Empowerly

Student profile

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more? 

The playground rumbled beneath me as I took on my childhood alter ego, Mr.Brave, Defender of Earth. Within seconds, Iron Man blistered past me towards a catastrophic explosion. Doomsday had just attacked so I called all heroes to deck. In pursuit, I jumped on my bike and sped off. In reality I was cycling around in circles scaring any birds in my path. I loved superheroes and spent countless hours concocting squads of such characters based on unique skills. The time spent playing superhero gave me powers, not of super strength or speed, but of foresight. This foresight allowed me to establish a basic understanding of evaluating the abilities of heroes to find the best teams for maximum alien pounding. Little did I know that my cunning combinations of Iron Man and Flash would seed a passion so engaging that it would have me skipping meals and eventually lead to an avid pursuit of mathematical statistics.

As I moved into middle school, I began to replacing my idols of superheroes with athletes like Lebron and Beckham. Although I loved watching sports, I was often frustrated that many teams performed poorly year after year without doing anything to fix their issues, other than pouring more money into new stadiums or overrated players. I always wanted to jump in and help them find simple solutions that were more impactful than the fans ranting to them on Twitter. Upon reading the book Moneyball, I learned that teams in the MLB were using statistical analysis to manipulate and transform their player performance. I realized that the key to turning every team into the next Golden State Warriors was to use math to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, instead of making angry posts on Reddit. Through the marriage of data and athletics, I learned that each athlete were represented by numbers to indicate their performance level. This creative and influential aspect of math fascinated me so much that since then I have pushed myself to learn more about the field, thus developing a passion for sports analytics.

Upon researching the methods that the Oakland A’s used to break world records, I realized I could use what I learned in my math class to build powerful success stories of my own, but instead of real players I would be able to do it with fantasy teams. When time permits I scour and digest results from preceding matches noting player stats from video highlights. I spend hours watching clips to examine minor but impactful statistics such as base percentages, stolen percentages, and wind speeds to understand the factors of a team’s performance. Every week I adjust my lineups in order to make sure my team’s matchups are well suited based on the data that I have collected and analyzed. I eventually started to apply techniques I learned from my textbooks in order to expand existing equations into models for calculating various stats like ERAs. I even tried my hand at inventing my own models but unfortunately I think I need a few more math classes to get it right. When I have trouble in understanding certain stats or analyzing a player, I turn to online forums like Fangraphs where experts can help me out by giving their opinion on my problem. I see it all as a complex puzzle that leads to a beautiful precision once the right pieces are in place. Fantasy sports play an essential role in my life because it helps me feel significant and important when my team plays well due to my direct contributions and decisions.