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AD Insights: Work Hard and Work Smarter

Hudl’s school-wide solution allows coaches at this Texas high school to work smarter.

Randy Barnes has a lot on his plate as head football coach and athletic director at Texas’s Farmersville High School. That’s why Hudl’s athletic department package was an easy choice for his program. “Hudl saves us time and makes us better,” he said.

Texas high school athletics are a competitive landscape, and developing a program starts at the junior high level—if not before. With that in mind, Barnes turned to the athletic department package to help even the playing field. “If you’re not top-notch in the premier package with Hudl, your kids are losing exposure, and the AD and head coaches are losing an opportunity to make money,” he said. “It’s just a no-brainer.”

Randy Barnes and other Texas coaches and ADs discuss the insights and time-savings benefits Hudl Assist has brought to their programs.

From Assist to the Athletic Department Package

Barnes started using Hudl Assist more than five years ago, and he’s been sold on Hudl ever since. Assist has been a crucial time-saver for him and his staff. He’s developed a routine—they’ll submit their two previous games on a Wednesday, and get them back fully broken down by Thursday morning.

Having data like down and distance, play type and formation has been invaluable for the Farmersville coaches. So has the precise nature of Assist. “They begin to know our formations—we don’t have to change anything by week 8,” he said. Getting this level of timely and accurate data allows them to reinvest their time to prepare for their opponents down the road.

A Solution for All Sports

With his position as both head coach and AD, he has a wide-ranging perspective on the benefits that the athletic department package has brought. For him and his fellow coaches, the full complement of products have allowed them to allocate their time more efficiently. “As coaches, we’re gonna work hard, but we’re also gonna work smarter. And that’s what Hudl has allowed us to do,” he said.

When he puts his athletic director hat on, it’s clear that the benefits of the department-wide package extend to sports beyond football. Coaches across the program have especially raved about the ease with which they’ve been able to film practices.

“I want every sport to be treated the same,” Barnes said. “I want the volleyball, basketball coaches to have the same access that I do. And they do. Because video is the best coaching tool that we have.”

“I want every sport to be treated the same. I want the volleyball, basketball coaches to have the same access that I do. And they do. Because video is the best coaching tool that we have.”

Livestreaming as a Fundraiser

With video being such a point of emphasis at Farmersville, the Focus camera has been exactly the filming and livestreaming solution the Fightin’ Farmers were looking for.

“It gets out into the community,” Barnes explained. “Grandma in Ohio can watch Johnny Joe play 7th-grade B team football. Do you know what a big deal that is? It’s huge!”

This community outreach also brings potential fundraising benefits. “Now, when we want help for our programs, Aunt Gracie won’t have a problem sending that [check] in.” They’re looking to monetize their livestream—they plan to start selling sponsorships for both the indoor and outdoor cameras in 2022.

Having quality video readily available has also been critical to the growth of Farmersville’s athletes. “Our kids are watching film on their own every night. And I can track that, “ Barnes said. “It helps us.”

Hudl Is on Our Team

Barnes paints a picture of the athletic department package as an all-encompassing solution that uplifts all areas of his program—from the X’s and O’s to the Johnny Joes.

“We’re selling Farmersville High School in everything we do and Hudl is a huge part of that,” he said. “Hudl is on our team at Farmersville.”

Is your school looking to level up your athletic programs? Hudl’s athletic department package is the one solution for every team.

Coaches and athletes working together to eliminate the stigma of mental health afflictions

This article was originally published on www.sidelineinteractive.com

This post is a summary of our key takeaways from Volume 2 Episode #85 of The Educational AD Podcast, hosted by retired high school Athletic Director Jake Von Scherrer. This summary of the podcast episode is posted with permission of Coach Von Scherrer.

You can watch the 35 minute interview on YouTube at this link: Joanne P. McCallie Interview

Joanne P. McCallie is the former Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Maine, Michigan State, and Duke. Coach P’s Career Division I coaching record was 628-243.

Since retiring from coaching, Joanne’s new mission is build a foundation and to be a consultant and advocate and messenger through public speaking and writing to reduce the stigma that often surrounds the discussion on mental health.

