It’s extremely rare to find a football coach who has NOT played football during some period of his life. For most, it was junior high and high school. Many were lucky enough to play at the collegiate level, and for a fortunate few, the professional level. Every coach has memories from back in the day of their coach holding up a 3-ring binder, stuffed full of plays, making sure the team had the best scout look possible each and every week. Little was known about the extensive amount of time and effort that went into preparing these scout cards, and how much, or little, coaches liked running scout teams. Now, as coaches, there is a definitive appreciation for the intense energy that goes into preparing scout cards for players. Whether at the high school level, where the HC or DC is usually the one prepping the cards, or the collegiate and professional levels where assistants take care of this task, scout cards are a must; somebody on the staff is in charge of getting them ready. Consider yourself blessed if you are on a staff where this task is shared amongst several coaches!

In 2006, Jason Kazar, a defensive GA at Bethel College (KS), was the guy in charge of drawing all the cards for the week and assembling them into multiple 3-ring binders using the clear vinyl sleeves. Back in 2006, digital systems were just getting started, so most scout cards were hand drawn using “the black permanent marker;” unless you were on a staff where a copied version of…well, we don’t want to get anyone in trouble. Suffice it to say, many of you reading this can relate. Through his coaching career at large high schools and small colleges, Kazar was constantly in pursuit of improving the scout card process. With every new evolution in the tech industry, Kazar saw opportunities to help himself and other coaches become more efficient and effective, allowing them to spend less time “in the office” and more time with their families. After years of constant work and development, Kazar has finally merged traditional hand drawn scout cards with the efficiency of technology into a coach pad to create, The Coachpad!

The Coachpad is a unique product that provides the capabilities and capacity of a tablet with the look and feel of traditional paper. Kazar says, “Flexibility is critical. we all know there are some great digital drawing programs coaches can choose from, but there is always the need to draw on the fly. The Coachpad is versatile because coaches can load their digital scout cards, draw plays by hand, and even annotate any of the cards they have loaded.” Easily integrating with a computer via USB or wireless connection, The Coachpad even has the ability to connect directly to cloud platforms like Dropbox, GDrive, and the native cloud service. The ability to display multiple templates, drawing on top of cards, erasing mistakes on the fly, and storing an entire season of cards in a single repository is fantastic, but if you can’t see it on the field in direct sunlight, it doesn’t do much good. That’s why The Coachpad uses specialized technology to retain the look, feel, and functionality of paper. While other tablets are subject to glare or have screens that just aren’t bright enough to see outside, The Coachpad excels in every lighting environment. “Using The Coachpad,” says Kazar, “coaches can have all their cards ready to go for practice in seconds, and then show them to the players without worrying about visibility issues. Personally, I won’t get prepared for scout teams like I did in the past ever again. Creating this device has allowed me to save time and be more efficient as a coach; I spend more time on important tasks, not stuffing a binder!”

In early 2020, Kazar and The Coachpad team decided to partner with Sideline Power, to scale up dissemination of The Coachpad in a national marketplace. Sideline Power works diligently to find and bring cutting edge technology to the football industry and The Coachpad is definitely cutting edge. Since partnering up with Sideline Power coaches from all over the country and from middle schools to the NFL have purchased The Coachpad to utilize for their programs. With COVID coming just months after unveiling at the AFCA in January of 2020 sharing at clinics was curtailed a little so zooms sessions became a staple for the rest of the year. Schools who utilized The Coachpad in the fall of 2020 got to experience exactly what Jason designed The Coachpad to do, provide a much better experience when it came to preparing and using scout cards week in and week out. With probably 80% of our users drawing scout cards in Hudl Practice Scripts they were now able to load those on The Coachpad in seconds instead of sitting there stuffing a binder of clear vinyl sleeves before practice. Coaches also commented about how they no longer had to carry 2-4 binders out to practice, the folders they were able to set up on the device allowed coaches to easily access inside, 7on7, team, or even all three facets of scout cards all on the same device. From Mexico and the southern tips of Texas to the northern plains of the Dakotas reaching as far north as Alaska coaches are utilizing The Coachpad on a daily basis. Jason posts pictures on his twitter account @thecoachpad so coaches from all over can see how crisp and clear scout cards are on The Coachpad. Jason really enjoys hearing from coaches who have tried other tablets but who were always frustrated at not being able to see them outdoors on the practice field. Now with The Coachpad in hand players who are in the back of the huddle or yards away can easily see scout cards or plays written out like never before.

If you are ready to help yourself and your staff experience the next level in scout card technology and coaching efficiency, Sideline Power is ready to get The Coachpad in your hands and #PoweredUP!