Coaches Lisa Bluder and Steve Pikiell Join GameChanger as Ambassadors to Emphasize the Impact of Film on Coaching and Athlete Development
GameChanger, the #1-rated youth sports app for live streaming, scheduling, statistics, and scorekeeping and part of the DICK’S Sporting Goods family, has announced the launch of Film Room, an AI-powered video analysis tool for youth basketball and volleyball. The feature is now available within the GameChanger App on both iOS and Android.
Film Room automatically skips downtime in game footage, condensing hours of video into coachable moments. This allows users to save time and focus solely on the most impactful plays without wading through unnecessary footage. Whether reviewing key possessions and volleys or assessing areas for improvement, Film Room allows coaches to mark, annotate, and share game footage with athletes, their families, and staff — all at no cost to coaches.
“By using AI and computer vision to identify key moments in game action, we’re taking another big step toward our vision of automating the most time-consuming parts of the youth sports experience,” said Sameer Ahuja, GameChanger president and DICK’S Sporting Goods senior vice president. “Film Room gives every youth basketball and volleyball coach their own personal film coordinator, a benefit typically reserved for the most high-level teams. With this feature, we’re leveling the playing field and making these valuable insights gleaned from film review accessible to youth sports communities everywhere.”
Film Room builds on the success of AutoStream — another AI feature introduced ahead of the 2023 season that allows users on iOS to set up a stationary, mobile device that automatically follows the action on the court. AutoStream powered nearly 25% of all GameChanger basketball streams last winter.
To help drive the launch of Film Room for basketball, GameChanger has partnered with two respected voices: Lisa Bluder, the recently retired head coach of The University of Iowa Women’s Basketball Team, and Steve Pikiell, head coach of Rutgers University Men’s Basketball. Both coaches bring decades of experience and are passionate about the role film review plays in helping athletes refine their skills and elevate their game.
Bluder famously led Iowa to back-to-back NCAA Championship Finals in 2022 and 2023. Through her 40-year coaching career, Bluder amassed 889 wins and only 394 losses at three universities: St. Ambrose University, Drake University, and Iowa.
Pikiell has been Rutgers’ head coach since 2016 after leading the men’s basketball program at Stony Brook University for 11 years. This year, he will welcome one of the nation’s top recruiting classes, adding several high school standouts, including two McDonald's All-Americans.
Additionally, GameChanger has introduced a new written series on GC.com, focused on the technical aspects of the company’s work with AI and computer vision. The first edition, which dives into the development of Film Room and the technology powering it, is now available at gc.com/post/ai-technology-film-room.
Already the top-rated youth sports app for baseball and softball with more than 570,000 reviews averaging 4.9 stars in the App Store, GameChanger released deep analytics, scorekeeping, and streaming services for basketball in 2020. Since its launch, more basketball games have been covered on GameChanger than have been played in the NBA over the last decade. With the launch of Film Room, the company continues to expand its basketball capabilities.
Film Room is available to all users on the GameChanger App on both iOS and Android platforms. For more information about Film Room, visit gc.com/basketball.