Sports Analytics Club Program

At Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, the Sports Analytics Club has grown into a place where curiosity, research, and sports history meet. Much of that momentum comes from the leadership of Principal Michelle Morris-Carter and STEM teacher Lauren Jagemann, whose support of the program has created an environment where students are encouraged to investigate real questions using data and historical evidence.

Their approach has turned the club into something more than an extracurricular activity. Students examine athletes, eras, and records the way analysts do, building research portfolios that combine statistics, historical context, and storytelling. In the process, they gain experience with data literacy and analytical thinking while exploring sports history connected to their own community.

The club’s work highlights research projects focused on Butch Lee and Dick Allen. Students from the Golda Meir Sports Analytics Club were instrumental in preparing the Hall of Fame performance portfolio that helped make Dick Allen’s Hall of Fame induction possible, a milestone that demonstrates the real-world impact of their efforts. Lee, the former Marquette University star who helped lead the program to the 1977 NCAA Championship and the first Puerto Rican to be named NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, visited Golda Meir School and spent time with students, connecting their research to Milwaukee’s basketball history in person.

Moments like these are possible because educators choose to open doors. Principal Morris-Carter and Ms. Jagemann have created a space where students can see how research, data, and history come together. During Women’s History Month, their work stands as a reminder that the influence of women in education often shows up not through headlines, but through the opportunities they build for students every day.

Pictured left to right: Robert Clayton (SACP Cofounder), Michelle Morris-Carter (Principal of Golda Meir School), John Daniels (Chairman of the Board of The Fellowship Open)

Women’s History Month provides an opportunity to highlight the legacy of remarkable women athletes, and the Sports Analytics Club Program is proud to feature the career of Allison Feaster through the work of the SACP club at Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.

Founded in 1934 as an all-girls institution and becoming coeducational in 1972, this renowned high school continues to build new academic pathways for students through research and data analysis. Working in partnership with Smith College, chartered in 1871 as one of the nation’s historic women’s colleges, students in the Burke Sports Analytics Club developed a Hall of Fame Performance Portfolio evaluating Feaster’s career and submitted her nomination for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Feaster, a 1998 graduate of Harvard University, built one of the most extraordinary careers in Ivy League basketball history. She finished with 2,312 points and 1,157 rebounds and led the nation in scoring at 28.5 points per game during her senior season. That same year, she led Harvard to its historic NCAA Tournament victory over Stanford, when the No. 16 seed defeated the No. 1 seed for the first time in tournament history.

Through their Hall of Fame Performance Portfolio, SACP Club students documented the scope of Feaster’s accomplishments and placed her achievements in the broader history of women’s college basketball. Their research highlights a career that helped redefine what was possible for women competing at the highest levels of the sport.

Feaster’s legacy of excellence lives on through her daughter, Sarah Strong, who plays college basketball for the UConn Huskies of the Big East Conference and is ESPN's 2026 National Player of the Year.

During Women’s History Month, Feaster’s story stands as a reminder that the history of the game continues to be written by women whose performances changed expectations and opened new possibilities for the generations that followed.

At South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia, the legacy of Christy Winters-Scott is not just part of the school’s athletic history. It is a reminder of the influence women have had in shaping the game of basketball and the communities where that history began.

Founded in 1978 in Fairfax County, South Lakes is where Winters-Scott first emerged as a leader on the court, guiding the Seahawks to a perfect season and the school’s first state championship in 1986. Her success there helped establish a foundation for the program and remains a defining chapter in the school’s story.

Students at South Lakes recently revisited that legacy through their Sports Analytics Club. In collaboration with the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, SACP Club students examined the full scope of Winters-Scott’s career and the broader influence she has had on the game. In 2024, the students submitted their Hall of Fame Performance Portfolio in support of her nomination to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, which was subsequently accepted by the Hall of Fame.

Her path continued at the University of Maryland, where she became one of the program’s most respected players before building a career that has touched nearly every corner of basketball. Winters-Scott has coached the game, mentored younger players, and become one of the most recognizable voices in basketball broadcasting, helping bring women’s perspectives and expertise into spaces that were once far less inclusive.

At South Lakes, that story now connects generations. The same school where Winters-Scott once played is now home to students studying the impact of her career and helping ensure that the history of women’s basketball continues to be documented, understood, and recognized.

We’re excited to share that SACP Founder Robert Clayton will be attending the upcoming ASU+GSV Summit, joining a community of leaders focused on expanding opportunity through education, technology, and data.

