Statistically speaking Winnipegger hoping to impress NFL teams with analytics work By: Taylor Allen Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 8, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2022 (1052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don’t be surprised if another Manitoban makes it to the NFL soon.

But unlike Israel Idonije and David Onyemata, the next one likely won’t be chasing down quarterbacks. Or even setting foot on the gridiron.

Winnipeg’s Robyn Ritchie has gotten the attention of the four-down league for her expertise in sports analytics. Ritchie, 27, and her team of data analysts out of Simon Fraser University have been named one of three college finalists for the NFL’s fourth annual Big Data Bowl.

The what?!

Let’s take a step back and explain.

The Big Data Bowl is a competition for professional and aspiring data gurus to analyze film and dive into in-depth stats (the type of stuff you don’t find in a box score) to find ways NFL players/teams can improve performance. The theme of this year’s competition was special teams, leading to Ritchie focusing on punt returning and the decision making that goes into it. Ritchie chose to highlight Kansas City Chiefs punt returner Mecole Hardman and dissected his tendencies.

“Kind of like a GPS, we consider what’s the fastest path to get you to your target while also avoiding traffic as a punt returner,” Ritchie explained.

Still confused? Get in line. But this is the type of stuff NFL teams are desperately trying to get their hands on as everyone is looking for an edge. And Ritchie is showing she has the potential to breakdown data with the best of them as there were over 200 applicants for the Big Data Bowl and her team was one of only eight finalists. More than 30 past participants have gone on to work in data and analytics in sports, 22 of whom were hired in football.

“Kind of like a GPS, we consider what’s the fastest path to get you to your target while also avoiding traffic as a punt returner.”
– Robyn Ritchie

“It’d be great to work for a sports team for a couple of years. Whether it’s something in the NFL, the Winnipeg Jets, anything like that would definitely be amazing,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie finished her masters in stats at the University of Manitoba in August and is now working towards her PhD at Simon Fraser. She originally wanted to be a high school teacher, but a second-year probability class sent her down a different path. After reading a research paper by SFU professor Dr. Tim Swartz on strategies for pulling the goalie in hockey, Ritchie was hooked.

“I just kind of thought it was interesting that he kind of like, changed the game. The paper said you should pull your goalie six minutes before the end of the game if you’re down by one. That led to teams pulling their goalies a lot earlier than what they used to,” said Ritchie.

“… So, I thought it was amazing that stats could influence different strategies in games and that was my first exposure to it.”

It’s a perfect fit as sports have always been a part of Ritchie’s life. She started volunteering for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the age of five and continued to help her hometown CFL team for a decade. Remember the big, inflatable Bombers helmet that the team used to run out of on game days at Canad Inns Stadium? One of Ritchie’s jobs was to jump on it afterward to deflate it.

While Ritchie is trying to impress executives down south with her work, she’s still got love for the blue and gold.

“I actually sent our presentation to Milt Stegall,” Ritchie said.

“I never thought he would answer, but he said it was really amazing and he was pretty impressed with it. I was blown away.”

Football isn’t her only passion. Her masters focused on soccer, but as someone who curled at St. Vital Curling Club for 20 years, she also wouldn’t mind applying her methods to one of Manitoba’s favourite pastimes.

“I want to see if I can help Canada get those gold medals in the Olympics and see if they’re making the right decisions at the right time… I’m still trying to collect data, but the big thing is the data isn’t that great out there,” Ritchie said.

“If you’re kind of familiar with curling, someone is in the stands on an iPad putting where the rocks ended up so it’s not very accurate… I want to see if I can take video footage and turn that into data so it’s a lot more accurate and hopefully, take a look at where the first two shots in the end are placed and how likely you are to get the outcome that you want.”

Before she does that, she’s anxiously awaiting the results of the Big Data Bowl. The NFL used to fly the finalists out for draft week, but owing to the pandemic, this year’s standouts were asked to send in a recording of their five-minute presentation. If Ritchie and SFU teammates Brendan Kumagai, Ryker Moreau, and Elijah Cavan are deemed the winners, they’ll earn an additional US$10,000 to go along with the US$5,000 they’ve already picked up for being finalists. The NFL is expected to announce the winner any day now.

“It would mean the world to me and my team. The amount of opportunities that it would open (is huge). Working for something like a pro sports team is kind of what we all aspire to get to, but it’s a tough market. It’s hard to break through and get your name known. This could be that added boost that would set us apart from the competition in the workforce.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of...

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