For Idaho women’s basketball player Alyssa Charlston, a senior, playing attire is more than just a number. Jersey numbers represent players more easily than names, but when Charlston chose the number what would represent her through her college athletic career, she chose from the heart.
“I chose 33, because my brother wore it in high school and I’ve always looked up to him as a mentor,” she said. “He’s my role model.”
Charlston learned at a young age to ignore statistics and play her hardest, but for other athletes numbers are inevitable. Idaho’s swimming and diving team records each swimmer’s stroke weight, maximum heart rate per stroke, distance rate and training speeds.
“We cannot escape the clock,” said Mark Sowa, Idaho swimming and diving coach. “Numbers really for us are everything. Everything we do is timed.”
Sowa said swimming is based on interval training, which consists of work-to-rest ratios. Coaches pay close attention to different energy systems to help swimmers train. Statistics are recorded in time, distance and tempo. Swimmers measure efficiency by tracking each athlete’s heart beats and how many strokes are taken per distance.
“From a technical standpoint, we look at stroke mechanics,” Sowa said. “So if you go say, a 25-yard swim, and you take seven strokes and it takes you 13 seconds to go seven strokes. If eventually it takes six strokes to go that same amount of speed, you’ve improved your efficiency. We try to eliminate variables.”
In the past, the team used a system on 3SCoach.com called the Super Sports System. Sowa said it’s called parametric training and is made possible by algorithms. The system incorporates speed endurance training by increasing the number of repetitions per set.
“Like I said, everything we do is based off numbers,” Sowa said.
Idaho swimmer Rachel Millet, a junior, said the way she uses numbers differs from other sports, because percentages aren’t used in swimming statistics. Each swimmer receives a time for an individual race and uses times throughout the season to track advances.
“We use our times as the main foundation for our improvement,” Millet said.
While swimmers depend on the clock individually, soccer players rely on improving team performance. In the midst of a game, numbers are irrelevant for freshman Idaho soccer player Alyssa Pease.
Soccer players track shots on goal, goals and forwards. Pease said statistics are not of high importance, because a team can easily have low stats and play well.
“It shows how well someone did in that certain game, but really you can’t base it off of anything more than that,” Pease said.
Idaho soccer coach Derek Pittman said the only equation in soccer is when effort equals opportunity to succeed.
“(Statistics) only tell part of the story when you’re looking at a game. In our game it’s very interesting how a team can dominate statistically but still lose,” Pittman said.
Pittman said a team with a high number of possessions could theoretically have the
ball for 60 percent of the time, yet not make any goals.
“That is the ultimate statistic, you just don’t see that in other sports,” Pittman said.
In contrast, Idaho women’s basketball assistant coach, Kristi Zeller, uses statistics when making strategic decisions about Vandal defense. Basketball teams chart field goals attempted, field goals made, 3-point shots attempted and made, free throws attempted and made, rebounds, steals, assists and turnovers. From a coaching standpoint, Zeller utilizes statistics to track percentages and leading scorers.
“Our whole game is based on statistics, it gives us a game plan basically,” Zeller said. “We can look and see things we need to improve on statistically and then we’ll get in the gym and work on improving it. Most of the time it improves.”
Idaho men’s basketball player Connor Hill, a junior, said the numbers are of less importance.
“You might not have great stats that game, but you may have played an overall good game to help your team win,” Hill said. “It really doesn’t mean that much to me.”
Idaho men’s basketball coach Don Verlin said statistics mean everything. Basketball practices and games are charted to evaluate the team’s performance.
“The guy who shoots the best percentages, he’s your best shooter and I’m going to find a way to get him shots,” Verlin said.
As for playing at the next level, all athletes agreed statistics contribute a great deal to advancement. In football, numbers are often used as a recruitment method.
Idaho football coach Paul Petrino said the statistics coaches use are not typically understood by the public. The Vandal football team uses a program called DVD Sports to track percentages either by down and distance or by personnel groups.
“It gives you tendencies of the opponents. If you make sure your players understand it, then that gives you a great advantage,” Petrino said. “The number one most important thing is winning or losing, but statistics do play a role. A good team doesn’t often have bad statistics.”
Though numbers may not impact an athlete’s performance, they are always of use for tracking goals and improvement. One number has meaning to each and every athlete, the number that represents them while swimming, shooting goals, making hoops or scoring touchdowns.
“We don’t remember names,” Charlston said. “We remember numbers, our numbers represent us.”
Written by Arianna Anchustegui