Keep up the good work!
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0413sportstechside0413.html
Traeger loves game and his job
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2006 12:00 AM
With a chuckle, Chad Traeger bluntly described the accident nine years ago that left him confined to a wheelchair.
"I was riding a dirt bike in the desert for the first time," he said. "I sucked at it."
The accident left him a quadriplegic with only partial use of one arm, but paralyzed only in the medical sense of the word. advertisement
"I just had the ninth anniversary," he said. "I remember I was listening to Arizona play North Carolina (in the 1997 Final Four). They always tease me that the first thing I asked after they air-evac'ed me to the hospital was whether UofA won or not."
Not that he's a big Arizona fan. He's just a basketball fan.
And that led him to a career with Synergy Sports Technology, the Web-based basketball data/video/scouting system developed by former Suns video coordinator Garrick Barr.
Traeger, 31, started out "logging" NBA games for Barr's company, which takes video feeds of NBA games, breaks the video down into "edits" or clips and puts them into a data base where they can be accessed in real time based on the game, type of play, and so on.
Now, Traeger not only logs the games, he trains and coordinates the team of 35 loggers.
"You have a Phase One logger, who basically is cutting up video clips, and then a Phase Two logger will look at each clip and assign strings, such as the player, the play type and so on," he said.
Traeger works from his Gilbert home using voice recognition software and a track ball he can operate with one arm to run his computer.
"I have a pretty good setup here," he said. "When I got hurt, I didn't even know how to turn on a computer. I had to get my 10-year-old brother to do it for me. But I learned a lot using the voice soft wear and just picked it up."
That led him to ArizonaSportsFan.com, a message board developed by Jim Skane primarily for Cardinals fans in the beginning. Traeger became a board moderator for Skane and provided the site's NBA power rankings as it expanded.
"One of the guys I was working with there told me about Garrick's company and said they were looking for loggers," Traeger said. "I jumped at it right away. Don't tell Garrick, but I'd do this job just to tell people about it. I love it.' "
And he doesn't suck at it.
"He's been great," Barr said. "He's really a great guy, and he's a big part of what we do here."
"It's been so good for me," Traeger said. "I've learned so much about basketball and had so much fun. The funny thing is, I probably know less about what's going on in the NBA because I'm so busy with this. But I know more about the game.
"I've never been one to get too bummed about what happened, but at the same time, the last year has absolutely flown by. I feel really good about what I'm doing, and it works out perfectly for me."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0413sportstechside0413.html
Traeger loves game and his job
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2006 12:00 AM
With a chuckle, Chad Traeger bluntly described the accident nine years ago that left him confined to a wheelchair.
"I was riding a dirt bike in the desert for the first time," he said. "I sucked at it."
The accident left him a quadriplegic with only partial use of one arm, but paralyzed only in the medical sense of the word. advertisement
"I just had the ninth anniversary," he said. "I remember I was listening to Arizona play North Carolina (in the 1997 Final Four). They always tease me that the first thing I asked after they air-evac'ed me to the hospital was whether UofA won or not."
Not that he's a big Arizona fan. He's just a basketball fan.
And that led him to a career with Synergy Sports Technology, the Web-based basketball data/video/scouting system developed by former Suns video coordinator Garrick Barr.
Traeger, 31, started out "logging" NBA games for Barr's company, which takes video feeds of NBA games, breaks the video down into "edits" or clips and puts them into a data base where they can be accessed in real time based on the game, type of play, and so on.
Now, Traeger not only logs the games, he trains and coordinates the team of 35 loggers.
"You have a Phase One logger, who basically is cutting up video clips, and then a Phase Two logger will look at each clip and assign strings, such as the player, the play type and so on," he said.
Traeger works from his Gilbert home using voice recognition software and a track ball he can operate with one arm to run his computer.
"I have a pretty good setup here," he said. "When I got hurt, I didn't even know how to turn on a computer. I had to get my 10-year-old brother to do it for me. But I learned a lot using the voice soft wear and just picked it up."
That led him to ArizonaSportsFan.com, a message board developed by Jim Skane primarily for Cardinals fans in the beginning. Traeger became a board moderator for Skane and provided the site's NBA power rankings as it expanded.
"One of the guys I was working with there told me about Garrick's company and said they were looking for loggers," Traeger said. "I jumped at it right away. Don't tell Garrick, but I'd do this job just to tell people about it. I love it.' "
And he doesn't suck at it.
"He's been great," Barr said. "He's really a great guy, and he's a big part of what we do here."
"It's been so good for me," Traeger said. "I've learned so much about basketball and had so much fun. The funny thing is, I probably know less about what's going on in the NBA because I'm so busy with this. But I know more about the game.
"I've never been one to get too bummed about what happened, but at the same time, the last year has absolutely flown by. I feel really good about what I'm doing, and it works out perfectly for me."
