Mission
The SACP mission is to advance STEM education in the United States and promote STEM relevant professional careers for young women and men, driving sports as the educational platform. The SACP’s transformative learning environment is built on interdisciplinary teamwork that excites mathematics skill development by teaching the “nuts and bolts” of data analytics and by preparing students to communicate data dashboard visualizations to key stakeholders.
The critical priority of the SACP mission is to address the under representation of young women and African American and Latinx youth in advanced STEM studies. In the context of developing a national scale project, the SACP mission is totally inclusive of a diverse cross-section of students across cultural and socioeconomic lines.
Vision
SACP’s vision is to develop a nationally recognized network of several hundred Sports Analytic Clubs with incremental expansion of programs to include options in Sports Journalism, Sports Architecture/Engineering, and potentially Sports Science.
Although SACP is still in its development phase, there has been sufficient proof-of-concept to anticipate strong increasing interest, multiple opportunities for clubs and universities, and diverse funding sources.
Our History
The SACP concept was formulated in July 2017, by Robert Clayton, Partner at Goldstein & McClintock LLLP in collaboration with Professor Ben Shields of the MIT Sloan School of Management. An initial Advisory Council, including Ed Tapscott, former Vice President of the NBA Washington Wizards supported the first pilot club.
The first Sports Analytics Club was established in September 2017 at Edmondson-Westside High School in Baltimore under the progressive leadership of Principal Karl Perry and Mathematics Teacher Corey Johnson, in partnership with the Faculty at Morgan State University. The Sports Analytics Club’s first research project was to develop a Performance Portfolio on Edmonson and Morgan State alum Marvin Webster, who was being considered for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The Performance Portfolio was a statistical data–driven analysis comparing the performance of Webster at Morgan State with selected small college players that had been inducted already. The Portfolio was submitted in November and in March 2018 the Hall of Fame announced that Webster would be inducted in November 2018.
The Chair of the Blue Ribbon Selection Committee was quoted in a March 29, 2018 feature article in the Baltimore Sun on the significance of the Performance Portfolio in the decision to elect Webster. The lead article in the Baltimore Sun introducing the Club and project appeared in the December 6, 2017 edition. On the day Marvin Webster was inducted, ESPN broadcast a documentary titled “Defy The Odds” about the achievements of the students at Edmondson-Westside High School.
Based on this success, and continuing discussions with the headmasters of high schools, presidents of major universities, and other stakeholders across the United States, the SACP Board of Directors moved to expand the pilot program and to establish thirty (30) scholastic Sports Analytics Clubs with over 300 members in nine (9) states across the country for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years. In the 2020-21 academic year, the SCAP Board has approved an additional seventy-five (75) Clubs and installation of
SACP Planning Committees in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Dallas, Houston and Northern Virginia.
SACP is incorporated as a not-for-profit in the State of Delaware, and is tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.