Sarah Bailey

I started my post-high school academic career at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida. I chose the United States because I wanted to continue my track career at an NCAA Division I school. I began as a biology major but, after a year and a half, realized my passion was in Math and switched my major. I transferred and finished my undergraduate degree in mathematics at University of the Pacific. While at Pacific, I began to explore ways to combine my love of sports and math and worked with a professor on a published paper titled "A Comparison of Academic and Athletic Performance in the NCAA".

After graduating, I took an internship with the (then) San Diego Chargers doing digital media analytics. While there, I was able to better focus on my career path and ultimately decided to return to school for my Master's in Statistics at at Simon Fraser University. At SFU, I took every opportunity that I could to expand my sports statistics research, including participating in the NBA hackathon, being part of the winning team in the Hockeygraphs Data Sprint Hackathon, and working with my advisor Tim Swartz on baseball research for my M.Sc. project.

While finishing my Master's, I was hired for my now current job with the Los Angeles Rams. I was initially hired as a Sports Performance Analyst to work primarily with the athletic trainers and strength staff to analyze workload and optimize performance. However, over the years, my role has expanded, and I am now working with all data and departments on the football side. Most of my work consists of analyzing data from the personnel and medical staff. Personnel work involves assisting the scouting (both college and pro) department to identify key traits in players, project players into the NFL, and evaluate our own scouting system to see which measured variables are most important. My work on the performance side looks at the various measurements we collect to try to optimize players' gameday performance and minimize the probability of preventable injury. I also do some coaching work where I assist in the development of self-scouting reports to plan for future games and analyze prior games. 

Throughout my time at the Rams, I have grown my skills and role. I have had various opportunities to speak about my experience and to help people trying to break into this world. I am very fortunate to work for an organization that pushes the limits with data and continually looks for ways to advance on all fronts. Sports analytics is an amazing, unique opportunity for people to get into sports. It is always evolving, and I can’t wait to witness and be a part of the growth that is to come.

To learn more about Sarah and her team, watch this video and listen to this podcast.

Follow Sarah on Twitter at @sarahrunbailey