Why Pearl-Cohn QB LJ Funk wore a GoPro camera at Titans 7-on-7 football tournament
· Yahoo Sports
LEBANON – LJ Funk’s main responsibilities were to throw touchdowns and click the button.
The senior quarterback threw enough TDs to lead Pearl-Cohn to a runner-up finish behind Oakland at the Titans 7-on-7 tournament on July 7 at Lebanon High School.
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As far as clicking the GoPro start button between series on the camera strapped to his helmet? That was hit-and-miss as the Firebirds ran an offseason experiment.
“It wasn't heavy. I kind of forgot it was there at times. Coach (Tony) Brunetti might get a little mad. A couple times I forgot to hit the button,” Funk said. “But when we get back, we’ll kind of see what it did.”
The majority of high school coaches don’t spend 10 or so minutes tinkering with GoPros in the summer heat at 7-on-7s as Brunetti was doing with Funk.
But this part of Brunetti’s effort to see the game from vantage points the program hasn’t sought before. The camera was gathering dust in Pearl-Cohn’s audio/visual broadcasting department until Brunetti noticed it during the spring.
“It was sitting there, the batteries had been dead. Nobody was using it,” Brunetti said. “I bought new batteries and new film stuff for it. I said, 'Hey, let’s see how it goes. Let’s have a look y’all.' ”
Funk loves his video sessions with offensive coordinator Jimmy Ferrell, Brunetti said. The Toledo commitment studies about 20 hours of film per week during the season.
But Funk’s never seen himself play from a first-person viewpoint until this week.
“Every play we have progressions as far as how we’re supposed to read it. As a quarterback, sometimes you like a matchup and you go off on something else,” Funk said. “So (the camera) is about seeing how consistent I am with my reads. It’ll be interesting to see.”
Brunetti’s been integrating more technology into the program as more volunteers have come forward to help operate equipment. For the first time last season, the team used a television for coaches and players to study in-game film on the sidelines.
Players used to just huddle around an iPad. Now they have rows of chairs under a tent with a big screen.
Pearl-Cohn will have an aerial angle to watch this season with two people in the press box operating an end zone camera. It will actually be a drone, but the team won’t fly it often in order to conserve batteries.
“It lets you see the small things. ‘You could’ve stopped that zone’ or ‘you could’ve came farther down on a block,’” Pearl-Cohn senior receiver Steven Jenkins said. “You can’t see that on an iPad. It just helps us be better players.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform,@tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg.Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Pearl-Cohn QB LJ Funk wore a GoPro camera at Titans 7-on-7 football tournament