SPT helps Ripon Men’s Soccer capitalize on their Spring Season
Coach Marco Rhein became the Head Coach of his Alma Mater program back in 2019, and has been able to steadily build the program into a strong competitor in the Midwest Conference. Coming off a 13-win season, Coach Rhein wanted to take advantage of that momentum and capitalize on an important Spring Season. He added SPT for his program early in the offseason, and we were able to discuss the difference it made for this team heading into the Fall of 2025.
When asked to breakdown the main three outcomes SPT had for his team in the Spring, Marco told us
- We used the data to create a competitive environment in the offseason. We have a limited competition schedule in D3 so it was great for the players and staff to have some additional metrics to compare how guys were training.
- The GPS units helped players return to play. Unfortunately, this year we had a handful of players dealing with serious offseason injuries. We were able to track these players as they returned to play and, in collaboration with our athletic training staff, monitor their running, fitness, and speed.
- Tactically, although you know certain positions and players are running more, the GPS units helped us demonstrate to the players how our game model aligned with the physical needs of specific positions.
The ‘what’ of GPS tracking data really starts to make a difference when you can tie it to a ‘why’, or a desired outcome. “The alignment of our game model to the data has been really important. Today's athlete is different. They are far more interested in the why behind everything we do. The data provided by SPT helps fill some of those gaps therefore creating buy-in around the way we play.” Rhein went on to say “Our team is very competitive. We've worked hard to create that environment. The players really liked having data post training to compare against one another”
GPS tracking was a priority for Marco, so why SPT?
“Cost was a huge factor. Most other companies are charging yearly subscriptions, which would cost us more over one or two years than SPT cost to outfit our whole team. The platform is user-friendly. A big piece for us was to make sure players and coaches could easily access the data, contrast events, and compare players side by side. We looked at four other companies and felt SPT was doing those things best.”
The Spring Season and the Summer offseason are all to prepare for the most important time of the year, the Fall.
“Going forward, we're looking forward to entering our regular season with the product. It will help us manage load especially as we enter into our conference season. Our athletic training staff is excited to continue to use the data for return to play protocol so we can get our guys back on the field at the right time. Our performance analyst hopes to use heat map and running data to help our players better understand their positions and use of energy throughout the match.”