How Briarwood Christian High School Leverages Catapult One for Multi-Sport Success

Maximizing Performance & Mitigating Injury Risks with Wearable Technology

For over five years, Briarwood Christian School has relied on Catapult One to enhance player performance, manage workloads, and optimize athlete development across multiple sports.

Kyle Southall, Director of Sport Science and Performance at Briarwood Christian, as well as BC Athletic Trainer and current president of the Alabama Athletic Trainer’s Association, shares how the program integrates Catapult One across different departments, ensuring players are physically primed while helping coaches make informed decisions based on objective data.

→ Explore how Catapult One is transforming high school football programs: Catapult One for Football

A School-Wide Approach to Sports Science

Briarwood’s adoption of Catapult One extends beyond football. The system is used across multiple sports, including boys’ and girls’ soccer, and plays a key role in athletic training for return-to-play protocols.

“We use Catapult One extensively within our athletic training department to guide return-to-play decisions. Our team and strength coaches receive daily or weekly reports with key metrics to help plan training sessions and practices,” explains Southall. “Beyond sports, we also integrate Catapult One into our Anatomy and Physiology and Sports Science courses, using real-world data to educate our students.”

From Student Interns to Data-Driven Coaching

In Briarwood Christian’s previous Catapult One feature, Athletic Director Jay Matthews noted the creation of a Technology and Data Systems Coach to oversee performance data. Over time, this role has evolved, with Southall taking on the primary responsibilities while also mentoring student interns.

“Managing performance data has become a core part of my role, but we’ve built a structured system that keeps it efficient,” says Southall. “Our student interns, both from Briarwood and nearby colleges, assist with analysis and reporting. It’s a great learning experience for them and helps streamline our workflow while reducing the time required for data management.”

How Catapult One Helps Minimize Injury Risk & Optimize Recovery

Catapult One provides crucial insights to monitor workloads, fatigue levels, and recovery trends across multiple sports. While there are always multiple variables in injury recovery, Briarwood has seen a notable reduction in re-injury rates since implementing the system.

“We closely track sprint distance, acceleration, and deceleration to monitor athlete readiness. One key example was a player returning from a long-term injury. His top speed and sprint duration hadn’t returned to baseline, so we delayed his return by a week. When he did return, he was fully prepared and able to complete his senior season successfully,” says Southall.

Catapult One’s performance insights have also challenged conventional training methods. When monitoring hamstring injuries in baseball players, the team discovered that players who lifted weights on game days actually achieved higher top speeds compared to those who didn’t.

Southall notes: “This insight helped us move away from traditional assumptions and develop a more evidence-based performance program.”

Key Metrics for Training & Performance Optimization

Across all sports, Briarwood tracks five to seven core metrics, including:

• Total distance covered
• Sprint distance
• Energy expenditure
• Player load
• Acceleration & deceleration patterns

One of their most valuable insights is “pod minutes”—tracking time spent wearing the sensors. They found that performance peaks at the 90-minute mark in football and adjust training accordingly to maximize efficiency without overloading players.

“With this data, we can fine-tune workloads and prevent unnecessary fatigue while ensuring athletes hit the right intensity levels.”

Driving Athlete Engagement & Accountability

Beyond training adjustments, Catapult One has helped build a culture of accountability within the program.

“Our athletes are extremely competitive. Every day, they come in asking, ‘Did I run more than X?’ or ‘Who hit the top speed yesterday?’ They’re constantly pushing each other,” explains Southall.

To fuel this competitive drive, the coaching staff posts daily leaderboards, reinforcing performance-based motivation and personal development.

How Catapult One Streamlines Data Use

With over 80 sensors in use, Briarwood has developed efficient processes to manage and analyze performance data. By implementing structured workflows and leveraging intern support, they’ve optimized the way they track, interpret, and apply performance insights, significantly reducing the time required for data processing.

Additionally, Catapult’s Vector Core system addresses key data management challenges, enabling WiFi-enabled syncing that transfers data directly to the cloud via the dock. This advancement simplifies workflows and ensures seamless data accessibility.

Southall adds: “It’s exciting to see how Catapult continues to evolve its technology to make performance tracking more efficient and accessible.”

The Future of High School Sports Science

As wearable technology becomes a standard in high school sports, Briarwood believes data-driven decision-making will continue to shape the future of athlete development.

“Every team will eventually have wearables—it’s just a matter of time. The ability to measure everything from workload to recovery will redefine performance training at all levels.”

Join the Future of High School Performance Monitoring

Briarwood Christian High School’s success with Catapult One is a blueprint for high school programs nationwide. Whether you’re looking to optimize training, minimize injury risk, or improve player engagement, Catapult One provides elite-level insights tailored for high school sports.