Sports fanatics believe that a sports match revolves around a player’s will and desire to win a game, not statistics. However, in the Sports Analytics club, it’s all about the numbers. The club analyzes a game’s statistics and film to help anticipate what will occur in future games and break down the errors from previous ones.

The club meets every Thursday after school in room 412 where club President and junior Noah Gold help students research different topics. Gold described it as, “a fun and engaging club for sports fans at Wilson who are interested in the stats and numbers.”

The club reviews a multitude of topics, including a project where they developed a claim to try and induct Wilson alumni Emmanuel Burriss into the College Baseball Hall of Fame. They have also recorded stats at a Wilson girls soccer game, watched NBA and Wilson basketball film, and created complex computer algorithms to make more accurate predictions.

Members have also had the pleasure to feed off of the advice and experience from numerous speakers such as American University professor in sports management Matt Winkler and Dr. John Seelke from Maryland University’s mathematics department.

Gold started the sports analytics club with Instructional Coach Thompson because, “it is something that [he is] very interested in and possibly want to pursue as a career.” His goal is to engage kids who are interested in sports and statistics.

While Gold believes the club’s first year was a success, he’s learned a lot that he wants to incorporate next year. Gold plans to organize more field trips and guest speakers as well as work with one of Wilson’s sports teams to collect and analyze their stats and data, and then communicate the analysis to give them a competitive advantage throughout their season.

The club has been recognized on a national level, where they attended the national sports analytics program. Gold says this can “open the door for cool field trips and guest speakers for next year.”