I think this project has been a tremendous success. Looking back, I feel as though I have accomplished, or at least done my best to try and accomplish all of the things that I had initially set out to do in this time period. Working with Big League Advance has been super enriching, and I am super, incredibly, glad to have been able to gain as much knowledge, experience, and work on a team as well put together as the Big League Advance team is. I have exceeded my expectations on this project. I did not initially think that Big League Advance was going to trust me with as much as they did, and by being given all of this reign to do many important and complex projects, I feel like I’ve accomplished way more than I initially had expected. 

 

I did not experience an overwhelming amount of challenges while I embarked on this project, however I can think of a couple. First, when I started this project, I began by diagnosing film. This was very enjoyable, however the first turning point came when Big League Advance was unable to secure a data set from Pro Football Focus, or PFF for short. Due to this unforeseen problem, the Big League Advance team set out to find many more data sets, and new tasks for me to complete. At this point, this is when Jason gave me a digital R textbook for me to work on, as they found new projects. What I didn’t know then, was that this was going to be the turning point in my Senior project experience. Going from basic Excel mapping to advanced R and SQL queries was a drastic shift, and even though it was initially presented as a challenge, I quickly learned the benefits that would come from the inability to access the data set. For me, this project presented a large risk, because I knew both the chances and consequences of failure. For someone who was semi-experienced (at best) at coding and data science, I knew that Big League Advance trusted me. I think that this trust motivated me to work harder, continue learning through textbooks, and eventually translate that into creating codes and models that I likely would not have been able to create just a few short months ago. 

 

Going into college next year, I will be studying business, but I always dreamt of the intersection between math, business, and sports. What I have found with Big League Advance is that perfect intersection, and I think the model that I have experienced first-hand with Big League Advance has been very informative for me.

If I had to restart my senior project from scratch, I truthfully do not think that I would change much, if anything at all. I feel like I covered all of the boxes I had hoped for and more. The professional experience, and pressure to perform has been an important piece of my senior project, and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to work in this environment before I enter college in the coming fall.

 

To be completely honest, the part of the Senior Project that was the hardest were the reflective elements. I feel like for my project, an internship, much of it felt forced, and not exactly the way that  I would have wanted to best showcase the work I had been doing. 

 

Looking ahead, however, I am excited to show my project to all who are interested, because it is something that I am truly passionate about, and want to show the tremendous amount of effort and passion that I put into this project over this trimester.