Good athletic programs are a perfect match with the school and community they represent. The best athletic programs help drive the mission of the school and community they represent. Building your team's culture with the school's mission and the community it represents in mind will help create a supportive relationship with administration, parents and more. Here are some tips to help coaches match team culture with their community.
The School's Mission and Culture
When you are building team culture, it is imperative that a coach understand the school's mission and culture. A coach must build a team with the school in mind and take advantage of that culture. Embrace your school community and the community around it. Every school offers challenges and advantages. Dive into the mission of the school. If you can build upon what happens inside the school, you will have more success and build better young men and women.
Community Support
The school's community can be a major asset. Local running stores, restaurants and parks offer opportunities for you to garner support from those around the school. Running stores can help build excitement for your team with spike nights, support at meets and just plain knowledge. Restaurants can offer discounts on pizza or sandwiches for events. Parks give your team a place to train. An active community will help in any way they can, but your team has to give back. Help at road races, host meets for youth athletes or run workouts for adults on campus. There are a million ways to get the community involved.
Physical Advantages and Disadvantages
A school's campus and surroundings will be your laboratory. Some campuses offer a lot of space for workouts and distance runs; some offer no space for even warm ups. Look beyond your campus and see if you have parks or neighborhoods you can use without needing transportation. Look for hills or loops you could do from time to time. Google Maps can help with this endeavor. If you have disadvantages (lack of running space, safety issues, etc.), plan to work around them. Find a way to get off campus or ask community leaders for help with issues, for instance they may add a cross walk to help your athletes. Either way, your training must fit within the confines of your school's campus and surroundings as well as the school's own restrictions. Long aerobic running may be challenging, so you may have to adapt training.
School's Daily Schedule
A coach must plan around the schedule of a school. Every school has a different start and end time. Plan your training program around this schedule. Be prepared to sacrifice morning runs or practice travel based on the daily schedule. Understand the climate and daylight issues you may have. In September, you may have daylight well into the evening. By the end of November, daylight may be an issue. Plan your practice schedule accordingly. If you want to keep the same schedule, make sure kids are running before the extra work you do. Your practice schedule can be a great time to show off the hard work you are doing. A morning run on campus as students arrive gives your program some extra notoriety. Doing core in a corner of the gym as other teams finish practice shows how serious your team is.
Look at your school's schedule and work with it, not against it. Find ways to schedule and plan your practice that take advantage of your school's schedule.
School's Calendar
The school's yearly calendar and overall activity calendar can be good and bad for your own team. Sit with your assistants and plan around the calendar. Exams, school holidays, religious observances, assemblies, major sporting events can all affect how, when and where you run practice(for example: the school hosts a big soccer game and you have to adjust practice). Students often take part in schoolwide events. Do not fight against these types of things. They may provide a coach some advantage with team bonding, fundraising or getting recognition for your team. Either way, your training and racing plan must use the school's calendar. If you do not work in the school, the calendar can help you understand the rhythm of the school. You must know when marking periods end as well. Kids will be stressed and often overworked at those times.
School Academics
This aspect of building culture is important and goes hand in hand with the schedules. Some schools are demanding on students. Talk to teachers in your school and get a feel for the academic structure. It may be good to find out when extra help happens or when academic departments offer extra help. If one of your athletes is struggling, the prior research will help save time in finding them the help they need. Also, be aware of exams. Athletes will miss practice, lose sleep and struggle to grow as an athlete during that time. Plan around these time periods.
Other Extra Curriculars
Schools are full of amazing things for students to do. However, there is a fine line between allowing kids to take part in things and creating a culture of success. Kids need to know that practice and meets are important. Encourage younger athletes to try things out. Encourage them to take part in activities before school or after practice. Also, make sure they are learning to practice excellence. A student can be involved with a couple things and do them to the best of their ability. As an athlete, much of their time involves your sport, but the sport should not be everything in their life. If your school has a good culture, moderators will push kids to commit to activities and not go halfway. A coach should push this same culture. Be involved, but be involved in the right ways. Teach your kids to be passionate about a few things in their lives. Be willing to bend here and there to help develop more well-rounded young men and women.
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