Our hope in posting this summary of and encouraging readers to listen to or watch the podcast in it’s entirety is to inspire you to do all you can with your team, school, and community to have open discussions of the importance of being attentive to mental health and to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

She believes that post pandemic, up to 50% of our population have suffered some form of anxiety or depression. Her cause is not just about manic depression, it is about everyone’s brain health.

This is not intended to say that coaches can or should offer professional advice regarding mental health. As coaches, we need to encourage our athletes and work with parents to provide support and encouragement to our athletes to seek professional assistance when it is needed. And, to encourage all athletes to practice positive habits regarding mental health, just as we encourage positive physical health habits.

Here is a summary of our takeaways from Coach McCallie’s interview on the podcast episode:

A mental health affliction is something that and individual suffers from. It is a part of who they are, but that affliction doesn’t define them as a person. No one is “bi-polar,” it is and illness that they suffer from.

As a coach at Michigan State, she began collaborating with professionals in the field of mental health to help improve the mental health of the coaches, players, and support staff in her program. Along with sports psychologists, they worked together to spin negative perceptions that athletes have of their environment or themselves.

Administrators and coaches need to be proactive and not reactive. As much as possible, therapy needs to take place before there is a mental health emergency. Administrators and coaches should openly discuss the importance of both physical and mental health.

She motivates players differently depending on the personality and needs of each individual.

Mental health issues are diseases of despair. With mental health impairment, there’s no intention. You’re simply ambushed. You can’t defend yourself.

Unfortunately, we can’t prevent all crises that are brought on by mental health afflictions, but you can work very hard to create an environment where a young person might think twice about doing something drastic. We need to have some discussion about the subject of mental health and they know that there is somewhere to go and someone to see to get help.

Provide the opportunity and encourage anybody who has a question or concern about mental health to discuss it privately with the coach or Athletic Director. The coach can help by listening and directing the athlete to a trained mental health expert. The coach is not equipped to help the athlete in the way that the athlete needs.

The coach can still be demanding of that athlete. It does help the coach to be able to coach the individual better if you understand that they have some issues with anxiety or depression. The coach can help the athlete find a therapist because any individual with those issues should be seeing a mental health professional.

Another plus to being an advocacy for positive mental health is that If the coach understands the mental health problem, they can more effectively communicate with and collaborate with the athlete’s parents. Together they can privately come up with a plan that helps the athlete to have a more positive athletic experience. Confidentiality is extremely important.

As a young person experiencing her bipolar affliction, Joanne didn’t want to approach her parents because she felt so badly about what was happening, was ashamed, and blamed herself. She felt better with someone who was close and cared about her, but not as close as her parents. Keep in mind that your athletes may have similar feelings.

Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, and many, many others were still champions while dealing with mental health problems. Joanne was a Division I athlete and then a highly successful coach while dealing with her own mental health affliction.

We need to spread that message that mental health diagnoses do not mean that an individual cannot be successful in athletics or in any other area of life. We can still succeed in spite of these diseases. How you deal with and overcome your issues can allow you to become your best self.

Coach P’s message is that you can challenge yourself to be what you want to be and choose difficult, impactful careers without being intimidated by others or by a mental health disorder.

An example of a written message that Coach shared with one of her players: “There are no promises, but dreaming big is the way to go. Knowing full well that things may not go your way. That is the risk we assume for greatness.” This was to an elite student/athlete coming off a severe injury and working to get back to the high level of play that she was performing at prior to her injury.

Coach P did not want her to be satisfied with just coming back from the injury, but to strive to become even better than she was prior to the injury. Joanne’s purpose with the note was to redirect the athlete’s thinking and get her into a better headspace. Dreaming for the highest levels is what it is all about.

Coach McCallie does not focus on the outcome. She focuses on the process. To go after the highest levels of achievement, you have to commit to the process and commit to accepting the results that your process leads to. And, sometimes things work out, but not in the timeline that the athlete or coach has established for themselves.

Athletic Directors Toolbox segment of the show. This is a segment at the end of every episode of the podcast where the guest is asked what three things they can she share with the audience that she would put in her toolbox if she were an athletic director starting a new job.

