Coaches Insider

Setting Your Athletic Department’s Foundation with Martin DuSold – Fellowship of Christian Athletes

ADInsider — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:00:23 +0000

Martin DuSold, former Athletic Director at Beaumont High School (CA) and current Area Director for the FCA, discusses culture and setting the foundation for your athletic program.

He covers in detail the following points:

Mission/Vision Statements
District HR Policies/Coaches Handbooks
Athletic Program Philosophy
Program Outlines/Aligned Team Polices
Pre-Season Parent Meeting
Program Culture/Standards/Core Values

He will also discuss professional development citing books and programs that he has found to be beneficial.

Shifting Game Day Management to a Hospitality Lens with Rob Seymour, CMAA – Fishers High School (IN)

ADInsider — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:00:51 +0000

Rob Seymour explains how to shift game day management to a hospitality lens. He presents six slides and covers in detail examples on how you can take care of game day management.

Enhancing Game Day Experience
Event Management from a Spectators Lens
Promotion of Events
Intentional Hospitality
Appreciate & Empower Your Workers, and
Working with and Hosting Game Officials

The NIAAA champions the profession of athletic administration through educational opportunities, advocating ethics, developing leaders, and fostering community. Find more information on their website here: niaaa.org.

Small School Roster Management with Todd Gulluscio, CMAA – Shelter Island Union Free School District (NY)

ADInsider — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 10:00:12 +0000

Todd Gulluscio explains that as a smaller school, they don't cut students on their athletic teams. Every student has an opportunity to experience a team environment and all that comes with it. The problem is roster management and the solution was the initiation of dual-sport participation where an athlete can participate in multiple sports in the same season. Todd cites the program's culture and that the athletes take pride and responsibly for the success of the dual participation.

Handling Interactions in Education-Based Athletics: Strategies for a Positive Approach [NIAAA]

National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:00:24 +0000

By: Josh Mathews, CMAA - Pope High School, (GA) and Jeremy Schlitz, CAA - Madison Metropolitan School District (WI)

Education-based athletics offer an excellent opportunity for young students to learn valuable life skills such as leadership, teamwork, and perseverance. However, as with any activity that involves children, there is a need and intrinsic valuation from and based on parent involvement. In some cases, parents may negatively impact the experience for their children, coaches, and other parents. As athletic administrators we want to be proactive and minimize any negative impact through communication, foundation setting, and systems to reach all in the athletic community and support network.

To address this issue, the National Athletic Director Conference (NADC) recently held a workshop on handling parent interactions in a positive manner led by Joshua Mathews and myself. This article can hopefully explain the workshop, provide strategies for a positive approach, and provide you with tools to improve your programs, communications, and well-being.

Education-based athletics are focused on providing students with opportunities to learn and grow, which sometimes may conflict with experiences families have in youth or club sports. To avoid conflicts between parents and coaches, it is important to establish expectations for all involved in the interscholastic athletics program. Coaches should be transparent about their coaching philosophy and communicate their goals and objectives with parents clearly along with taking feedback at an early- or pre-season meeting to make sure students lead the culture and communications.

Parents often feel the need to push their children to succeed, which can create a stressful environment. To avoid this, coaches should focus on creating a positive environment that emphasizes effort over results and uses defined communication protocols and student voice. Using a consistent message in communication such as students should “own their own experience” helps reinforce ownership and skill building for students to advocate for themselves. By encouraging students to enjoy the process of learning and growing, coaches can reduce stress and build confidence.

Education-based athletics should have a clear mission and core values that are communicated to parents and students. This helps create a sense of community and shared purpose. Coaches should work with players to develop these values and ensure they are consistently upheld.

Here is an example with a vision as a goal, mission as current status, and purpose as rational from Madison Metropolitan Schools developed with a cross-sectional team of all constituents.

Our vision is that MMSD athletics provides equitable programming opportunities that support the district’s vision to prepare all students for college, career, and community.

Athletics play an integral role in community building and identity of Madison schools and support the development of commitment, reliability, honesty, integrity, accountability, and perseverance in each of our student athletes. Through participation in co-curricular athletics programs, students strive to become better students, athletes, leaders, and citizens.

Our purpose is to provide unique educational experiences that will contribute to the development of better citizens. Emphasis is upon the teaching "through" athletics in addition to teaching the "skills of" athletics.

Interscholastic athletics should be inclusive and promote equity. It is important to define team selection and make-up as it may vary from prior experiences. Identifying the focus as participatory, preparatory, or competitive for a team lays the foundation for parents to use as a backdrop for their students' expectations and needs.

Parents should encourage their children to support their peers and openly discuss their goals and roles with both peers and the coaching staff. This fosters equity and inclusion while allowing children to take ownership of their experiences.

Parent meeting agendas should be created to ensure that all important topics are covered. Kickoff meetings should include a link to online resources to ensure all parents have access to important information. Newsletters and videos can be used to keep parents informed and engaged. Weekly newsletters can be sent out to parents to keep them up to date on the program's progress. Videos can be used to provide instructional information and to showcase student successes.

Sample Parent meeting agenda:

Importance of Parent Communication Network (PCN) -
organize non-sport stuff, not a sounding board for team/coach issues, as a former coach the benefit of having a solid communication and support network is such a blessing.

