The Great Club Sport Paradox

[DRich17]

Here's a problem I have seen and am sure many others have as well..

The whole thing about having players paying their money, to be on a team. How can they feel motivated to be there or accountable. A lot of you know exactly waht I'm talking about. Some of the problem comes from having less than 25 guys come out for the team, It becomes hard to say, well If you don't practice you don't play. How have teams gotten around this? As a person in a leadership role on our team (and a future lax coach, scary right?) what has worked for other teams/coaches? Its hard to find those committed guys, theyre out there, but when youve got 20 guys on the team, chances are you have 5 or 6 that never miss a thing.

So the paradox then is making your boss/employer understand that he should feel accountable to you...

Sucks huh

[UkraineNotWeak]

The whole thing about having players paying their money, to be on a team. How can they feel motivated to be there or accountable. A lot of you know exactly waht I'm talking about.

Cause they love playing lacrosse maybe? Things will never be perfect. Obviously some teams are better run than others...

A lot of it has to do with coaching (is this a coach that is motivated? excited? been around the game and knows how to run a team, especially a club team?) and a lot of it has to do with the players (are the players experienced? do you have a lot of first year players? do they play because they want to or because they just want to say they play lacrosse?).

Usually it requires a combination of a dedicated coach and players. Look at the teams that are successful in this league. Usually they have a combination of dedicated coaches and dedicated players.

[Kevin OBrien]

For us it was a matter of "build it and they will come". We have the fortune of having a lot of out-of-staters (as our roster shows) that come to USC but were scared off by the disorganization, which led to a losing record, which led to guys on the team not caring.

It may be a several year long process but believe this...guys want matching uniforms, guys want to travel on charter buses (if a large team) and stay in hotels, play a 12-16 game season, etc. Players want to be good, it's just a matter of renewing the club so that the old guys who don't want the club to change stop showing up and are replaced by guys that want to win.

As strange as it may seem, charge more. The guys who aren't committed aren't going to pay $500 to not practice and then not show up for games. You're in a position to let everyone who shows up to practice play. If you have a strong coach (it always comes down to a long term coach rather than some grad student who can only show up every other practice and is gone after a year or two) who's willing to say "no" to players, you should start.

These changes are hard to effect mid season, but next year is a new year. Feel free to contact me and I'll try to give you ideas to help you out.

[John Paul]

I could write a book on this one...

When I started coaching at Michigan, 11 years ago now, the team was very much like any typical club team. The team had been around since 1940, and it was very set in its ways. We had student officers who reported to the club sports coordinator (who did not want to hear from me). We charged dues in the $500 range, and they provided almost all of our budget (although we charged extra for extra things like team bags and some trips). Attendance was not mandatory. I used to hang out with the guys all the time, including out at the bar or parties. There were no coaching salaries of any kind - I even paid my own way on some trips - and I had a full time job outside of lacrosse.

I polled our players at the end of each year to see what they liked and didn't like, and of course I had many conversations with them throughout the year and with alums once they were done (some of them speak a lot more openly once they are out of the program). While there were certainly guys who were looking for a very loose club experience, the common theme from the leaders on the team and many of the guys I would never expect it from was - be tougher on us, hold us more accountable, take more control.

Every year I ramped things up just a little bit, and over time we became what we are now. Even today the feedback I get from players sometimes surprises me because it's almost always asking for even more discipline and accountability. Serious, competitive athletes want a structured environment with strong leadership. They may not like every decision the leadership makes. They may absolutely hate the consequences of screwing up. But they respect it and respond to it (especially if you also show that you really care for them and helping them grow as players and people).

The biggest key to this is starting out with leadership on the team that buys in to the concept. Those leaders must be willing to cut their friends loose from the team, even close friends and/or great players, who don't buy in. (This doesn't mean cutting those guys from their friendships, just from the team.) We've gone through a couple of "purges" here over the years, and while it's painful in the short run, it's very positive in the long run.

At the same time as we were evolving within our team in those early years, we had a group of four club team coaches who were campaigning heavily (and delicately, if the two are possible at the same time) for a tiered club sports system that would allow the best run club teams to be treated more like varsity teams in respect to school - coach relationships and in some support areas. That was a four or five year process here, but it went hand in hand with what was going on within our team and a couple of the other club teams on campus.

As Kevin said, I'm always glad to discuss in more detail with anyone who is curious about the process.

[CATLAX MAN]

Good post, JP. One thing to take away from this is that this is also a good life lesson. As an employer, one thing that I look for in a potential candidate is if they have played team sports over a long period of time. These are the type of people that more easily adapt to the structured environment of most workplaces and have a greater chance of succeeding in their jobs, as almost any job requires that a person possess the ability to work in the confines of team situations.

[AuggieLaxCoach]

I agree 100% with the Coach Paul's post. Over my 4 years playing for U of St Thomas, we went from a social organization that happen to play lacrosse to a nationally contending lacrosse team that just so happened to all be friends. It took a few years, as John said, to "purge" the Old Ways out of our organization. The coaches were former players and would hang out with the team in social settings. There was no clear cut line between authority figures and the followers; the inmates were definitely running the asylum.

