Chip Krotee, Co-Founder, CEO
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Chip Krotee has spent 20 years on Wall Street in various roles, most recently as principal at Mariner GreyArc. He has embraced quantitative metrics to invest across the capital structure. Chip also serves as an advisor to several financial technology firms. Chip graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Chip played soccer for Army’s nationally ranked teams and played professionally for VRF Baumholder in Germany.
Dr. Jonathan Nichols, Ph.D, Co-Founder, DIRECTOR OF ANALYTICS
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Dr. Jonathan Nichols received his BSc in Mechanical Eng. from the University of Delaware and MSc and PhD degrees from Duke University, also in Mechanical Eng. He has authored over 100 peer reviewed journal articles and 3 textbooks focusing on the development and application of probabilistic models to forecasting complex system behavior. As the analytics team lead, he has created a suite of tools for predicting athletic performance and quantifying the uncertainty in those predictions. The emphasis is on providing coaches and managers the information needed to make important decisions on how to best identify & develop talent, and ultimately use that talent in game situations. Dr. Nichols is also a former Division I soccer and track athlete (University of Delaware) as well as youth coach in both sports. His combined experiences as scientist, athlete, and coach provides DSA Labs valuable insight into the unique challenges associated with modeling and predicting athletic performance.
Doug Oppenheimer, Co-Founder, DIRECTOR OF COACHING & PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
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Doug Oppenheimer has served as a distinguished teacher and educator for more than 23 years. He has also served as a coach at all levels of youth soccer and holds numerous coaching licenses. He holds a United States Soccer Federation C License, a United Soccer Coaches Premier Diploma, a UEFA C License, and is working on his UEFA B License. He has traveled extensively, studying at various academies and working with coaches from around the world to better understand the process of developing elite players and establishing a championship culture. Doug captained the Colby College Soccer Team and went on to play for Bank of England A.F.C. First Team in England.
Bobby Novak, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT ENGINEERING
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Bobby Novak is a software engineer and a full-stack web developer for DSA Labs. He graduated from University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a BS in computer science. Bobby provided an accessible, user-friendly interface for DSA’s suite of analysis and forecasting tools including: “real-time” data entry, data visualization, team and database management.
Scott Krotee, PRODUCT MANAGER
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Scott Krotee is a Product Manager with DSA Laboratories. He serves as the key liaison between the software development team and the end user.
As a student-athlete, he graduated with a B.S. in Health/Wellness from Gardner-Webb University and M.S. in International Marketing (MIM) from Saint Joseph’s University Haub School of Business.
Prior to joining DSA Labs, Krotee served as a NCAA Division I goalkeeper coach for 5 years. During this time, he also contracted for one of the largest college athletics identification camp companies in the nation, fulfilling over 50 contracts. Prior to coaching, Krotee was a NCAA Division I and 4-year professional goalkeeper.
Kaleigh Fratkin, PRODUCT MANAGER
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Kaleigh Fratkin is a product manager with DSA Labs, focusing on growing the ice hockey vertical. Kaleigh is entering her 10th season as a professional ice hockey player in North America. She also serves as a marketing manager for Timberland. Prior to entering the professional ranks, Kaleigh played Division I ice hockey at Boston University where she graduated with a B.S in broadcast journalism. Later, she obtained a M.S in organizational leadership from Northeastern University.
Kaleigh has also coached numerous players at all levels from youth to college, and specializes in player skill development.
Dixon Matthews, ASSOCIATE PRODUCT MANAGER
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Dixon Matthews is an associate product manager with DSA Labs, focusing on onboarding clients and familiarizing them with the StatLink interface. Dixon has recently graduated from Miami University (OH) with a B.A. in Sports Leadership and Management and a minor in Business.
