This Week's Playbook. A new assistant coach's tax forms are sitting in your inbox. A junior is scrolling past another teammate's commitment post between classes. And the back-field practice that ends in daylight tonight will end in the dark on November 2. None of it shows up on the game schedule, and all of it lands on your desk this month. This week is about getting to that work before it gets to you.
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF SIGNATURE LOCKER
“Fall season is officially here. And if your program still doesn't feel quite ready yet, you're in the right place. Here's what's in September's Signature Locker roundup.”
— Chad Henry, Director of Team Sales | Read more →
THE GAME PLAN
The One Job That Grows Every Time You Add a Coach
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You spent the back half of summer staffing the fall: a couple of coaches, a site lead, a few seasonal hands.
Every one was a call you knew how to make, and every one landed a second job on your desk: the W-2, the tax setup, the workers' comp classification.
That job is the one part of your program that grows with every hire you make, and it was never the work you signed up for.
More from The Game Plan:
THE HUMAN FACTOR
The Recruiting Questionnaire That Only Works When Parents Leave the Room
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Recruiting contact opened in September, and your juniors are watching teammates and rivals post commitment graphics every day.
Most of them are still waiting, and the waiting shows up at practice before anyone says a word about it.
Timelines and profile checklists help with the process, while the harder part is a sixteen-year-old deciding what an unanswered phone says about her.
Here is how one Carolinas program handles the stretch between the window opening and the phone ringing.
More from The Human Factor:
THE TOOLKIT
The Clocks Fall Back November 1. Settle These 4 Schedule Calls First.
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The clocks fall back on November 1, and every practice that runs on daylight right now loses its last hour overnight.
Most programs handle it with a reminder email and a few nudged times, then spend November sorting out who got the lit fields.
Families read the new schedule as a ranking of their kid, whether you meant one or not.
Here are the 4 calls to settle before the change, starting with a count that takes about twenty minutes.
More from The Toolkit:
Have a question or want to share what's working
at your program? We want to hear it.
Have a great sports week,
Chad Henry and the Signature Locker Team
Thought Leaders
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