Then, an accumulation of things look place... We got a solid Freshman class of kids who took lacrosse very serious and were extremely dedicated to the team (this is the senior class at UST now which has produced a few AA's and other player honors), a core group of player leadership emerged and a serious coaching staff was formed. At the same time, the level of seriousness and accountability caused us to lose some great players from the program, but as stated above, they were still kept as friends off the field.

We did have to take a momentary step back in order to take 3 large steps forward, but in two years the team size more than doubled, the skill and competitive level sky rocketed and the all around experience of the team was much more enjoyable. The only down side being that the price to play is very expensive now, and that does drive a few kids away... but most players are able to make it work.

This year I took over at the Augsburg program in their first year in MCLA play. When I decided to take on the job, I took a long look at the lesson learned from my former coaching staff at UST and realized I was going to be in the same boat I was 5 years ago as a freshman. Lucky for me, as a first year team, Augsburg doesn't have the "party hard, then play if you can make it" mentality embedded so deep, as some of the old guard programs once did.

Fortunately for me, the program already has a core group of young players who are very dedicated and make my job a lot easier. I am able to follow the blue print of my old St Thomas team to know what worked and what didn't. Though I am not far off in age from my players, the only social capacity in which I see my players is when we go to watch other lacrosse games.

I guess the moral of my long-winded post is that in the beginning, its all stacked against you: money is hard to come by, practice time is hard to get and support from the school is far and few... But, like has been mention in other posts, it starts with some dedicated players, some good leadership... and it just takes some time.

[DanGenck]

Jon's post is very insightful, as you do really have to weather the storm. Unfortunately, that process is usually hardest on the person making the changes, not on the "old guard" of players. But that's really what leadership is all about... it's an invaluable lesson that some people who are twice my age at my current job have not even learned.

There are lots of great examples in the MCLA of teams that have turned their programs around with time. The more you talk to those architects, the more I think you will find the same themes over and over and over again (JP's post mentions many of them).

Good luck,

[Ryan Hanavan]

A lot of great points have already been made. I will most likely only reiterate using my own thoughts/experiences in an attempt to reinforce some of the key points brought up earlier.

My playing career ended with a club team that had the party mentality. We had a great group of guys that all got along and played well together. We didn't feel like we needed a real coach and got along well without one. I stuck around for a year after graduating and carried the role of head coach but I still acted a lot like the rest of the guys and nothing really changed (except I watched instead of played). I noticed the freshman coming in looked at me differently because they didn't know me as a player so that was really the first time I realized the importance and need for a structured team with top-down leadership.

Coming back into coaching after several years away from the scene I brought a new outlook to the whole situation and it really pays off. Installing discipline into the team is critical. It was asked how to make your boss/employer feel accountable to you. You are the boss. The student/athlete is paying for the privilege to compete at the national level that holds both conference and national tournaments every year. They are not paying for the right to show up and play. That money should have nothing to do with the way practices or the team is run. Our players must sign a commitment letter that states all expectations coming into every new season. They are all given this list of expectations and have to listen to me reading it over and over to them in the developmental stages of the year.

We stepped up our practices and structured them more like a varsity practice. Our coaching staff has goals for every practice and we treat that time like work. The players have all embraced that and the word spreads fast about the system. They know what the big picture is and they all want to get to the point where they can get a taste of it. It becomes infectious and that's when things really start to click. We also have to understand that it will not happen over night. Especially if you are in an area where lacrosse is still young or non-existent.

I don't go out to bars with them but my wife and I do enjoy hosting bbq's at the beginning and end of each year. Keep putting the hours in, we're all heading in an exciting direction.

[AO]

I couldn't agree more with what's been said here on this subject: structure, discipline, accountability, etc are everything. Plan your practices, set expectations early on, communicate those expectations so that both players and coaching staff have buy-in from the get-go, and ultimately stick to it. Dissuassion will arise; there will be push-back in the beginning from members who were comfortable in the old ways, stress levels will jump, doubts and self-second guessing will happen, and the fun will dissappear for a while.

DRich, it sounds like you're in a tough spot and you have my sincere sympathy; you're a player that wants things done right, but it sounds like your coach(s) have a different vision for running the program. My tiny 2-cent advice would be is take all the mistakes you've experienced in your program, write them down under the heading "How Not to Run My Program" so that when you're a head coach, you won't have to pay twice for the same real estate -so to speak.

[LaxTV_Admin]

At Marquette we have made the switch in all of two seasons. We had a unique situation in that we had a catalyst to help us, but the change is still hard. We have lost some extremely talented players as a result. It doesn't matter though, we have a great time and work our butts off.

I know a mistake a lot of coaches/leaders make is thinking winning is the only thing that will keep this "new" mentality going. Not the case. I have had numerous parents, alumni, other coaches come up and tell me how much success we are having, and I think, we won 4 games last year. Honestly, everyone, including your players value both the on and off the field success. Treat your team like your family, because that is what they are.

I have had two guys just come to practice this year to "watch and see if they like it" and immediately said, where do I sign up. I have definitely leaned on resources and I want to publicly thank Coach Graff and one of my players parents who have helped me a ton. However, I also read every book I could find. I read Coach K stuff, Dean Smith stuff, etc. I even picked up a Bo Schembechler book (so now I know what goes on at Michigan haha). Those guys have tons of insights that can be applied at the MCLA level.

If you ever want to talk, I would be more than happy to do so as well as everyone else. Good luck.