In recent years, high school sports scores and statistics have become increasingly widespread. Websites such as NJ.com and MaxPreps have provided athletes with the ability to access their own personal stats along with team scores, standings and even information about their opponents. However, in recent weeks, High School statistics have become more accessible through a new instagram account: NJ Record Book.
NJ Record Book is a collection of instagram accounts created to provide a statewide scoreboard and daily updates on statistical leaders. These accounts cover all high school sports, with a different account dedicated for each sport. However, some of these accounts are combined for the purpose of improved organization, such as a combined baseball and softball account.
The NJ Record Book account offers a significant amount of insight into statewide rankings, team performances, and standings across different counties. This can be extremely beneficial for high school athletes who want to stay informed and want to stay informed about the teams in their league,as well as teams on their upcoming schedule. Another huge benefit to the NJ Record Book is its stat feature and performance highlights. For Example, on the baseball and softball account, Example, on the baseball and softball account, a few players such as the starting pitcher and a key offensive player are highlighted for each team. This is an amazing feature for friends,family and supporters to easily keep track of how athletes perform on any given day.tAdditionally, the reach of the NJ Record Book is extended even to those who are not on the instagram platform. To go along with its account, it also includes a website which lists seasonal stat leaders from the entire state as well as daily leaders and team rankings. What I have found particularly useful about this website is that unlike other comparable websites,the entirety of the site is free to use.
However, despite the immediate benefits of the NJ Record Book, access to stats has definite consequences. The most imminent of these is a dependence on stats. Obsession with one’s own personal statistics has become more and more of a problem for youth athletes in recent years with their increased accessibility. When stats are even more easy to view like they are in this account, athletes have begun to develop a new priority of their own personal success rather than the success of the team, which should be the top priority in high school sports.
Overall, despite several potential drawbacks of the incredible accessibility which it has to offer, the creation of the NJ Record Book for High School sports gives student athletes statewide a more integrated and connected High School Sports experience.
