SkyCoach’s reliable replay system plays key role for Calvary Baptist during state championship run

The 2023 season ended with Calvary Baptist hoisting the trophy after beating St. Charles Catholic, 34-28, in the LHSAA Division III select state championship game at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It was the school’s fourth title overall—2013, 2014, 2020, 2023.

And SkyCoach has been on the journey with the Cavaliers every step of the way.

Calvary Baptist has been a customer since the early days of SkyCoach in 2013 and the partnership continues to grow. Currently, Calvary uses two angles on the SkyCoach replay system: a tight and wide shot, but this fall will be adding a third angle using a drone in the end zone.

“We’ve never used another company,” said Clint Hortman, a former coach and current video analyst for Calvary Baptist. “They’ve tried to get us to switch but SkyCoach is a local company. It’s a half a mile from my campus. If I need something fixed or a piece of equipment goes down, I can do that. The Hudl horror stories are pretty bad. Hudl will not work in the SuperDome. SkyCoach will.”

Calvary Baptist head coach Rodney Guin said: “It’s a tremendous value that you can coach during the game. You can show the kids their mistakes on the sideline or things we need to change during the flow of the game instead of waiting until halftime or the following week. The ability to fix things on the spot is huge for us. And it helps re-establish what the coaches are showing them. Sometimes you can tell them they’re making a mistake but without seeing it they really don’t know what they’re doing. It puts a lot more credibility when we can show them the replay as opposed to just telling them; kind of like a proving point that the coaches are telling the right things.”

“You don’t have to wait until Monday afternoon film sessions. You can show them right there what they did wrong on a play.”

Calvary Baptist QB Abram Wardell

During last year’s state championship game, Calvary made a second-half push to overtake the Comets within the final minute of the game, and SkyCoach played a key role.

“We won the game with 18 seconds left on the clock,” Hortman explained. “Our defense, thanks to watching SkyCoach, got in a different alignment and we were able to use our linebacker to stop them behind the line of scrimmage a half yard short. We were able to see the coverages they were running throughout the game watching the replay. Our quarterback comes to the sideline, gets an iPad and he studies what the defense is doing. Because we knew what they were going to do, we were able to drive 55 yards and score the winning touchdown with 18 seconds on the clock. We went 14-0 last year and dare I say that I don’t think we would have gone 14-0 if not for SkyCoach. You can make adjustments in the game you can’t always see with your eyes, but the camera can see it.”

That quarterback Hortman mentioned is Abram Wardell, who threw for 3,883 yards and 45 touchdowns during his junior year in 2023.

Wardell is looking at the SkyCoach iPad after every single series, he said. Whether it ended with a touchdown, interception or 4th down. He’s constantly looking at the defensive coverages, what the safety is doing and watching where the blitz may be coming from, he said.

“In our state championship game we played St. Charles, and of course they’re a very good team. They sent a lot of pressure from different areas so having the SkyCoach replay to look at really helped in seeing what they were trying to do,” the 2025 quarterback said. “It’s just reassuring because some of it is what I thought, but also on the back side that I couldn’t see or missed. I think it’s incredibly beneficial to help see on the field. I can get a clue after the first few drives to what the defense is doing, but coming over to the sideline to look at the iPad and really dissect the scheme is really helpful.”

As far as what other coaches should know about SkyCoach if they don’t use it, Hortman said: “The simplicity of it. SkyCoach is simple to hook up. It’s easy to get the antennas pointed at each other and it’s really just the simplest thing to do. It works 100 percent of the time—rain, sun, cold or wet. It’s foolproof as far as I’m concerned. If a team doesn’t have SkyCoach, they’re missing out.”

Whether it’s the coordinators in the box or the players on the sideline, everyone benefits from the SkyCoach sideline system. Guin said they always plan to have SkyCoach on their sideline.