Football team purchases drone

The+new+drone+the+football+team+uses+to+film+practices

Kati Blaylock

The new drone the football team uses to film practices

Its a bird, its a plane, wait- it is a drone! Head football coach Chris Jaax purchased a drone for the team after attending various clinics in Texas and recognizing the benefits of the flying technology.

“We have a situation where our practice facilities rotate. Sometimes we are at Fisher Field, sometimes were at the grass fields. When we are at the grass fields, to film practice we either had to use a really terrible film stand, which was putting a person four feet off the ground,” Jaax said. “Or we had to set up our end-zone camera, which for the end zone camera, it takes like 30-45 minutes to set up and to get that done before practice started was really difficult.”

In order to purchase the drone, the team had to have the funds for it. They held multiple fundraisers, including hosting a barbeque and having card sale. Jaax said that this was the best year the team had fundraised and because of the sales they made, they were able to purchase the drone. However, after comparing prices, they found out that the drone they wanted only had a 24 minute battery life.

“Every 24 minutes we have to change the battery, which also meant we had to buy extra batteries which unfortunately were not cheap, so you’re going to miss some of practice because the drone has to land and have the battery changed and take off again,” Jaax said.

Along with getting a drone, the team also has to find someone who is qualified to fly the drone and film.

“I sent out an email and a lot of students responded to it. I just talked to kids about their experience or that I knew wouldn’t crash the drone so we asked them to help out. It is not just flying the drone, it’s a big time commitment because we practice all the time so it’s a pretty big sacrifice to be a filmer and we found people that we knew would be reliable,” Jaax said.

Each morning, the team meets to watch themselves from the view of the drone and to see what they need to change and improve on.

“The drone does two things, one it allows us to practice anywhere and be able to film it anywhere and the second thing is that it gives us the best angle which is we can see the whole field, we can see it above and behind,” Jaax said.