Coach P actually gave us four items for the Athletic Director’s Toolbox 🙂

1. Get to know the people in the athletic department as individuals. They don’t work for you, you all work together.

2. Be a “coaches Athletic Director.” Support the program by giving the coach confidence.

3. Dig out the problems before the surface and support the coach.

4. Loyalty is something that can never be underestimated.

Joanne also shared her ideas of best practices for conduction practice for coaches of any sport. (In addition to creating her own success, she had the privilege to learn from coaches such as Tom Izzo, Nick Saban, and Mike Krzyzewski.

1. Every minute of practice is accounted for and planned in advance.

2. You have to practice the way you are going to play.

3.There is no room for generalities. You must be specific about what outcomes you are looking for in all areas.

4. She has a “Thought for the day” every day to share with her team.

5. Coaches must constantly ask themselves, how are we going to use our philosophy to better us in practice.

6. The players and the coaching staff must provide each other with positive energy and feed off of each other.

7. In order for your practices to have the best opportunity for individual and team improvement, the head coach must delegate duties to the assistant coaches and to the players.

8. The coaching staff must make time in practice to nurture one on one personal relationships with each student-athlete. One on one and team motivations are different and a coach must be able to effectively do both.

9. The feeling of being completely absorbed in practice is a great feeling for both coaches and athletes.

Joanne is the author of the book “Secret Warrior.” that details her journey as both a student athlete and a very successful coach who continually had to battle impaired mental health.

Developing Inclusive Teams

This article was originally published on www.sidelineinteractive.com

This post is a summary of our key takeaways from Volume 2 Episode #97 of The Educational AD Podcast, hosted by retired high school Athletic Director Jake Von Scherrer. This summary of the podcast episode is posted with permission of Coach Von Scherrer.

You can watch the 27 minute interview on YouTube at this link: Deepjyot Sidhu Interview

Deepjyot Sidhu is the Director of Equity & Inclusion at the Global Online Academy. She is also a former cross country coach. The discussion today includes dome practical steps that we can take as coaches to be aware of the differences

Whose voices do you hear in your head when you are working with coaches, teachers, students, athletes, or parents?

Those voices are the sum of what you have heard from your mentors–from both your experience as a student athlete and as an adult educator. They are the what is still with you from how your parents, teachers, coaches, and other leaders from throughout your life who influenced you.

Regardless of our own personal programming and life experiences, we can decide to do our best to make every encounter a good one. That doesn’t mean to make everything superficially pleasant. It does mean that we can make our own choices as to how we act during all interactions both in our personal and professional lives.

Some of the athletes that we work with have far more athletic skill than we had. Coaching is not only about imparting our knowledge to them, but rather thinking about each athlete individually, what they bring, how they are developing, how they are growing.

Equity and inclusion should be a priority for all coaches and athletic administration. Making it a priority means developing and designing (or better year redesigning) systems, structures, and practices in the interest of equity and equitable experiences and outcomes for all kids.

Key questions that we all need to ask ourselves as individuals and as staffs collectively. What does inclusion mean? How do we design for equity? In part, it means insuring that we focus on every kid as an individual and their individual athletic experience. It means disrupting neutrality to bring intention to an environment that fosters a culture of belonging for all kids.

THREE Specific actions that ADs and coaches can take:

1) Start by reflecting on ourselves–who we are and what our experiences, where we grew up forms our perspective. Starting with self is being aware that your athletes are experiencing things that you aren’t thinking about and are not even aware of. We need to be intentional about expanding our perspective and our lenses. So that we are not inadvertently leaving anyone out

We have points of focus and points that are in our margins. We need to be more aware of the margins of the lenses that we see the world through. It will always be true that you will not have experienced everything that your athletes have experienced. These experiences that your athletes have had or are having are not always physically apparent.

Here is an example that can be extrapolated to our own specific situation. A coach or teacher has not had the experience or even taken the time to consider what it is like for one of their student athletes to have a close family member serving in the active military. Because I have not experienced that, I don’t know what it feels like for one of my athletes who is experiencing that in their lives.

2) Prepare for the ongoing–We all know that team building is not a one-time thing that will last forever. It requires ongoing attention and intentionality. That same intentionality is required to be an ongoing equitable practitioner.

Consistently giving some sustained thought to questions such as: Who is new to our team that we haven’t designed structures and systems for to support them? What can we do to ensure equity for them?

