Looks like our local high school football team just got a major upgrade on the sidelines.

When you watch a football game nowadays, whether that be in the NFL or College. You will notice players on the sidelines watching tablets. For those that don't know, this is used to look over the previous plays just ran on the field by those players. Every NFL team and the vast majority of colleges use these systems every week. Looks like they're coming to Wichita Falls.

GameStrat Announces Their Technology Coming to Wichita Falls

GameStrat provides instant video replay for football, hockey, and lacrosse teams across the country. One of their latest additions is for our very own Memorial Mavericks. Basically a camera or cameras will be set up throughout the stadium and coaches/players can use an iPad to go through the previous plays that just ran in a matter of seconds.

How Much Does This Cost?

I reached out to Memorial Mavericks Coach Bindel for a statement, but he has not gotten back to me. According to the GameStrat website, if you use one press box camera it costs $1175 for the season. If you decide to add a second camera in the endzone, the price increases to $1975 for the season. Also, it looks like this service is locked into a three year contract, so the Mavericks will be using this through at least 2027. 

What About the Legacy Leopards?

GameStrat has not released any announcement for Legacy High School and I reached out to Coach Davis over there for a statement as well and have not heard anything back. We will wait and see if Legacy also gets this technology. I called the athletic department with the WFISD to see why only Memorial had this technology, they were completely unaware this was happening at Memorial. So the WFISD is not paying for this new service.

Challenges Not Coming to Memorial Mavericks Sidelines

I know some people are thinking, could this be used to challenge a bad call on the field? It cannot. This can only be used to look over plays for the players and coaches benefit on an upcoming drive. Video footage cannot be used to overturn a play. Texas UIL rules state challenges do not happen in games until the state championship games. So don't expect red flags coming to Memorial Stadium this season.