If I Started Over In Player Development …
If I started all over in player development again there are many things I would do based off the experiences I have from working for three college football programs. In this blog I will share the top five things I would do if I started over in player development today.
Get Clarity on Role
I understand interviews have happened and the roles and responsibilities were either shared or seen online before applying, but getting this clarity when you are in the building is paramount to your success. You need to make time with whoever you report to and see how many of the roles/responsibilities detailed in the role are actually part of your role. From experience, you MUST make sure there is clarity in your role.
Create Weekly Time with Who You Report To
I mentioned getting with the person you report to for clarity in your role. After getting clarity on the role make sure you get weekly time with the person you report to, these meetings will help you continue to understand the clarity in your role, but it will also allow for decision makers on the staff to know the impact you are making in the role. The staff members you report to will see your consistency and may give you ownership of deeper decisions impacting the athletes. If the head coach is not who you report to, give maximum effort to meet with them weekly as well.
Find Those Who Will Help You the Most
There is a core group of people who will externally help you in the role. (In my player development course cohorts, we went over creating an external relationships checklist.) When I was in the role some of the people, I worked with the most were academics, strength staff, compliance, recruiting, and nutrition. When I figured out who these people were, I spent a lot of intentional time getting to know them and helping them with their responsibilities as well. There are a lot of people you will meet and work within the role, but you must find your core group.
Take Notes of Everything
In the role there are a lot of things that happen daily. There are a lot of meetings and things to know and remember. Sports are cyclical with many events happening with little to no change each year. After my first coaching transition, I was asked by the new head coach what we did last year for this month during the year, and I did not have notes there to correctly answer his question. From that point on I took notes on everything. I wrote things down, typed things, and scanned many documents. No matter what meeting or conversation you have, take note of the information given to you.
Create a Player Development Support Group
When I began in the role there were 53 people in the role, and I DID NOT REACH OUT TO ANY OF THEM. The next year I changed this and began to reach out to others. During COVID, Roosevelt Boone reached out to me and told me to create a meeting to connect everyone in the player development role. These meetings were a success, and I grew so much as a professional from my time with those in the role. Every time I left one of these calls, I would always ask myself why I did not do this before. So if you are in the role, please reach out and create a support group of those who are in the role.
I really hope you enjoyed this blog. If you are reading this blog and want to get in a player development role, I would like to provide value to your journey through my Guide to Player Development Course here: https://edward-s-site-ca17.thinkific.com/courses/player-development-guide
Check out my podcast episode on this topic here: https://youtu.be/dt1co_u-2Os
Listen to The Player Development Pod here: https://linktr.ee/btf_program
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