Electronic communication helped Putnam County baseball this year: Are they at the front of a tech revolution?

This spring, the Putnam County baseball team began using electronic communication from the dugout to its catcher.

The Panther catcher wore an AirPod 2, and PC coach Chris Newsome used the live listen feature on an iPad, which was connected to the AirPod 2 via Bluetooth, to call pitches, relay bunt coverages, and more.

“When I looked at all of our options like signs, wristbands, etc., the technology option kept coming up as the most beneficial and in many ways the easiest coach-to-catcher communication option,” Newsome said. “Signs can be stolen, wristbands can be hard to read and are susceptible to weather and/or sweat and dirt. The AirPod Pros and an iPad gives us the ability to speak directly to the ear of the catcher and not be limited to the name of a called pitched or pickoff like certain systems.”

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) approved the use of one-way communication with the catcher in July 2023 and it was implemented for IHSA baseball and softball for the 2024 season.

“I like that the NFHS and IHSA allow for this,” Newsome said. “I’d be in favor of expanding some sort of technology to include the pitcher and even position players down the road.”

IHSA Assistant Executive Director Matt Troha said IHSA officials have not received much positive or negative feedback about the one-way communication from coaches or umpires.

“Anecdotally from watching regular season and state series contests, we know that many teams did utilize them,” Troha said. “Given that, we feel that the implementation was a success.

“I believe most coaches are open to exploring the use of technology or rule changes if they believe it makes the game better. I also believe that there is an expectation that as different rules or technology are implemented at other levels of sport (collegiate and pro), many are likely to trickle down to the high school level at some juncture.”

Given that one-way communication was successfully implemented in baseball and softball and the NCAA approved the use of helmet communication at the FBS level, will other IHSA sports soon be using such devices?

“One-way communication is dictated by the NFHS rulebooks and we are not aware of any national rule committees that are currently considering that,” Troha said.

Troha said the use of one-way communication in football has been discussed at the national level.

“I believe there is universal concern about how it would/could fundamentally change the sport if quarterbacks were coached throughout the entirety of the play,” Troha said. “The NFL obviously utilizes a system where they shut off the communication devices during the play based on the play clock, but they also only have 14 or 15 games per week in highly controlled environments. Getting that technology to work and be properly enforced across thousands of high schools would be a massive challenge. Then factor in the cost and those are two significant hurdles.”

Kevin Crandall, the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association president and former head coach at Rochelle, said while the IHSFCA hasn’t polled it’s members on the issue, he feels most coaches would be in favor of communication technology.

“I think the vast majority of coaches would be for it, probably vehemently for it,” Crandall said. “The only questions I could foresee would be the cost factor for some schools. But I think it’d be something that most coaches would advocate for.”

For Putnam County baseball, the technology came fairly cheaply as the Panthers just needed to buy AirPods for $149 and ear holders for $15 to pair with an iPad the program already had.

SportsCom, which has a partnership with the IHSA, offers an annual subscription for baseball/softball communication for $425. It can be used on smart watches that a coach/player already owns or the company offers refurbished devices at a discount.

Patriot ConX offers watches for baseball/softball and football with the single watch package, which includes a coach’s command center, one player receiver watch, one case, and two charging cords, for $449.99. A five-watch package is $1,099.9,9 and a 10-watch package is $1,999.99.

CoachComm has a listen-only device that can be clipped to a player’s equipment or enclosed in an arm band for $700, compatible with all Cobalt Plus headset systems.

PortaPhone offers a coach-to-player helmet system for $795 and Quibit has a device that’s mounted in helmets that receives only and can be set to any channel for $145.

Coaches and administrators around the country will see how one-way communication works at the high school level as the University Interscholastic League, which governs high school sports in Texas, has approved wearable technology such as watches, wristbands and belt packs to communicate game calls starting this fall, according to an article on Dave Campbell’s Texas Football website, texasfootball.com. There will be no limit to the number of players who can wear a device during a game. In-helmet communication is not allowed.

“It makes communication a lot better,” said Crandall, who coached Rochelle from 1994-2017. “The choices now are to bring the quarterback over and give him the play or send it in with somebody, but once in a while, it becomes a little like telephone and the play doesn’t always get in exactly like you called it. Or you can signal it in. If the coach could just talk to the player, it would make communication much easier with a lot less chance of miscommunication.”