Billy Blackmon helped build Tocoi Creek’s athletic department with a focus on coach effectiveness, fan experience and student success.
Located in a fast-growing region of North Florida, Tocoi Creek High School opened its doors in the 2021–22 school year. Athletic director Billy Blackmon joined the school during its early years, stepping into a pivotal moment to help shape its athletic infrastructure.
Blackmon went all-in with Hudl.
“The misconception with Hudl is that it’s a football-only platform,” he said. “The biggest challenge for me when I took over as an AD, was getting these other programs to understand that Hudl’s not only a football platform, it's a cloud-based system where you can store your games and your athletes can have access to all those games.”
Blackmon knew that getting coach buy-in (especially outside of football), would be crucial for maximizing their Hudl investment. “Coaches are such creatures of habit,” he said. “The hardest part for me is getting [them] to break that.”
What made the difference was the partnership Tocoi Creek built with Hudl during the onboarding process. “They hold your hand the entire way through it. I can't say enough things about how nice the Hudl team has been in the transition and helping us,” said Blackmon.
A smooth transition and features that add value and remove tasks for coaches were enough to get them fully on board. “It elevated our program when coaches saw the benefit of it,” said Blackmon. He pointed to Hudl Assist as a true game-changer. “You don’t have to have someone to stat or break down a game.”
Instead, coaches could focus on what mattered most.
“[Coaches] watch film with their teams. They’re getting their athletes better,” he continued. “So it makes my job a lot easier. And in turn makes my coach's jobs a lot easier.”
Blackmon joined the Educational AD Podcast, hosted by longtime AD Jake von Scherrer, to share the Tocoi Creek story.
A Fan Experience for a Growing Community
With coaches fully bought in, the next step was unlocking the full power of Hudl for the broader Tocoi Creek community.
Tocoi Creek serves a community that has seen significant migration in recent years, meaning many students have extended families spread across the country. Livestreaming quickly became a powerful way to bring that community together.
“Grandparents can't come to every game, but they can still livestream and watch the game,” Blackmon said. “So it's really grown our fan experience not only here on campus, but also across the nation.”
For a new school building its identity, that visibility matters.
The fan experience is also enhanced by the quality of their Hudl Focus cameras. Some schools pair their stream with student broadcasters and graphic packages. Tocoi Creek opted not to, in large part because their cameras pick up the audio so well, creating a stadium-quality experience for remote viewers.
“[Viewers] can hear our announcer talking and I get texts and emails all the time saying, ‘I'm glad I can follow along with the announcer in the stadium,’” said Blackmon. “The technology that the cameras use is crazy.”
To date, we've sold over 10,000 tickets on Hudl. So with the promotion it's just money back coming to our school that's been really beneficial to help us with some things here on campus that we're trying to do.
Billy Blackmon, Athletic Director, Tocoi Creek HS (FL)
“We Aren’t Taking any Cash”
As Tocoi Creek got up and running, Blackmon’s predecessor told him, “we aren’t taking any cash." Ticketing at their facilities has been completely digital since the school's inception.
They have a state-mandated deal with another provider for postseason events, but use Hudl Tickets for all others, driven by its ease of use and integration with their other Hudl tools.
“ That's what I'm ultimately looking for. What platform can make my job easy?” said Blackmon.
Hudl Tickets does just that by removing tasks from his plate. “The best thing that I like about Hudl Tickets is when my coaches go in and put in their schedule, it automatically populates a ticket link,” he said. “So all I have to do is go in and approve that event and a ticket link’s created. Nothing I need to input on my part.”
Their other factor in adopting Hudl Tickets was the Ticketing Payback Program, which offers schools a 75-cent rebate for every ticket sold.
“We do all of our season tickets through Hudl that helped us increase ticket sales. We also use Hudl for school dances and other functions that aren't athletics-related, that require ticketing. So that helps us grow ticket sales,” said Blackmon.
“To date, we've sold over 10,000 tickets on Hudl. So with the promotion it's just money back coming to our school that's been really beneficial to help us with some things here on campus that we're trying to do.”
For a program in its infancy, that’s critical. “When a district builds you a school, they don't give you the video scoreboard or the nice court,” said Blackmon. “That income from ticketing and streaming definitely helps us get all the bells and whistles that we need for our athletic department to help with facility upgrades and stuff like that. That directly impacts our student athletes.”
Built for Student Success
So what would Blackmon tell another athletic director considering Hudl?
In short: what are you waiting for?
It’s no secret that every AD has a million things to juggle, like fan experience, revenue generation and coaching effectiveness. But hovering over it all is one core question: What are you doing to help my child succeed?
“I can look a parent in the face and say we record every single game, and that your kid has access to that game, they can watch the game and cut that game up and make highlights and things like that to send to colleges and send to recruiters and help them be seen,” said Blackmon.
For Blackmon, Hudl isn’t just a platform. It’s how he proves to parents, coaches, and athletes that Tocoi Creek is built to help students succeed.
“It really simplifies your job as an AD. And it's all streamlined.”
