This Week’s Playbook. The last game of the fall ends, the team photo gets taken, and everyone heads for the parking lot. Over the next few weeks a kid waits on next season's roster, a parent takes a call from another club, a team manager decides whether to do it again, and a few coaches tell you they won't be back for spring. None of those moments shows up on a calendar, and most of them get decided before anyone at the program says a word. This week is about that stretch right after the season, and the few things worth saying while there is still time.

“Everyone wants stronger middle school and high school lacrosse programs. Most people get this wrong. The answer doesn’t start in high school. It starts in town rec.”

— Ricky Reyes, Signature Locker | Read more →

Next year's budget is open, and three back-office decisions are about to renew themselves with nobody in the room.

Winter staff classification, a benefits offer for your coaches, and who runs payroll in March all roll into January by default.

Here is how to make all three on purpose, and how to see what one partnership would pay back to your program in about a minute, with no call required.

— Chad Henry

More from The Game Plan:

The week after your season ends, another club reaches out to one of your families about their daughter.

By the time your coach hears about it, the conversation at home has been running for ten days.

The call gave that parent something she wanted all season: proof that someone sees what her kid can do.

Here is how to make sure your program answers that question first, and more specifically.

— Maddie Soviero

More from The Human Factor:

Two weeks before evaluations, you can already name the kids sitting on the line between teams.

Their parents can't, and for about half of them, January's roster email is going to be a surprise.

The blowup that follows is almost always about the surprise rather than the placement.

Here is the call that tells a family the truth early without giving away the outcome.

— Ricky Reyes

More from The Toolkit:

Have a great sports week,

Chad Henry and the Signature Locker Team

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