This Week’s Playbook. The holidays are a few weeks away, and a Thanksgiving trip can cost a kid their spot if the answer is late or vague. You already know how quickly that happens: a parent texts that their kid will miss a couple of practices, and they feel like their spot is already in doubt before anyone meant that.

Send the three sentences that keep the trip from costing them their spot, make the four scholarship calls that decide how many spots you can fund this spring, and set the winter cancellation process before your first snow night, while there is still time to do it on purpose.

“The best thing you can do for a young athlete isn't build their resume. It's develop the person behind it. Everything else will follow.”

— Chad Henry, Signature Locker | Read more →

A parent texts your team manager that their kid will miss two practices and a scrimmage over Thanksgiving week, and the message ends with "Is that going to be a problem?"

They feel like they have a reason to ask, since the lineup depends on who shows up and nobody has said what a missed week does to a kid's place on the team.

The families who don't ask end up canceling the trip, shortening it, or traveling and worrying, and kids hear that worry from the back seat.

Here is the three-sentence answer that tells every family where they stand before the flights are booked.

— Maddie Soviero, Executive Director of Signature Sports Camps

More from The Human Factor:

Some families are already doing the math on whether spring fits their budget.

Most programs find room for those kids, but usually only after a parent asks, and that tends to happen in January.

Families are planning for spring now, and Giving Tuesday donors want to know where their gift will go.

These four calls turn your yes into a standing offer families can count on and donors can fund.

— Chad Henry

More from The Game Plan:

Winter is coming. Soon there will be a day where the forecast says snow this afternoon, and your phone is already filling up with "is practice on?"

You'll probably make the right call, and families will still hear three different answers before your message reaches them.

The confusion comes from everything around the decision: who makes it, when it comes, and where families should look.

Here's the 4-part process to set up now in November, so your first snow night goes smoothly.

— Ricky Reyes, CEO of Carolina Lacrosse Association

More from The Toolkit:

Have a great sports week,

Chad Henry and the Signature Locker Team

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