HITTING THE BOOKS
Getting your players to hit home runs in the classroom as well as on the field isn’t always easy. Hear some successful strategies from coaches who put their players on the road to academic success.
By Dennis Read
Dennis Read is an Associate Editor at Coaching Management. He can be reached at: dr@MomentumMedia.com
Baseball is a game of numbers. There has always been something magical about hitting .300 or recording 10 strikeouts in a game. But at the high school and college level, the important numbers aren’t limited to the field of play. A low GPA can trump a low ERA, and even the best hitter is of little use when he’s forced to sit on the bench after flunking a class.
Most high school and college coaches have long preached balancing the demands of the field with the demands of the classroom, but increased attention paid to academic performance has raised the stakes. For NCAA Division I coaches, poor academic performance as reflected by a team’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) can result in the loss of scholarships, playing dates, and even postseason play. This past school year marked the first time the NCAA dished out historically based penalties for sustained low APR scores.
High school coaches are also dealing with tougher rules governing academic eligibility for their players. Headlines declaring stricter GPA minimums for varsity athletes have been spotted in a handful of states, including Virginia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Florida, and Iowa.
Now, more than ever, coaches are being held accountable for their players’ off-field performance, which means taking an active role in athletes’ education. Fortunately, many of the strategies for helping with grades parallel those used on the diamond, such as setting the right tone, holding players accountable, and shoring up weaknesses. And many coaches are blessed with strong allies in the drive to improve academic performance. Be they faculty members or academic counselors, these educators can help steer most student-athletes to academic success, allowing them to retain eligibility and showcase what they can do athletically.
Setting The Tone
If coaches want athletes to succeed academically, they must first make it clear that performing well on the field is just a part of a player’s responsibilities. “Coaches set the priority for academic performance on their teams,” says Phil Hughes, Associate Athletic Director and Director of Student Services for Intercollegiate Athletics at Kansas State University. “They create the environment within the team that classwork matters. They set expectations for students to compete academically and graduate. Only coaches can do that.”
For Rodney Hennon, Head Coach at Georgia Southern University, this means taking an active interest in how players perform in the classroom. “The best thing you can do is show your players you have a genuine concern about their academic success and push them in that regard like you do on the field,” says Hennon, who was a two-time Academic All-American as a student-athlete at Western Carolina University. “We’ve always received regular academic progress reports, but recently we’ve begun having weekly meetings with each player to talk about what’s going on in their classes. This keeps the lines of communication open and lets us stay on top of things a little better.”
At Fresno State, Head Coach Mark Batesole has helped his team raise its APR score from 850 in 2004 to 963 for the 2007 season. “We made that kind of improvement with one main tool,” he says. “We became personally involved with our players’ academics.”
The Bulldogs coaching staff holds weekly meetings to review each player’s academic notebook, which includes information about teachers, schedules, and graded materials for all their classes. Batesole also has players keep a weekly log of what they do in each class session.
“For instance, it may say ‘Tuesday, 9:00, HS 170: Saw film,’ or ‘DS 70: Took a quiz,’” he explains. “It sounds like overkill—and it takes a ton of work on the part of the coaching staff to go over those things with each player. Sometimes it means we might miss a game or two recruiting-wise or we see one less pitcher on film. But we felt we really had to get a grip on what these guys were doing academically, and it has made a major difference.”
Setting academic standards is useless, though, if you’re not willing to enforce them. “You need to set your expectations and then put them in writing along with the consequences that will result if they aren’t met,” says Hughes, who is also President of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics. “What happens when someone doesn’t play the game the way you want it to be played? They lose playing time, do 100 pushups, or run stairs. You have to back up your expectations in academics the same way you do the ones on the field.”
That’s just what Hennon does at Georgia Southern. “When players aren’t putting forth the effort, whether that means missing class or not turning in an assignment, you have to discipline them—not only for their sake, but for the entire team’s,” he says. “Here, the first time a player runs into trouble, he’ll have some type of punishment, such as extra running. The second time, the penalty will double, and after that he could be suspended from the team.”