Katie Krotee, ASSOCIATE MARKETING & PRODUCT MANAGER
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Katie Krotee is an associate marketing and product manager with DSA Labs. Katie is a Texas native, playing soccer in the Houston area for Challenge Soccer Club’s ECNL team. Growing up, she also spent time living in Germany with her family, where she played with the Bundesliga Club, MSV Duisburg. More recently, Katie was a four year member of the University of Maryland Women’s Soccer Team, graduating in 2022 with a B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Public Relations.
Laura Diaz Ramos, PRODUCTION MANAGER
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Laura Diaz Ramos specializes in crafting and managing high-impact content with DSA Labs. She has a background in communication sciences and a specialization in corporate communications. Laura has experiences working with ESPN, Telefónica, Colombiagol, and is the founder our her own business, Diaz Ramos LLC. She is also a graduate of Universidad del Norte in Colombia.
Kirstin Nichols, MARKETING ASSOCIATE
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Kirstin Nichols is a marketing associate at DSA Labs, specializing in website design and social media content creation. She is currently a Division I cross country and track athlete at the University of Maryland earning a double degree in journalism and social data science on the economics track.
Dr. March L. Krotee, Ph.D, CONSULTANT
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Professor Krotee possesses over 50 years experience as a distinguished educator and scholar in sports management while serving on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Carnegie-Mellon University, George Mason University, University of Minnesota, and currently North Carolina State University. He has authored several texts, delivered hundreds of research presentations, and been honored for his contributions to sports management by the governments of Bahrain, Brazil, China, Kenya, Mexico, Turkey, and Uruguay among others. He has been recognized by sports institutions and associations including the United States Olympic Committee, The President’s Council on Physical Fitness, United States Field Hockey, United States Soccer Federation, United States Triathlon Association, and Special Olympics International. He is a Kellogg/Partners of the Americas Fellow, a Sports Ethics Fellow for the Institute of International Sport, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar. He has decades of experience at home and abroad in sports and sports science and provides DSA an unmatched understanding of how to enhance sports performance.
Dr. James D. Nichols, Ph.D, CONSULTANT
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Dr. James D. Nichols has >45 years experience as a research scientist focusing on drawing inferences and developing models for ecological systems. He has authored >450 publications, including 11 books. He is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award (Meritorious Senior Professional) and various awards from scientific organizations (American Statistical Association, The Wildlife Society, Ecological Society of America, American Ornithological Society), universities (University of Florida, Michigan State University. Louisiana State University, Auburn University, Colorado State University), government agencies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service) and private organizations (Ducks Unlimited). He has coached youth soccer and basketball.
Who We Are
DSA Labs (Developmental Sports Analytics) is a software company that specializes in sports data management and analysis for coaches, players, and scouts. Their state-of-the-art software, StatLink, allows organizations to integrate data streams from commonly used providers like WyScout and Catapult, with customized player metrics of their own design. The result is a uniquely powerful software platform for tracking, predicting, and improving player and team performance. DSA’s customers rely on StatLink to save them time and energy while managing their respective roles in the digital age of sports.
Our Story
DSA began as a simple effort among friends to better understand the “beautiful game.” Each of us played collegiately and, despite ultimately pursuing other careers (Business, Math/Physics, Education, and Computer Science), continue to stay involved as avid fans and coaches.
As we evolved in both our coaching and research, we found a number of services aimed at data collection, but nothing that focused on drawing useful conclusions from the metrics and gave actionable insights. In response, we set out to develop a mathematical framework for using the available data to improve the way we identify and develop talent as well as our teams’ performances on the field.
The result is the DSA web application, StatLink, which combines a sophisticated statistical inference engine with a simple, easy-to-use interface. It can leverage multiple sources of data in our modeling approach to address some of the biggest coaching challenges, including talent identification, forecasting player ability, making line-up decisions, performing personality assessments, and ultimately, predicting game performances.
In short, we believe that metrics alone are insufficient to improve sports performance. Yet, knowing how to capture, organize, aggregate, and visualize that data is the key to a competitive advantage!