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Promoting Your Program
By Lem Elway
November, 4 2008
Building a winning program means getting players and parents involved in your program as early as possible.
In today’s world, rarely can you simply post sign up sheets as the season approaches and expect to have all of the school’s best athletes running for a pen. The time to sell your program to potential participants is well before the season starts, even before they reach high school. With all the different extra-curricular activities available to young people, it is important to inform future players and their parents of the operation, values, and importance of participation in sports at the earliest opportunity.
Coaches often have to put on a new hat to increase the chances of building a successful program that will attract high-quality athletes. This effort requires time and energy that a coach may have trouble finding, and some may rather decide to take whatever athletes they get. But head coaches do not have to handle this task by themselves. Instead they should enlist their assistants and entrust them with some of the responsibility for making your program attractive to potential participants.
As with any endeavor, success begins with a good plan. First, realize nothing will get people more excited about being part of program than winning. People like to view themselves as winners and be around others they see as winners.
Although the best recruiting tool is winning, with today’s teenagers that isn’t always the end all. They may be choosing among several ways to spend their time, all of which offer a good chance of success. That’s why it’s important to work on “word of mouth,” which usually is exchanged in the classrooms and hallways by faculty members, students, and current players alike. Certainly winning makes it easier to create positive feelings, but fortunately it’s not the only way to do so.
Here are some steps coaches can take to increase awareness and enthusiasm among prospective players:
• Work on the parents. It always helps if parents are encouraging their children towards your program. Their motivations can be wide ranging—some are directly related to sports and others can address non-athletic needs.
In order to inform parents, the coaching staff can become engaged in youth programs, especially pre-high school or middle school programs. Holding a fundamentals clinic before the youth season starts is an excellent way to connect with parents. You can relay your coaching philosophy, modes of operation, and program expectations and—if allowed under your state athletic association rules—even invite them to attend practices and other events within your program.
• Encourage eighth graders (assuming ninth graders are part of the high school) to become involved in a pre- or post-school weight program, again as allowed by state association rules. Weight training has become so vital for athletic success that it’s important to engage athletes as part of the high school program as soon as possible.
• Develop a youth recognition program where players are recognized for their contributions to their teams. This award shouldn’t necessarily go to the best athletes, but instead those who are good teammates and exhibit sportsmanship, compassion toward others team members, and other intrinsic qualities deemed important by the program. Youth coaches should set the exact guidelines and select the winners. This keeps the high school program free from the politics than sometimes envelope these kinds of awards.
The selected players, along with a parent or youth coach, arrive at our football game 30 minutes before kickoff. One of the privileges of being selected is walking out on the field with our captains for the coin flip. In addition, the award winners are given game-time bench responsibilities. This special experience is a huge hit with both the youth players and their parents.
The state of school financing has made fundraising a major part of any athletic program, and in turn, forced coaches to find creative ways to increase financial resources. Why not reach out to your future team members while at the same time raising much-needed funds? The following fundraising activities can involve youth program parents and introduce them to your program.
• A great way to encourage involvement in your program is through an auction. This can be either a large or small event, depending on your resources and financial needs. A large event can include high-ticket items solicited from area businesses and a full sit-down dinner. A small auction could involve team members coming up with auction items and be held in conjunction with a spaghetti dinner or other special event. Don’t minimize the amount of dollars that can be made. Have team members pre-sell tickets and suppliers donate the necessary food items. Click here for more details on organizing an auction.
• A very popular money raiser, and auction item, is the opportunity to join the team for a varsity game. For example, in football, that would include the pre-game meeting, pre-game walk through, and locker room preparation. The winner then watches the game from the sideline and is part of the post-game team activities. In addition, this person receives coaching gear to blend in with the staff. This approach has been so successful that we have decided to include away games next year. As coaches, it’s easy to forget that this kind of experience is exciting and unique for a lot of people.
Remember that people connected to your program want to be involved, informed, and heard, so it is important you meet those needs in ways you, as a coach, are comfortable with. Communication skills are among the most important aspects coaching, and they shouldn’t be reserved for your players.
To help people be involved: Make them part of facility maintenance and building projects for your program, fundraising opportunities, and game day operation duties. To help them be informed: Create a website that provides information on coaches, schedules, team stats, and action pictures of athletes in the program. To make sure they’re heard: Provide an e-mail address where people can contact you for any reason, and reply to any reasonable message quickly.
A positive and successful flow from youth programs to your high school requires energy, enthusiasm, and a commitment. If you are willing to do the work, you should soon be able to reap the fruits of your labor.
Lem Elway is Head Baseball Coach and Assistant Football Coach at Black Hills High School in Tumwater, Wash. He served as Head Baseball Coach at Anacortes (Wash.) High School from 1988-2003, and was inducted into the Washington State Coaches Hall of Fame in 1992. Lem has also coached girls' high school basketball and club baseball. His first book, The Coach's Administrative Handbook, was recently published by Coaches Choice. He can be reached at: elwaysports@hotmail.com