3) Prioritize the Impact You Want to Have–When the goal is to eradicate all inequities, it can be so overwhelming that we might want to give up before we get started.

Always remember that we don’t have to be perfect. We are doing it for our athletes, so it is important to do as much and whatever we can.

When an athlete shows up to your team for the first practice or call out meeting, they are determining in their own mind if they do or don’t fit in with your group. That conclusion they are reaching is based on their life experiences to a great extent. That is why it is important that we consciously and deliberately work to empathize as much as we can.

As coaches and ADs what are we doing to promote belonging?

How do we do a better job of finding the balance of the old school wanting athlete’s to be tough and be aware and sensitive to the challenges that athletes are facing? It starts by reframing what toughness, mental strength, and courage are. It takes both of those to face up to and publicly admit what you are going through.

Knowing what the limit is and how to navigate that limit.

Pressures are increasing on young people in athletics and academics and that stress impacts areas of their lives such as sleep and motivation which allow them to be at their best.

We need to be more intentional about the circumstances we create for our athletes. All while being focused on supporting athletes and less focused on forcing them to comply and to meet unreasonable and often unnecessary standards that don’t help with mental health or performance.

Athletes don’t perform in a vacuum at school or in practices or games–they bring their outside life with them every day.

What advice would Deep have for a new Athletic Director? Have the agency to make every encounter a good one. You do that by thinking about EVERY athlete, EVERY team, and EVERY coach.

If you are interested in contacting Deep for further information or discussion on the topic of inclusion, you can reach out to her on Twitter or at the Global Online website:

@deepjyot

www.globalonlineacademy.org

You can watch the entire interview by clicking the play link below

AD Insights: Every Sport Gets The Royal Treatment

Every sport is on an equal playing field at this Texas high school, thanks to their Hudl Athletic Department Package.

As a former head football coach, Max Kattwinkel learned firsthand how Hudl Assist could be both a competitive advantage and a time-saver for a coaching staff.

“It’s very time-consuming to get film broken down,” he said. “[Hudl] cut our time in half as far as preparation.”

Assist was only the beginning. Now the athletic director at Lubbock Cooper ISD (Texas), Kattwinkel brought those benefits program-wide by upgrading to Hudl’s athletic department package.

“Football is king in Texas,” he said. “But we have a lot of other sports that deserve that same type of preparation, ability and efficiency.”

Two sports in particular have really blossomed while using the athletic department package under Kattwinkel’s watch. “Our soccer programs are in love with it as far as filming and preparation,” he said. Kattwinkel also mentioned baseball as a surprise beneficiary. “I wasn’t familiar with how they’d use it, but they’re raving about it and what it does for them.”

“Football is king in Texas. But we have a lot of other sports that deserve that same type of preparation, ability and efficiency.”

An Indoor and Outdoor Solution

Lubbock Cooper started using Focus Indoor last year and immediately saw the benefits. The hands-off nature and easy usability of the camera are embraced across the program. Coaches have especially loved the ability to record practices—having all the different phases of each practice on film is invaluable to them.

Kattwinkel is excited to bring the same capabilities outdoors. “Sign me up,” he said of Focus Outdoor, which Lubbock Cooper will install this year. With how much basketball and volleyball enjoyed the automatic filming of their practices and games, his decision to bring those capabilities to their outdoor sports was a no-brainer. “The ability to get all our sub-varsity games covered and livestream them as well is a huge, huge component for us,” said Kattwinkel.

Max Kattwinkel and other Texas athletic directors discuss how Hudl’s athletic department package has been key in helping them grow their programs.

Bringing Sports into the Community

Both Lubbock Cooper and the broader community have felt the impact of Hudl. During a challenging year filled with capacity restrictions and distancing measures, livestreaming events to the public was vital.

Lubbock Cooper broadcasts their games for free, giving fans both near and far the ability to tune in safely. “It’s been received very well,” Kattwinkel said.

Parents and athletes alike have also bought into Hudl’s recruiting tools. Many young athletes at Lubbock Cooper have intentions of playing at the next level, and Kattwinkel points to Hudl highlights as an important way to get them noticed. “It’s a good way to broadcast those kids—parents are very receptive to that.”