At the Sports Analytics Club Program (SACP), this work is already taking shape in classrooms across the country. Students engage with real-world data, build analytical frameworks, and present their findings in ways that connect directly to industries and institutions beyond the classroom. Sports analytics continues to serve as a powerful entry point, bringing together math, statistics, data science, and storytelling in a way that feels relevant and accessible.

The alignment is clear. A shared commitment to expanding access through innovative learning models reflects what we see every day in SACP programs. When students are given meaningful problems to solve and authentic audiences for their work, their confidence grows, their curiosity deepens, and their sense of possibility expands.

This is about more than exposure. It is about building pathways. SACP students are developing the skills, perspective, and voice needed to contribute to conversations in analytics, technology, and leadership.

Robert is looking forward to engaging with fellow attendees, exchanging ideas, and continuing to advance opportunities that bring data literacy and applied learning to the next generation.

Kelsey McDonald spends her days in Strategy and Business Intelligence for the New York Yankees, where data shapes decision-making at one of the most recognized franchises in professional sports. She will now bring that analytical perspective into the classroom at St. John's University as an Adjunct Professor of Sports Analytics within its well-regarded Division of Sport Management, a nationally ranked program known for preparing students for leadership roles across professional sports.

Kelsey has also been an active collaborator in Sports Analytics Club Program initiatives, working alongside university faculty, industry professionals, and high school educators on applied portfolio projects. Her work across professional baseball and academic settings reflects the increasing alignment between front-office analytics and higher education.

Her transition into university instruction comes at a meaningful moment. Women remain underrepresented in sports analytics and data science leadership positions, and visibility matters. A woman operating at the highest levels of Major League Baseball analytics now stands at the front of a nationally ranked sport management program, shaping how students learn to think about strategy, performance, and evidence-based decision-making.

In addition to her teaching role, Kelsey is co-authoring a forthcoming book on sports analytics with Adam Constantine and David Rosenthal, contributing further to the evolving academic and professional conversation around data in sports.

Her presence at the intersection of Major League Baseball analytics and university instruction signals continued momentum for women in data-driven sports leadership, placing a woman practitioner at the center of analytics education and shaping how the next generation understands strategy, evidence, and performance.

We're excited to announce that our Founder and CEO, Robert Clayton, is heading to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on March 6–7, 2026. He will be hosting a Career Conversations session presented by Ticketmaster.

A former Associate Dean and Sports Law professor at Tulane University Law School, Robert brings a distinctive mix of academic leadership and sports industry insight to one of the most influential gatherings in analytics. Through SACP, he has built a national platform connecting students, educators, and professionals through applied sports analytics initiatives.

He looks forward to connecting with attendees throughout the conference and engaging in conversations about the evolving landscape of sports analytics.

If you’ll be at Sloan and want to connect, reach out at [email protected].

At Jackson State University, founded in 1877, Purvis Short became one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball during the late 1970s. His offensive production and consistency helped define an era for the program and placed his name among the leading collegiate scorers of his time. Long before analytics became part of high school classrooms, his numbers were already part of Mississippi’s basketball record.

Nearly half a century later, students in Hinds County revisited that record through the Sports Analytics Club Program. The SACP club co-hosted by Terry High School, founded in 1940, and Raymond High School, founded in 1917, examined Short’s collegiate career with a different set of tools. Working with historical data, they organized his scoring totals, efficiency, and positional comparisons into a structured performance portfolio.

In 2024, the students submitted that portfolio in support of Short’s consideration for the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The project brought together two public high schools from Hinds County and an HBCU founded during Reconstruction, linking institutions that have shaped Mississippi education for generations.

For the students, the work meant more than studying statistics. It provided direct access to research methods and data analysis rarely embedded in traditional high school coursework. By reexamining the career of a Jackson State graduate whose achievements grew from the same region, they participated in documenting Black collegiate excellence while building skills that extend well beyond basketball.

Long before data analytics became part of classroom instruction, Baltimore was producing athletes whose careers stretched far beyond the city. Raymond Chester, a 1970 graduate of Morgan State University, built his reputation in professional football as a Pro Bowl tight end whose combination of size and speed redefined the position. Morgan State, founded in 1867 during Reconstruction, has long served as a pillar of Black higher education in Baltimore, and Chester’s career is part of that legacy.

