Easy-Scout, like all computer software, began as an idea - this one for an inexpensive and easy-to-use personal computer application that could reveal a Football team's "offensive tendencies".  At the time, mainframe-based "scouting" programs were the norm, and typically only available to College and Professional football teams. Scouting data analysis often involved using "punch-cards", paying service bureaus and often waiting 24 hours or more for the results. This was the era of 16mm "game film", in-person "scouting" and "breaking down" game film by hand.  It was also the very early days of the personal computer revolution, when the Apple II and IBM PC were considered to be the "State of the Art".

 

As one of the first football scouting software applications for personal computers, Easy-Scout  traces its origins to the computer lab at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA during the school's history-making 1983 Football season.  Early the following year (1984), the first commercially available version of Easy-Scout (for Apple II computers) was published.   A version of Easy-Scout for analyzing Defenses (Easy-D-Scout) and an IBM-compatible version of each program were released the following year (1985).

 

Easy-Scout contributed a number of innovations to football scouting software in early 1984.  From the very first version, Easy-Scout enabled a football coach to use his own words and "terminology" to categorize an Offense's formations and plays.  Prior to Easy-Scout, football scouting "programs" required using structured naming procedures, cryptic "coding" procedures and often both. Easy-Scout also included what we later came to refer to as "intelligent default values"  -  the pre-filling of the Down, Distance and Field Position based on the result of the previous play.  

 

Many early adopters of "football scouting" software, particularly at the High School level, enjoyed a "competitive edge" from this new "tool" for collecting, managing, and revealing "tendencies".  Like the computers they ran on (and in some ways were limited by), early versions of Easy-Scout and Easy-D-Scout were "text-based" programs and relied on printed reports for their output.  

 

As computers evolved, so too did Easy-Scout.  Major new versions of Easy-Scout were released in 1996 (Easy-Scout / Easy-D-Scout for Windows), 1998 (Self-Scout for Windows),  2002 (Easy-Scout XP) and 2007 (Easy-Scout XP Plus and Professional).   In addition to being easier to use, these Windows-based versions that debuted in 1996 added improved and streamlined tendency reporting. Self-Scout was the first Easy-Scout version to combine Offensive and Defensive tendency reporting in a single application, and Easy-Scout XP significantly improved Easy-Scout's on-screen and printed data analysis capabilities. 

 

Improvements in video technology, coupled with the improving capabilities of computers to process and store digital video, enabled us to add video editing and video analysis tools to Easy-Scout's data collection, reporting and analysis capabilities.  Easy-Scout XP Professional, first released in 2007, marked the final chapter in the evolution of Easy-Scout after 20+ years of development. 

 

As traditional software applications, Easy-Scout products do not require annual subscription fees or an internet connection, and remain available for computers running Microsoft Windows.