Carrollton football's SkyCoach upgrade: A game-winning move with efficient replay and reliable customer service

No. 1 ranked 2025 QB Julian “Juju” Lewis, a USC commitment, on the sideline of his Carrollton High School, a SkyCoach customer. (Photo by iSmooth)

When you’re one of the best teams in the state of Georgia, and the entire country, everyone wants to pack your stadium on Friday nights. And that’s exactly what happens at Grisham Stadium when 7A powerhouse Carrollton High plays. According to the MaxPreps rankings, Carrollton was the No. 33 high school football team nationally at the end of last season.

Year after year the Trojans attract crowds of spectators as they produce high caliber players that end up playing Division I ball. Currently, Carrollton is home to the nation’s No. 1 overall player in 2025 quarterback Julian “Juju” Lewis, who is committed to USC. Carrollton has several other recruits on their roster too. The photo at the top of this article shows Lewis with the SkyCoach equipment in the background.

“Truly, teams that aren’t using SkyCoach aren’t getting better.”

Carrollton made the switch from Hudl Sideline to SkyCoach a few years ago, and haven’t looked back.

“We got here three years ago and the previous staff used Hudl Sideline and when I say nightmare, that doesn’t do it justice,” said Zachary Gordon, the tight ends coach/co-special teams coordinator. “We couldn’t get someone on the phone. It wasn’t conducive to different environments, so we needed to switch and switch quick to something reliable.

“One of the biggest things with Hudl is it’s great during pregame but when the radio broadcast is on and there’s a live stream or different networks open then it would just bog down the system and it would require a full restart. Also, because our stadium is so big the connection from the press box to the end zone just isn’t there. Having that SkyCoach tripod with the antennas on the sideline is a game changer.”

When Carrollton joined SkyCoach, it was ordered on a Friday, in their hands a few days later, the coaches trained on Wednesday and the team used the system on Friday night.

“It was phenomenal,” Gordon added. “The setup is super easy with the toolboxes and making sure everything is pointed where it needs to be. We played in the state championship at Center Park Stadium in Atlanta two years ago and had zero connection issues. In terms of an ease of connection, it’s fantastic. The in-game speed of the clip uploading and being able to watch it has been super helpful.”

The Trojans run two camera angles using SkyCoach: one end zone and a wide shot from the press box using student managers. Gordon said they have coaches in the press box who tag specific plays. In total, they use six iPads and two TVs to access their replay.

“We’re looking at it after every play, if it was a positive play or a negative play and figuring out why. A lot of it is diagnosing what the defense is giving us offensively so we can know how to adjust for the next series or the next play call. We’ve got two coaches in the press box that give us the specific coverages from the previous play before the next play starts. We’re able to know what the defense is going to do, hopefully, before the next play. It streamlines that process for us and makes it that much more important for it to be fast,” the coach said.

“(SkyCoach replay) takes the guessing game out of it. Before replay, you were relying on the player to tell you but now you can see it on the screen and figure out the best adjustment right then and there. You’re able to coach the kids on the fly and it makes you coach faster.”

Football Season is Back‼️ 4 more days until your Trojans take on Alexander in our opening Scrimmage this Friday. #GoldStandard

🎥: @TheiSmooth pic.twitter.com/4aowqclQUf

— Trojan Football (@Carrollton_High) August 8, 2023

When asked for specifics on how SkyCoach can help a player or team make those in-game adjustments, Gordon said: “If you need a receiver to break the route at 10 and he breaks it at 8-yards, then he isn’t going to believe me unless he sees it, so being able to show him allows players to have a greater sense of accountability because they know they’re about to come off the field and watch themselves on the tape. Tape don’t lie. I think it has also helped their overall IQ and seeing what they need to get better at.”

He continued: “For example, last year in a game we blocked one punt. The team punted again and we had a safe call on, but we noticed looking at the film that they had adjusted to the look we were giving them, so we changed the call and blocked another punt. That’s just one time when SkyCoach was super helpful but there’s a lot of instances when we can tell safety rotation, how a defense is playing through the course of a game and helping us just put the second half game plan together at halftime.”

Every coach knows that the biggest benefit of in-game replay is being able to make changes and get better in the moment as opposed to waiting for the next film session, but to do so you absolutely need reliable replay that will work week in and week out.

“Between the efficiency and the customer service, those things go such a long way. To know if we ever did have an issue on a Friday that I can call and actually reach a person on the phone, that goes a long way,” Gordon said, adding, “Truly, teams that aren’t using SkyCoach aren’t getting better.”