While the focus on test scores and GPAs has increased, Bucky Mieras, Head Coach at Orono High School in Long Lake, Minn., says establishing one numerical goal for all players can be a mistake. “More than anything else, we talk to our players about being the best they can be,” says Mieras, who served as Dean of Students at the local junior high school before becoming the high school’s activities director this summer. “If a 2.8 GPA is the best they can do, then you have to be realistic about that. A kid who isn’t getting a 4.0 may still be learning a ton.”
Team Game
While academics are largely a solo pursuit, the benefits of teamwork still apply. One way coaches can drive home the importance of academics is to show players that grades really are a team issue. It’s harder for an athlete to sleep through an 8 a.m. class if they know that their teammates will also suffer the consequences.
Hennon stresses the “all for one” concept by assigning each new player a veteran teammate as a mentor. In addition to promoting team chemistry and providing younger players with a source of guidance, the pairings also provide accountability.
“If a freshman is missing a class or a meeting, not only is he required to run, but so is his mentor,” Hennon says. “And if it gets to a third or fourth offense, the entire team is punished with some form of discipline running. Because the older guys don’t want to be punished for their partners’ mistakes, they’ll take them under their wing and say, ‘Here’s what you need to do to manage your time better.’ It reinforces the message that younger players hear from coaches and administrators about going to class, working hard in study hall, and getting help when they need it.”
This brings in another team aspect to academics: the team of people who are there to help student-athletes. Most coaches and athletes have access to academic support staff, which can be an invaluable resource. “The first thing to know is that we are educators,” Hughes says. “We’re not babysitters. We’re not hand holders. We’re not eligibility brokers. We don’t drag kids kicking and screaming toward academic progress.
“We educate them about the priority of an education and how to succeed in college, which is different from getting through high school,” he continues. “We talk about life after sports. We talk about overcoming the challenges of college. And that’s all tied to personal development, which involves motivation and taking responsibility for your choices.”
In Hughes’s view, the best way to foster that personal development is through a joint effort of the academic support staff and the coaching staff—preferably the head coach. “In some programs, the head coach assigns an assistant coach as the liaison for academics, and I understand why that happens,” he says. “But I encourage head coaches to receive the academic information themselves. That way they know what their players are doing on any given day and how seriously they’re taking their academics.
“And this means more than just grade checks,” Hughes continues. “They should be asking academic support personnel, ‘How is that student doing on quizzes or tests? Is he showing up for tutoring sessions? Does he seek advice about majors, degree programs, and developing a schedule?’”
Another source of assistance is faculty. Simply by their vocation, most teachers will gladly help a student looking for extra assistance, as long as he’s willing to put in the effort.
“If I get a report saying someone is doing C or D level work,” says Paul Benim, Head Coach at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, “I’ll be direct with him and say, ‘Okay, whatever we’re doing now isn’t working. I’ll give you 36 hours to talk to the professor and tell me how you’re going to approach this differently.’”
Coaches can also help bridge the gap between faculty and students. “We’ll often talk to professors to see what our players can do to turn things around,” says Robert Fisher, Head Coach at Baldwin-Wallace College. “We hope the players do this too, but a lot of times they’re a little intimidated.”
Mark Hey, Head Coach at Ankeny (Iowa) High School says approaching the teacher first is especially important in high school. “Sometimes student-athletes don’t have a good grasp of why they’re failing a class,” he says. “So I’ll talk to the teacher, who will often say the student just needs to come in for a little extra help. And then I facilitate that.”
Help doesn’t have to be limited to the formal academic structure. Although Benim starts by having struggling players talk with their professors, he also suggests they find a teammate who has done well in the same class.
“Sometimes a change in verbiage or hearing the material from a peer instead of an authority figure can make a big difference,” he says. “We have a strong engineering program here and the labs are very demanding. But there’s nothing better than seeing an upperclassman working with a freshman to help him learn a programming language or piece of online software.”
High school coaches have an additional card they can play, but it’s often a wildcard: parents. “Sometimes parents are unbelievably supportive,” Hey says. “They’re willing to listen, think about improvement plans, and help implement them, whether that means creating a good study environment at home or setting aside an hour each night to monitor homework. For others, home life is a little chaotic, and in those cases, we may have to do more of their homework at school.”
In either case, Hey says you may have to walk a fine line between helping the student and enabling him. “We really try to encourage kids to get themselves to a place where they don’t have to be reminded every day to get their work done, hand in the assignments, and stay on top of their grades,” he says. “I’ve had kids who came in every night after school and sat with me so that I could make sure they did their homework. But eventually you have to tell them you’re not going to be there in college, and neither are their parents.”