Communication -
I think it is important all of our student-athletes advocate for themselves. I expect that a player with a concern would talk to a coach and then involve both player and parent in further communications with the coach following this chain of command: Player – coach, player and parent – coach, player – AD, player and parent – AD. As always please contact the athletic office with any major concerns that need immediate attention.

Athletic code -
Need your help as parents to hold accountability, please be ahead of things and contact the athletic director when you hear or notice things so we can stay out in front of it and be proactive in preventing bad things from happening. Also, please keep all team sponsored gatherings and banquets completely alcohol free.

Social media -
Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, etc. – does not go away and can be misinterpreted. This can become the basis for school discipline, the best rule of thumb is to pretend that anything going up on social media is being heard or seen by your coach.

Schedule/e-Communication (letter) -
School will have real-time decisions on it, email and text notifications available.

Fees -
Thank you for taking care of the athletic fee, must be in prior to the first contest, any fundraising approved through me in the athletic office, district guidelines for accountability, and support.

Coaches should be carefully selected to ensure that they have the right skills and approach. Surveys can be used to gather feedback from parents and students to help identify the qualities that are important in a coach following a season. Guidance should be provided to ensure that equity is promoted throughout the education-based athletics program. Coaches should be trained in how to identify and address bias, and parents should be encouraged to promote equity and inclusion, not focus solely on their individual experience or motivation.

Tone and approach when dealing with specific parent interactions is important when confronted and depends on the relationship previously established. When in an emotionally charged situation, it is always important to remain calm and model professional decorum to help reduce the energy in the room. Breathing techniques, pausing, and being an active listener are keys to these situations.

A quick example of a grounding technique is counting to three as you breathe in, holding for four, and breathing out to a count of five. This quick 10-second intentional grounding allows you to separate everything that happened before during the day and allows you time and space to engage in a difficult conversation. This technique also may be able to be used during the conversation to model behavior to allow for pause to allow for people to be able to process information and share in a genuine manner to access the critical thinking skill you need to be able to communicate and think clearly during these tough conversations.

Additional suggestions:

Parents should be encouraged to attend and participate in these events:

Booster clubs can be a valuable resource for education-based athletics. They can help with fundraising and provide additional support for the program
Athletic kickoff nights can be held to build community and promote the program
Celebrations should be held to recognize student achievements and to build community

Students should be encouraged to take ownership of their experience in education-based athletics.

Leadership groups can be established to help students develop leadership skills and take on additional responsibilities
Traditions can also be established to build a sense of community and a shared identity
The role of the school before and after the season should also be clearly defined. College athletics liaisons can be established to help students navigate the college athletics process

4 Questions for Leaders with Justin Dixson, CMAA – Decatur Central High School (IN)

ADInsider — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 16:00:33 +0000

Justin Dixson discusses and explains 4 questions that leaders must ask themselves. #1 What mindset are you bringing? #2 What is your strategy for creating positive energy? #3 How strong are the connections you have built? #4 What is your plan for making a difference?

Dugout Protocols with Ray Zepeda – UIL

Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:59:32 +0000

Watch as Ray Zepeda discusses Bench Protocol (Rule 3-3-1) and explains that the Head Coach is responsible for the personal conduct and behavior of all team members and team personnel. It is important to communicate behavioral expectations to all your players including dugout behavior.

Catching: Plays to the Plate with Brendan Eygabroat – Univ. of Massachusetts Boston

American Baseball Coaches Association — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 03:04:27 +0000

Watch as Coach Brendan Eygabroat discusses catchers receiving throws to the plate. They work on it from all different angles and Coach prefers the catchers to block and tag using two hands and follow the glove. There are instances when the catcher will tag using one hand such as hook slides so they must practice this technique.

Watch the full ABCA Q&A session with Brendan Eygabroat free here.

Point Blank Defense with Kellen Petrone – Univ. of Pittsburgh

American Volleyball Coaches Association — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:10:28 +0000

Watch as Coach Kellen Petrone explains, and players demonstrate this point blank defense drill. This digging drill starts with a defender in the back corner, advancing a step closer to the hitter after every dig. As the defender moves into a point blank range, using their hands becomes difficult, so they focus on keeping them apart and scooping the ball with their arms. This drill provides multiple dig reps from various spots on the court, helping defenders build quick reactions and control.

Arguing Is a Waste of Time; Discussions Are Useful with Lane Kiffin – Univ. of Mississippi

Nike Coach of the Year Clinics — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:41:33 +0000

Watch as Coach Lane Kiffin explains the importance of emphasizing being team players to both players and coaches. He states that ego can be a problem and understanding how it can have a negative impact is important. Ego can come into play when communicating with players and coaches and the goal should always be to work for the best answer and not arguing to defend an opinion. Coach recommends discussing ego with your staff and players so that all communications are not based on arguing but with productive discussions.

Faceoffs: Right- and Left-Hand Clamp Drill with Peter Dolan – Iona Univ.

Intercollegiate Mens Lacrosse Coaches Association — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:13:06 +0000

Watch as Coach Peter Dolan explains, and a player demonstrates this right- and left-hand clamp faceoff drill. The hand placement on a right-hand clamp is the palm up to the sky and the thumb on the top of the stick. The focus is on getting the stick to the ball stop while punching down the line into the ball. The top of the thumb should be across the mid-line into the ground. The butt end of the stick should also cross the mid-line. The left-hand clamp involves using one hand and getting the butt of the stick over the mid-line.

Peter Dolan was previously a coach at High Point University and Rutgers University.