Coach Development: Managing the Managers
I have often heard college coaches complain about working for administrators who have no first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be a varsity athlete, let alone a coach. I’ve been one of them at times. They don’t understand what it takes to win. They’re too sensitive to the student-athletes’ complaints. This is supposed to be hard!
Sometimes, this is undoubtedly the case, and working under a supervisor like that can be exceedingly frustrating. Other times, though, coaches are coming into the relationship with their admins with preconceived notions of what to expect. But what would happen if we approached those relationships with a more open mindset? If we viewed our admins as partners with a different set of experiences from our own rather than adversaries or obstacles?
This fall, I had the opportunity to speak with a sports-management class at UMass Amherst about the current college- athletics landscape and the experiences of collegiate coaches.
The students, all sports-management majors, were engaged, curious, and thoughtful in our conversations as they sought to understand the collegiate coach’s experience within the larger athletics landscape. They asked about how coaches balanced the sometimes conflicting pressures to drive elite performance while still receiving positive student-athlete reviews at the end of the season. They brainstormed about the challenges coaches face in recruiting effectively from the increasingly necessary transfer portal.
Listening to them, I wondered what their future careers might be. None of the students there was a varsity athlete. It’s highly unlikely any would become coaches. Some, though, will likely go on to administrative roles within college athletic departments. Indeed, several were already working at internships in compliance and elsewhere in their own department. They may go on to be administrators who oversee sports directly and even athletic directors.
Though they have not been in the trenches, these students were approaching the work of sports management with curiosity about and empathy for coaches. Do they need to be educated about the realities of life on or leading a team? Sure. But that will be the responsibility of the coaches they lead. If that is done with care and honesty, there’s no reason they won’t develop into positive and productive partners for the coaches and teams they one day oversee.
As coaches, it’s our responsibility to get those around our teams on board with what we’re doing. Assume that others are coming into the situation with the best of intentions—until proven otherwise—and you stand a much better chance of building a lasting, beneficial partnership.
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