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Friday Night Bytes: Can Analytics Revolutionize High School Football?

Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — The Mater Dei Prep Seraphs faced fourth-and-6 from the Middletown South 40-yard line in a scoreless October game with about four minutes left in the first quarter. Their coach, Dino Mangiero, encountered a pretty standard decision: Go for it or punt?

His headset crackled.

The voice on the other end belonged to a Columbia University graduate perched atop the school’s tiny press box: George Mahoney, who doesn’t have an official title on Mater Dei’s staff or attend every practice, but who, in many ways, represents the early glimmers of what could be the future of high school football.