When talking to Kattwinkel, his vision for running the athletic department comes down to two things: Save time and be efficient. Hudl’s athletic department package has helped Lubbock Cooper do just that.

Ready to take your school’s athletics to the next level? With Hudl’s athletic department package, it’s easier than ever.

Learn more about our Athletic Department packages.

Four New (and Successful) Ways to Fundraise

Most athletic departments need fundraisers to fill the gaps in the budget. Athletic director James Coffey shares some out-of-the-box ideas that have worked for him.

In my last blog, I discussed how booster groups can be the answer to a sports team’s fundraising problem. But even once you have a booster club, you still need to come up with successful ideas for fundraisers and events.

So in this blog, I’ll highlight some of the most profitable fundraisers I’ve been a part of in the last fifteen years. These are all large scale fundraisers that produced strong returns.

Sell a Locker

When you can tie the fundraiser to what you need the funds for, it only makes sense. We once needed to upgrade our boys’ and girls’ varsity locker rooms. The benches, flooring and lockers all needed replacing—we basically had to gut them.

We got quotes for the project and divided it by how many lockers we needed to install to get a locker price. Then we gave alumni the opportunity to “buy” a locker for $250, which included a nice plaque on the back of “their” locker.

Many donors put their name, the sports they played, and the years they attended the school. Some local businesses donated to have their business name on the plaque. Families with kids who played sports would get together and put their family names on it. We even had plaques in memory of former students and athletes.

It was a great way to renovate an existing area for our kids and honor the tradition of the town’s athletic department.

Raffle a Car

For this fundraiser, we were trying to raise $50,000 to pay for new stadium lights. Having a specific, simple goal is the key to a successful fundraiser.

We decided to get there by having student-athletes and community members sell $50 dollar raffle tickets for a new car. In this case, the dealer gave us the car under cost, but in return got great publicity for his dealership. And we got to keep all of the funds raised over that initial cost.

Now this was fairly easy for us to set up because the organizer had a friend who owned a car dealership. Remember to work your network for these sorts of fundraisers. You might be surprised by the big response you get!

Wrestlemania

This one was my favorite fundraiser while I attended high school, and while I was employed by my hometown school. Our special education department would rent a wrestling ring and put on “Wrestlemania” every two years. It was a big production, which took quite a bit of work, but they have raised thousands of dollars over the years.

Here’s how it worked: students could create tag teams of two, with personas, uniforms, the whole thing. There’d be 10 tag team wrestling matches, with students as wrestlers, managers, round card holders, etc. Teachers were the referees and ring announcers.

In the lead up to the event, the “wrestlers” would go down to the middle and elementary schools and sign autographs in their costumes. There’d be teams like “The Pizza Boys” and “The Dorks.” They’d have theme music and make a big production of it, which the little kids loved!

The biggest expense was the ring—the rest was just volunteer hours. Tickets were $10 to get in, and believe me, the gym would be packed.

At the end of the matches, there would be a “Royal Rumble,” which a student in special education always won. This wasn’t just a fundraiser, it was a community-wide event that everyone looked forward to.

The Great Reunion

This is exactly what it sounds like. All classes in school history got to be part of this reunion. Alumni could come alone, mingle with friends from town, or even organize with their class to rent several tables and hold their own class reunion at the event.

There’s a few logistics with this size of an event. A 50 x 50 tent would be rented and set up on our stadium field. The school board even approved a one-time allowance for liquor to be sold on school property, so beer and wine could be sold with dinner. We made it 21+ and had a Hawaiian theme when I was there. There were silent auctions, raffles and a live band.

We had hundreds of attendees, and even created sponsorship opportunities for local businesses. This event regularly brought in tens of thousands of dollars for co-curricular activities at my alma mater.

Make these ideas your own. Add your school or program’s touches to make these ideas work for you. And if you’re in need of a booster group to help support your fundraisers, here’s my earlier blog on how to set them up.

James Coffey attended Endicott College in Beverly, MA where he got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Management. He has spend the last fifteen years as an athletic director at three different high schools. Coffey was named the Massachusetts Secondary School District A Athletic Director of the Year in 2012. He has also spoke about the positive effects of social media on athletics at several New England conferences.