Rockford Raptors FC utilizes player-driven data from Hudl Assist+ for development. This tool delivers granular analysis, fueling training adjustments, player growth, and recruiting.
Club and youth soccer revolve around athletes. Offering opportunities for growth and delivering measurable feedback toward their goals is paramount.
As Individual Development Plans (IDPs) have become commonplace in youth sports, soccer directors and coaches are being explicitly asked to document and map out each athlete's growth.
Clubs need to supply the tools. Coaches need the right information. Athletes need goals.
That’s on top of their commitment to provide high-quality training and on-field performance for their entire team.
But without the right tools to capture the details, even the best coaches can struggle to fulfill all of those objectives simultaneously.
Rockford Raptors FC: The Desire for Data
Rockford Raptors FC joined ECNL only a few short years ago. But upon earning the ECNL patch, the club quickly invested in tools to manage the competitive jump. For Rockford coaches in particular, getting Hudl Assist+ was a pivotal step towards scaling club-wide analysis and powering player development.
“Getting Assist+ was an exciting moment for [me] as a coach,” says Mike Rizzo, ECNL Girls Director at Rockford Raptors FC.
Getting excited over stats? It’s hard to blame Rizzo when you see what Assist+ actually delivers.
Assist+ is the leading soccer analysis solution, providing in-depth, granular data for every player. It automatically analyzes and tags player-specific actions (like passes or defensive recoveries), links them directly to video, and includes precise athlete identification and location tracking.
And with personalized playlists of key actions automatically shared to a player's Hudl library, Assist+ saves coaches hours of manual work each week. Detailed data and automated insights remove the typical sticking points in building Individual Development Plans (IDPs) as well as team-wide performance reviews.
With everything he needs to accelerate his analysis and share insights with each player, it makes sense that Rizzo was excited:
“I can go to a player and see [their] touches immediately,” Rizzo says. “Everything is at your fingertips.”
From Raw Data to the Training Pitch
At Rockford Raptors, data isn’t just a post-game formality; it’s the blueprint for the next week’s training. ECNL Boys coach Roberto Guzman shared a concrete example of this workflow in action.
After just the first game with his team, Guzman spotted a recurring issue: their shape was too narrow, preventing them from effectively switching the point of attack.
First, he pulled up the reports from Assist+ and inspected what he saw on film.
Next, Guzman showed his players the stats and the exact moments in the match where the issues occurred, and after his training sessions the following week, the improvement was visible on the pitch by the very next match.
“I look at how many times a player connected a successful pass versus how many times they gave the ball away,” Rizzo explains. “If it's under 50%, we’re either not accurate at passing or not giving better passing lanes. I build my sessions around that.”
Using data, Guzman builds practice plans that address immediate tactical gaps. With the confidence from stats that validate or reframe his coaching instincts, he moves more quickly each week to gain a competitive advantage.
“I [used] the Hudl platform so players could see the specific scenarios we needed to work on, tied it up to the training session, and the next week, you could see the improvement. Right from minute one, you could tell the players were understanding,” Guzman said.
Individual Development in the Digital Age
Like most clubs, IDPs are central to the Raptors' philosophy. Coach Dimitri Tsoukalas notes that Assist+ has revolutionized this process by tracking individual moments—passes, field positioning, and transitional actions—automatically.
“It makes everything extremely easier,” says Tsoukalas. “It tracks your technical, tactical, and physical aspects. You've got everything right there.”
Similarly, Guzman shared an example of the data helping a player struggling with playing time. Together, the coach and athlete pair used this data to turn the athlete’s season around and reclaim minutes in the lineup.
The metrics showed that the player was losing aerial duels during set pieces. Armed with video proof and a data-driven IDP, the player understood the changes required of him and showed measurable improvement. Eventually, that player secured a spot on the ECNL team’s starting XI.
Winning Back the Clock
Perhaps the most immediate benefit of Assist+ is time saved. Tsoukalas estimates that Hudl’s suite of tools saves him at least a full day of work every week. With instant uploads and full game stats, coaches spend less time behind a screen and more time on the field.
And as the integrations between Hudl Focus Flex and Hudl Assist+ work for seamless video uploads and data analysis post-match, each team gets an estimated four hours back each weekend not having to manually upload assets to the ECNL-mandated league exchange.
And that’s before the coaches dive into tactics and player evaluations.
For Rizzo, that extra time means better communication. He can now provide specific feedback on moments he might have missed in the heat of the game.
“As a coach, it has saved me so much time as far as how I prepare, how I review things, how I look at [performance]. And it's so easy to do it.”
Fueling the Next Step: Recruiting
The impact of stats extends beyond the club season. Players are empowered to use Assist+ to take ownership of their recruitment.
By reviewing their own actions and clicking their names in the reports tab, athletes instantly pull any of their contributions to build high-quality highlight reels.
“Because highlights are such a big thing these days, building recruiting videos and stuff like that, it saves my players so much time,” Rizzo said. “All they have to do is search for their name or their number, and they can get all their touches from anytime they're involved in a play.”
At Rockford Raptors FC, short-term development and long-term opportunity have finally converged. By putting the power of data into the hands of both coaches and players, the club is ensuring that every moment captured is a moment used for growth.
Hudl Assist+ is the leading soccer analysis solution for player development and club-wide growth. Discover the power of data and how you can equip your team with the tools to power progress.
