Category Archives: Tech of Sports

From the shoes we wear on our feet to the high definition televisions in our living room, wearable devices, the sports universe is a breeding ground for technology. Writer and Photographer Rick Limpert will examine this each week on The Tech of Sports – With guests which include athletes, inventors and journalists that cover the intersection of sports and technology.

Jeehae Lee, Founder & CEO of Sportsbox.ai

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Jeehae Lee joins Rick this week.

Jeehae Lee is a former professional golfer on the LPGA Tour and an executive in the sports media entertainment industry. As the Founder & CEO of Sportsbox.ai, Jeehae is building products using 3D motion analysis technology that will transform the way people learn and improve skills in sports, starting with golf.

Prior to founding Sportsbox, she led strategy and new business development for various divisions at Topgolf, including Toptracer. Jeehae has a BA in Economics from Yale and an MBA from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

She won two Ivy League championships at Yale, earned her LPGA Tour card on her first try, served as Michelle Wie West’s business manager, earned an MBA from Wharton and led business development and growth for Topgolf’s Toptracer brand.

In late 2020, Lee left Topgolf to become CEO and co-founder of Sportsbox AI, a company that uses a single smartphone video to provide golfers with 3D motion capture data. The startup recently raised a $5.5 million seed round and attracted a host of world-renowned coaches as advisers and investors, including David Leadbetter, Sean Foley, Mike Adams and Terry Rowles. “Jeehae is incredibly impressive,” said Foley, an instructor who coaches Justin Rose.

Sports and technology are fields historically dominated by men. Though Lee acknowledged that she has benefited from the credibility of having been a pro athlete, she still recalled attending “so many meetings” at which she was the only woman and the only person under the age of 50. At Sportsbox, however, women make up half of the cap table, including Wie West, fellow LPGA Tour players Marina Alex and Mel Reid, and media entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg.

Great insight on Sportsbox.ai and more!

 

 

Clayton Trutor, Author, Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches

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Rick talks to Clayton Trutor this week.

He has a new basketball book.

Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams, and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches.

Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Gary Williams played no small role in the making of modern college basketball. Collectively, they’ve won more than 2,300 games and six national championships and reached thirteen Final Fours. All three have been enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams each spent more than two decades on the national stage, becoming celebrities in their own right as college basketball and March Madness became a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Before Pitino became the face of the Providence, Kentucky, and Louisville programs, before Calhoun turned UConn into a national power, and before Williams brought Maryland to its first national championship, all three of these coaches cut their teeth in front of modest-sized crowds in the crumbling college gymnasiums of Boston during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Boston Ball charts how this trio of coaches, seemingly out of nowhere, started a basketball revolution: Pitino at Boston University, Calhoun at Northeastern University, and Williams at Boston College. Toiling in relative obscurity, they ignited a renaissance of the “city game,” a style of play built on fast-breaking up-tempo offense, pressure defense, and board crashing. Part of a fraternity of great coaches—including Mike Jarvis, Kevin Mackey, and Tom Davis—they unknowingly invented Boston Ball, a simultaneously old and new path to the top of college basketball. Pitino, Calhoun, and Williams took advantage of the ample coaching opportunities in “America’s College Town” to craft their respective blueprints for building a winning program and turn their schools into regional powers, and these early coaching years served as their respective springboards to big-time college basketball.

Boston Ball is the story of how three ambitious young coaches learned their trade in the shadow of the dynastic Celtics, as well as the story of how the young players—in their recruitment, relationships, and basketball lives—made these teams into winners.

Clayton Trutor holds a PhD in U.S. history from Boston College and teaches at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. He writes about college football and basketball for SB Nation and is the author of Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta—and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports (Nebraska, 2022). Trutor is a regular contributor to the SABR Biography Project.

Eric Napoli, VP of Legal and Leader of the Tech & Innovation team at AirHelp

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The more we fly, the more we might need AirHelp.

AirHelp makes claiming compensation for delayed or canceled flights straightforward for all airline passengers who are unsure of their rights, or who lack the time or expertise to embark on the claims process themselves. AirHelp stands up to airlines in court, and campaigns for national governments to introduce fair air travel rights. AirHelp has helped countless passengers through its fight for compensation and justice from airlines.

Rick is joined by Eric Napoli of AirHelp.

Napoli is VP of Legal and Leader of the Tech & Innovation team at AirHelp, the world’s largest organization specializing in air passenger rights. Eric is also a professor at IE Business School, as well as Headspring, a joint venture between the Financial Times & IE University’s Business School. Prior to joining AirHelp, Eric worked at Amadeus IT group as their Senior Counsel, where he led a  global team of lawyers supporting Amadeus’ worldwide Airport IT, Rail, Innovation and Advertising business units. Eric lives in Madrid, Spain, where he has been based for over 20 years. Eric earned his J.D. from American University and his MBA from IE Business School.

Eric helps us learn our rights when flying.

 

Molly McCage, Athletes Unlimited Pro Volleyball

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Rick is joined by Molly McCage this week.

