybody,” Blackmon said. “I see Drew, he wins every week, and it just pushes me to want to win.”
Blackmon reached a season-best speed of 21.3 mph in East Jackson’s game against East Hall on Sept. 20.
Catapult is also a helpful tool in the recruiting process. The data collected from the Catapult devices is sent to over 250 colleges and universities. East Jackson has been in the top five of high schools in Georgia for speed multiple times this year, according to Patton.
“When I first got here we might have had three kids that ran under a five(-second) 40 and now we’ve got over 20,” said Pettus, who took over as head coach in 2019. “I think (our strength and conditioning program) is one of the best in the state of Georgia, I really do.”
From initially using bean bags for speed training to analyzing position-specific data on Catapult, Pettus and his speed training have continued to evolve.
“I think we just created a really cool culture around speed and being the fastest they can be,” Pettus said.
Brigette Ramirez is a student in the University of Georgia’s undergraduate Sports Media Certificate program.
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