The Reluctant Client
In many cases, simply getting a player to reach out for help—and accept it—is the hardest part. Some players don’t want to upset coaches with bad news. Others are used to getting by without much effort and might find themselves struggling academically for the first time.
It’s often up to the coach to break through that protective layer. “The biggest thing is getting them to understand we’ve all been there and there are people who can help,” Hennon says. “We understand the demands they’re under as student-athletes. I tell them I’m not going to be upset as long as they put forth the effort, go to class, and do their assignments.”
Hughes says that one of the best ways to overcome younger players’ reluctance to ask for help is to provide it to all the players, whether they need it or not. “A coach should have mandatory study sessions for all new students,” he says. “The students won’t like it, and some will say they study better by themselves, which may be true. But the point is to let students know we’re here and let the academic support staff see how they study. Once student-athletes prove they can handle college, usually by meeting a set GPA, they’re no longer required to come to study table. But at least they’re familiar with the environment and know where they can go for help if they ever need it.”
Mandatory study sessions are only the first step, according to Hughes. He also suggests that players be required to meet with tutors. Again, part of the purpose is providing insight into a student-athlete’s academic abilities while exposing him to available resources, but just as important, mandatory tutoring can alter a student’s view of tutoring.
“We have to change the perception that tutoring is for dummies,” he says. “You need to teach kids that tutoring is not a function of ability, it is a function of time. It’s for anybody who has restrictions on his time and that includes everybody on the team, from the A student to the F student.”
Even when athlete-specific academic resources are missing, coaches can still take important steps to help their players. “Find out what types of tutoring are offered on campus,” Hughes says. “Are there peer tutoring groups in the engineering college? Does the chemistry department have structured student study groups as part of the intro to chemistry class? As you gain experience, you’ll know which courses are going to require tutoring. You may not always have the resources to assign a tutor to each kid for each course, but you might assign one tutor and see how the player responds.”
A Job Well Done
While much of the discussion about academic performance centers on helping those who are not making the grade, Hughes says that’s only half the picture. Praise and reward should be as much a part of your toolbox as reprimands and punishment.
“It goes back to mirroring the athletic model,” Hughes says. “If someone hits a home run, everybody stands and cheers. When someone performs at a high level, you should applaud it—whether it’s on the field or in the classroom.”
Fisher has long followed the same approach at Baldwin-Wallace. “We really try to build on all kinds of positive things, whether it’s a good at-bat in the eighth inning, a good inning pitched in relief, or a good grade received on a test,” he says. “If a student-athlete knows he’s being recognized for what he does well, he’ll keep trying to do it.”
There’s no limit to the ways coaches can recognize and reward players for doing well in class. “It can be a plaque for the student-athlete of the month or a special dinner for those kids who have done well,’ Hughes says. “You can get a scholar-athlete T-shirt or jacket. Some of this may sound cheesy, but you’d be surprised. The kids eat it up.”
Hughes even suggests granting special privileges to those who do exceedingly well in class as an incentive for others to work harder. “Maybe they don’t have to prep the field before practice,” he says. “Or if a good student misses a class, I might let it slide the first time, while I would have a C student run.”
Exactly how you choose to reward good students isn’t as important as simply choosing to praise them for their academic successes. “The physical awards are nice, but sometimes the biggest thing to kids is knowing they were recognized for trying their best,” Mieras says. “They care about getting personal acknowledgements from their coaches. It can be as basic as saying ‘Keep up the good work.’ To a kid, that shows you care about them and their academic success.”
If coaches care, then athletes will care, too. And praise for the coach will soon follow.
Four years ago, most NCAA Division I baseball coaches only thought about APR when they were looking to buy a house. Now, APR also means Academic Progress Rate and their teams’ score can eventually determine whether that coach will be able to keep their house.
The APR was implemented in 2004 to prod schools and teams to improve the academic performance of their student-athletes. Teams that fail to meet an APR benchmark of 925, which represents a 50 percent graduation rate, face the loss of scholarships. Prolonged failure to meet standards can result in teams losing playing and practice dates and even being banned from postseason play.