Molly is a All-American out of University of Texas Austin, three-time AVCA All-America Selection and currently getting ready for the Athletes Unlimited volleyball season. She is is a member of the Athletes Unlimited Volleyball Player Executive Committee and comes from a family of athletes. During her time at Texas, she majored in corporate communications. Beyond sports, she advocates for sustainable fashion and ethical shopping. Her personal interests encompass reading, cooking, and cherishing moments with her dog.

She talks with Rick from an appearance she did at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago as she learns about the sports collecting universe and more.

 

 

Danny Wuerffel, Former Heisman Trophy Winner, Host of 2nd Annual PickleBowl

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Pickleball is hot!

As the popularity of pickleball continues to surge, The Wuerffel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit focused on inspiring greater service and unity, today announced the 2nd Annual PickleBowl presented by Selkirk Sport will take place on Tuesday, September 19, at ITA Atlanta.

Heisman Trophy Winner, College Football Hall of Famer, former NFL quarterback and humanitarian, Danny Wuerffel — now also a passionate pickleball player — will once again serve as host of the charity event that will feature a line-up of professional pickleball players competing alongside celebrities, former athletes, musicians and entertainers.

Also serving as tournament host at the inaugural PickleBowl in 2022, Wuerffel teamed up with pickleball pro Kyle Yates, representing the University of Florida, to capture the very first title. This year the duo will look to defend their title as the charitable event pairs professional pickleball players with celebrities representing their alma maters for ultimate bragging rights.

With the Major League Pickleball Atlanta event on September 21-24, a group of Pro Pickleball players and owners will also participate in the PickleBowl this year. In total, there are expected to be 24 teams competing for the 2023 title.

Wuerffel will be joined by Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry; American Idol Winner Phillip Phillips; Director/Producer Doug Ellin, Pro Beach Volleyball player Casey Patterson, and NFL Alumni & Analysts including David Pollack, Marcellus Wiley, Eric Decker and Danny Kannell among other celebrities, as they compete alongside a strong line-up of the most accomplished professional pickleball players in the world, including Yates, Parris Todd, Collin Johns, JW and Jorja Johnson, Megan Fudge, Ryler DeHeart, and more.

The beneficiary of the 2023 PickleBowl Presented by Selkirk Sport is The Wuerffel Foundation, which has a mission to inspire greater service and unity in communities. A renowned humanitarian, Danny Wuerffel counsels and mentors community leaders in under-resourced neighborhoods across the United States and helps facilitate introductions to philanthropically-minded supporters. The Wuerffel Foundation also annually presents the Wuerffel Trophy, College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service.

Selkirk Sport, a family-owned business based in Hayden, Idaho, is at the forefront of pickleball’s surge in popularity because of its product innovation, market leadership, philanthropic initiatives, Selkirk TV, professional tour sponsorship and elite line-up of brand ambassadors.

 

Scott Deans, BeONE Sports Founder and CEO

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Rick talks to Scott Deans of BeONE Sports this week.

BeONE Sports – developers of a platform where accomplished athletes’ movements are digitized into a phone app with the goal of creating a training paradigm for athletes to learn – today announced the first-of-its-kind collaboration with Mass St. Collective and the University of Kansas to bring a Collegiate NIL NASCAR car to the upcoming NASCAR race on September 9 at Kansas Speedway.

The collaboration also includes JD Motorsports, eleven (11) University of Kansas student-athletes being featured on the race car, and Mass St. Collective – the KU NIL Collective founded in 2021 to help Jayhawk student-athletes build their personal brand and benefit from their name, image and likeness.

“Our goal at Mass St. Collective is to find new and unique instances where we can grow the brand of our KU student-athletes in new and meaningful ways through name, image and likeness.” says Dan Beckler, President of Mass St. Collective. “To partner with BeOne Sports and have 11 Jayhawks on a NASCAR is something that has never been done before, and it’s an exciting way to bring NIL and college athletes to the racing industry. Brand loyalty is the best among NASCAR fans, and we hope this car only adds to that. What makes this even more special is to debut the car in our home state at Kansas Speedway.”

Additionally, BeONE Sports is developing technology to level the racetrack. With the technology available from BeONE Sports, JD Motorsports hopes to become more competitive with the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ top teams and is exploring a variety of applications using comparative training within the team.

“We believe athletes are everywhere, and we are very excited to bring new and interesting NIL opportunities to student-athletes. The KU NIL NASCAR is a great example of collaboration and driving innovation…literally,” says Scott Deans, BeONE Sports Founder and CEO.

BeONE Sports will be on location in Kansas from September 7th-9th. They will be kicking off their collaboration with athletes from the Kansas Chiefs on September 7th, working with University of Kansas athletes on campus on September 8th, and at the NASCAR race on September 9th. For more information, visit beonesports.com.

BeONE Sports has developed cutting-edge, sports training technology based on body mechanics within any sport. They’ve invented “Comparative Training,” where accomplished athletes’ movements are digitized into the technology, creating a catalog of learning potential. Using their patent-pending AI on a mobile device, young athletes around the world can train with their heroes! Athletes, coaches and parents receive immediate feedback on technique and body-position improvements, and BeONE Sports is revolutionizing the use of NIL where athletes and coaches earn income while training the next generation. For more information, visit www.beonesports.com