CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Appalachian League has announced its data coordinator and content creator interns for the 2024 season.
The data coordinator serves as a technology liaison for their respective team, tasked with managing in-game video operations and the technology needed for data capture. They are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the data while working closely with the Draft League’s tech partners to identify and troubleshoot issues. Most importantly, each data coordinator is essential in distributing information to players, coaches and scouts.
The content creator position, new for the 2024 Appy League season, will help produce short-form content, live pre-game, in-game and post-game content, and player storylines for the league’s social media pages. Overall, content creators will aim to boost engagement, awareness and promotion of the players, teams and the league.
“Our data coordinators are essential to what we do from both an operations and player development perspective. We are so proud of last year’s group and what they went on to do and I think this crew is poised to be even better,” Appalachian League executive director Brian Graham said.
“The newly created content creator positions are going to provide more exposure than we’ve ever had before,” Graham added. “Our two highly qualified hires are going to show a whole new audience why the Appy League is quickly becoming the premier summer ball destination.”
Here are the Appy League’s data coordinators and content creators for the 2024 season:
Data Coordinators
Jacob Zacharia, Bluefield Ridge Runners
Zacharia joins Bluefield after working as a baseball operations intern with the New York Yankees this past summer. He helped execute tracking metrics at the Minor League level with the Yankees, such as home to first times, catcher throws and pitch results. He also assisted with game day duties such as data capturing and maintenance of capturing tools. A double major in business administration and sport management at Michigan, Zacharia is the co-president and founder of the Michigan Sport Venture Group, the first across the country where students explore entrepreneurship and finance within sports. He also serves as the Michigan Sports Business Association’s alumni relations and event planning committee member, helping connect current members to its alumni network and setting up various events. Outside of Ann Arbor, he is the president and founder of Vegas Baseball Buddies, a non-profit organization that helps provide clinics, gear and education to the youth baseball scene from ages four to 18 in the Las Vegas area.
Will Dolan, Bristol State Liners
Dolan joins the State Liners with data coordination and student-athlete experience at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he studies business administration. Working in data coordination as part of the school’s student-athletics program, Dolan helped maintain statistical records to ensure accurate data tracking, monitored player performance and collaborated with the social media team to enhance player spotlights and engagement as well as operate data technology. Dolan also serves as the University of Texas at Dallas’ baseball captain, helping the Comets to a 30-14 record this past season.
Todd Daugherty, Burlington Sock Puppets
Daugherty will join Burlington after completing his junior year at Illinois State, where he studies marketing analytics. With the Red Birds baseball program, he serves as a student manager and director of video and analytics. He runs TrackMan and other technology and video operations, helping the team with player development and scouting reports. Last summer, Daugherty worked with Prep Baseball Illinois as a summer intern, helping run events and showcases with post-coverage write-ups.
Payton Stevens, Danville Otterbots
Stevens joins the Otterbots after his junior year studying management information systems at Oklahoma State, where he held two roles with the Big 12 championship baseball program. As an analytics intern, Stevens has used various data-capturing programs and tools to help create scouting reports. He has also served as the Cowboys’ bullpen catcher. For the past two summers, Stevens was a data entry analyst with the Texas Rangers’ Double-A affiliate, the Frisco RoughRiders, running MiLB.com gameday, pitch timer, TrackMan and official scorer. In the roles, Stevens would help communicate key events from games and live need-to-know information to the media and broadcast to enhance the team’s coverage.
Jack Rehagen, Elizabethton River Riders
Rehagen joins Elizabethton from Southeast Missouri State, where he is studying sports management. A student manager with the school’s baseball program, he assisted with the team’s practices, scrimmages and operation of data capture technology, collecting pitcher data and player film. Rehagen also works as a broadcasting assistant with ESPN+ to help film and stream other Southeast Missouri State games, and is in his second year as a sales associate with the St. Louis Cardinals. Before that, he was an operations intern and player analyst in the Prospect League, recording stats, operating the video board and scoreboard, assisting in preparing and breaking down the field, and creating scouting reports for players entering the NCAA transfer portal.
Austin Webb, Greeneville Flyboys
Webb brings his experience on the field as a player and coach, along with an emphasis on data analytics, to Greeneville this summer after finishing the 2024 NCAA season as a graduate assistant with the Tusculum Pioneers. In his coaching role, he acts as the program’s director of baseball operations, coordinating video and data analytics. Before joining the Pioneers, he graduated with a degree in mathematics from Westminster College, where he was also a member of the school’s baseball team. Webb was an All-Conference Honorable Mention selection after slashing .302/.391/.402 with 34 RBI as a senior.
Jackson Scudder, Johnson City Doughboys
Scudder joins the 2023 Appalachian League Champion Doughboys after completing his freshman year at East Tennessee State, where he serves as the director of data and analytics for the school’s baseball team. Along with his team responsibilities, he is the head of content with the Drummey Angle Baseball Analysis Blog, helping other writers with story ideas and social media posts that highlight baseball analytics. In the spring of his senior year of high school, Scudder served as an analytics team member at George Mason, creating scouting reports on opponents and analyzing data from Synergy on the Patriots’ 2023 Atlantic 10 Conference Championship team.
Huck Wathan, Kingsport Axmen
Wathan is joining Kingsport after finishing his first year at Southern New Hampshire, where he is studying sports management. He is the acting assistant coach at Providence High School in Charlotte, N.C., and previously was a catcher on the University of North Carolina Charlotte baseball team that won the 2023 Conference USA Championship.
Abigail Finch, Pulaski River Turtles
Studying statistics with a concentration in sports analytics, Finch joins the River Turtles after finishing the 2024 NCAA season as the director of analytics with the George Mason baseball program. In the role, Finch worked with coaches and players to create reports on all aspects of the game for the Patriots and scouting reports on opponents. Last summer, she was a social media intern in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, posting live for the 13-team league on social media. Previously, Finch attended the University of Charleston and was the baseball programs’ director of analytics, social media and pitching development. In the summer of 2022, Finch was a data coordinator with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the MLB Draft League.
Alex Cullen, Tri-State Coal Cats
Cullen will serve as Tri-State’s data coordinator during the team’s inaugural season in the Appy League. He recently completed his freshman year at the University of Missouri - Columbia, where he studied statistics. As a Mizzou baseball analytics group member, he's helped create scouting reports and handled day-to-day video capture and data tracking.
Content Creators
Kaitlyn Piston, East
Traveling around the East Division and covering Bluefield, Burlington, Danville, Pulaski and Tri-State, Piston joins the league after graduating from Mary Washington, where she studied marketing. She played a pivotal role in the athletic department as a social media intern for all four years and worked in sports information operations for the past two years. Within the athletic department, Piston helped manage Mary Washington’s volleyball, baseball and basketball pages on Instagram and photographed, filmed and posted live during games.
Caitlin Reynolds, West
Reynolds will provide coverage for Bristol, Elizabethton, Greeneville, Johnson City and Kingsport in the West Division. While studying journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia, she worked as a social media management intern for the gymnastics and volleyball teams in Mizzou's athletic communications department. Reynolds also served as a strategic communications intern within the department, writing press releases, feature stories, previews, recaps and other forms of media to be displayed on social media and its website. Outside of Mizzou athletics, Reynolds has been a reporter for the Missourian and KBIA – local news sources within the Columbia, Mo., area.
For more information about the Appalachian League, visit appyleague.com or follow @appyleague & @appyleaguedata on Twitter, and @appyleague on Instagram.