Nearly five decades after his graduation, students at Baltimore City College, founded in 1839 and desegregated in 1954, turned their attention to his professional record through the Sports Analytics Club Program. In 2019, the SACP club, hosted by City College, assembled and submitted a performance portfolio in support of Chester’s consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Rather than simply recounting highlights, students examined his production across seasons, positional impact, and how his career compared with tight ends already enshrined. The work required them to navigate historical statistics, interpret performance trends, and organize findings into a document meant for review beyond the classroom. It was applied research with real stakes.

What makes this project distinct is the layering of institutions. A public high school that predates the Civil War partnered with an HBCU founded just after Emancipation to revisit the career of a Morgan State alumnus whose path moved from Baltimore to the national stage. Students were not only learning analytics. They were engaging with a legacy that began in their own city and contributing to how that legacy is evaluated today.

In Richmond, two institutions founded just two years apart in the 1860s continue to shape the city’s educational story. Virginia Union University, founded in 1865, was established to educate newly freed African Americans in the years following the Civil War. Armstrong High School, founded in 1867 and located in the East Highland Park community, has served generations of students in the city’s public school system. More than a century later, those two institutions connected through the Sports Analytics Club Program to revisit the career of one of Virginia Union’s most disciplined athletes, Ben Wallace.

Wallace’s game never relied on scoring. At Virginia Union, he developed a reputation for rebounding, positioning, and defensive control in the paint. That identity carried into the NBA, where he became a four-time Defensive Player of the Year and the anchor of the Detroit Pistons’ 2004 championship team. His career raised a persistent question about how greatness is measured when it is built on defense rather than points.

Students at Armstrong approached that question directly. Working with university mentors, they studied rebounding impact, defensive metrics, and team performance to better understand how Wallace influenced outcomes over time. The project required them to work with historical data, interpret trends, and organize their findings into a structured research portfolio intended for real audiences beyond their school.

When Wallace was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021, the recognition affirmed a career defined by substance and discipline. For Armstrong students, the experience also opened access to advanced research tools and analytical thinking that are not always available in under-resourced districts. In Richmond, a historic HBCU and a long-standing public high school worked side by side, showing how education can both honor the past and prepare students to shape how it is understood.

In Baltimore’s Edmondson Village, students at Edmondson-Westside High School, founded in 1955, partnered with Morgan State University, founded in 1867, on a project that connected their neighborhood to a larger story of Black achievement. Through the Sports Analytics Club Program, a public high school and a historic HBCU in the same city partnered, linking today’s students with an institution established during Reconstruction to educate Black Americans.

Their focus was Marvin Webster, a Edmondson High and Morgan State graduate, whose college career had been dominant but never fully recognized on a national stage. For students in Edmondson Village, this was not distant history. Webster’s story belonged to the same city and public school system that shaped their own lives. Studying his career meant learning about Black excellence that emerged from their surroundings.

With guidance from Morgan State faculty, students used historical game records and modern analysis to rebuild Webster’s college legacy. They examined how he controlled the boards, protected the paint, and influenced winning in ways that traditional statistics often fail to capture. Their work drew national attention when ESPN featured it in "Defying the Odds," which highlighted how students were using analytics to reexamine a career defined more by defense than scoring.

That research contributed to Webster’s induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2018. In Edmondson Village, students gained access to advanced STEM learning while using those skills to bring new visibility to a story shaped by their own city.

The St. Albans School Sports Analytics Club in Washington, D.C., has advanced a compelling and meticulously researched Hall of Fame Performance Portfolio advocating for the induction of Brian Mitchell into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Developed in partnership with George Washington University and supported by data scientists from the Baltimore Ravens, the student-led project leverages traditional statistics and advanced analytics to demonstrate Mitchell’s unmatched legacy as a kick returner.

Visit the website to explore the full Hall of Fame Performance Portfolio and see the complete, data-driven case for Brian Mitchell’s induction - https://sacpinc.org/brian-mitchells-hall-of-fame-case-backed-by-groundbreaking-analytics/

We’re proud to highlight Robert Clayton, our newest board member at the SERP Institute!

Robert brings exceptional leadership experience as a Partner at Goldstein & McClintock LLLP and as Co-Founder of the Sports Analytics Club Program (SACP), a national initiative advancing Data Science and AI education for young people across the U.S. Through SACP, he helps drive innovation in education by using sports as a platform to engage students in analytics, interdisciplinary teamwork, and real-world career pathways.

We’re grateful to have his expertise, passion, and vision on the SERP Institute Board. Welcome, Robert! 👏