Back to School - First Days, First Weeks

Player DevelopmentPlayer Development Education

Aug 27

The semester is here, and SCHOOL HAS BEGUN.

The first day of school has always been a monumental day for me my entire life. I am a school body. As a kid, the whole summer break I was so ready to get back to school. As I grew up the feeling stayed the same as student, teacher, and administrator.

In the player development role, the first day/week of school provided incredible opportunities for deep relationship building. In my experience the players get a little nervous not knowing what to expect from their coming fall semester experience. Some athletes are excited about the new opportunities to grow or graduate and are already looking at the finish line. Either scenario, I was in the position to help ensure both experiences would be good for the student-athletes.

In preparing for the school year there were three fundamental areas I focused on to ensure we would start the semester off smoothly. They were:

Player expectations
Campus engagement opportunities
Community engagement opportunities

These three areas are deeply detailed in the podcast link below, but I will give a quick synopsis of them here.

First Day of School - The Player Development Pod: https://youtu.be/R9SXbVoXwTc

Player Expectations

Please make sure you let your players know in detail what you expect of them in class, in the academic building and in academic advising sessions. Do not leave any gray area. Let them know what you want and let them know what will happen if those expectations are not met.

Campus Engagement

You will have a home game coming up very soon. Get some gear from the equipment staff and hand it out on campus. Invite students to the game. These moments create organic interactions between your campus and your student-athletes where many stereotypes from both sides are eliminated.

Community Engagement

The local school district should be beginning school as well. Reach out to the principals of the local school and see which ways you can help make the first day/week of school special for their students. Visit after school programs and hand out posters/schedule cards.

There is a lot of excitement as the new school year begins, make sure you use this momentum to help your student-athletes and your program. Have a GREAT beginning to the semester.

If you would like more guidance in the player development role, email info@btfprogram.com and let me know how I can champion your player development journey.

If you are interested in the Player Development Guide Course, click here: https://forms.gle/5KgcujWqPgq8eNYq6

Listen to The Player Development Pod here: https://linktr.ee/btf_program

Visit: https://www.btfprogram.com/

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