“Onboarding Your New Athletes” Presented by Sports Imports

By Heather Feldman, Maryland Eastern Shore Women’s Volleyball Assistant Coach

Picture this: you and your staff have recruited an amazing class full of talented players that complement your returners. It’s August: your team has arrived on campus, and you have a plan for preseason in place. You step on the court Monday morning for your first official practice only to realize that one of your athletes still hasn’t gotten through the NCAA Eligibility Center, two are missing paperwork and aren’t cleared to practice by your athletic training staff, and another is having issues with scheduling classes around your practice times. Now, your banner season has started off on the wrong foot, and you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to put out fires and get everything taken care of before your first match later that month.

Sound like something that’s ever happened to you? As a fall sport, it’s a tough task to get all your ducks in a row before stepping on the practice court day 1. There’s not a lot of buffer time, and sometimes it can be difficult to take care of everything before they ever step on campus. However, there are a few tips and tricks that I’ve found can make this process a lot smoother for everyone involved.

Create a checklist

• I’m a big list person, and need to write everything down or something important will slip my mind and get lost in the shuffle of season preparation. I developed a checklist that I send to each of my incoming athletes with a list of things that need to be taken care of over the summer. I check in with them every week or so to see if they need any assistance and to find out where they’re at in the process. The best thing you can do is get ahead because sending things in to admissions or the NCAA for them to review takes time, your administrators may take well-deserved vacations over the summer and be out of the office, and you don’t want to be panicking taking care of everything one week before the team’s arrival.
• Our checklist includes admissions procedures (be sure to send in those official transcripts once you’ve graduated!), NCAA Eligibility Center updates, athletic training information (schedule your physical early!), housing protocols, orientation information, VISA information for our international student-athletes, and more. I also keep a “Coach’s Copy” for each athlete in an individual file folder and have a section for notes so I can jot things down as the players are updating me and follow up with the appropriate people if necessary. Every athlete has a unique situation they’re coming from: whether they’re an incoming freshman with dual enrollment credits, a four-year transfer, or a junior college transfer that took some summer classes to become eligible, so they may need additional help and/or resources for a particular section of the checklist.

Start a group text

• Everyone creates the big team group text at the beginning of the year that includes your staff, returners, and newcomers, but I think it’s important to also create one with your staff and your new athletes at the start of the summer, especially if you have a bigger incoming class. Sometimes you’ll want to send out an update that applies to everyone, and that can be a lot easier and efficient if done in a group chat. Plus, some of your new athletes may ask a question that others wouldn’t think to ask, so that information can benefit the entire group! This group chat allows for quick information exchanges that can keep everyone on the same page.

Establish standards for your program before new players even arrive on campus

• Most everyone has team meetings during preseason that help determine your core values, establish team and individual goals for the upcoming season, and/or decide what you want to represent both on and off the court. Plus, during the recruiting process you’ve shared with your incoming athletes a little bit about what makes your program special. Now, however, is the time to really solidify that identity. Have your new players do a little bit of homework over the summer to give them a sense of what they’re walking into. For instance, we have every athlete that enters the program watch “Unleashing the Learning Machine” (a great video from Trevor Reagan of Train Ugly), because our program strongly operates around the principles of learning and working with a growth mindset is crucial in our gym. Now, when these newcomers enter our program, they already have an understanding of one of our core values, and are familiar with some of the key words we use in our gym on a regular basis. It helps to get everyone on the same page a little bit quicker because we all know it feels like there’s never enough time in preseason to cover all you want to cover!

While the summer can definitely be a time to relax a little bit before the grind of the season comes around, be sure you’re on top of the little things so both you and your athletes can get started on the right foot. “August you” will be thankful you made your life easier, so that hopefully “November you” can be holding up your conference trophy.