Monthly Archives: March 2011

Leadership And Influence: You Can’t Have One Without The Other

Coaching philosophy, Leadership

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“Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” –John Maxwell

I think coaching is the greatest profession in the world! When people ask me what I’d do if I won millions of dollars and could do anything at all…I always say coach volleyball. I love it! Now, I may do it at a part-time assistant level that would free me to travel the world in the off-season…but I’d still be a coach. Of course a major reason is because I love the sport. But the main draw of the coaching profession for me is the players, the team, and all of the intangibles. There’s a nice article over at Leadership Freak that talks about The True Sources Of Influence and how leaders can become influencers. I’ve brought it over here to discuss how to go from “coach” to “influential coach”.

3 ways to be an influential leader and coach

1. Set an example. You want your team to work hard, focus on the task at hand, be organized, be respectful…the list goes on and on. The best way to do that is to lead by example. So save your voice and stop lecturing your team about what they should be doing. Let them see you doing those things. Let them see you busting your butt watching video or give them a peek of how detailed your practice plans are. As coaches, we’ve got to walk the walk just as much as we talk the talk.

2. Be authentic. I wrote before about being an introvert. When I first started coaching, I’d gotten it into my head that coaches couldn’t be introverts, so I tried to flip it around. The result, as I’m sure you’ve already predicted, was utter disaster. I’m not tell-a-funny-story lady, I’m listen-to-a-funny-story lady. I’m not play-popular-music-in-the-van coach, I’m listen-to-NPR-in-the-van coach (bring your iPod’s!). It’s amazing how successful my teams have become now that I’m being me…instead of a caricature of a coach.

3. Create relationships. Can we be called leaders if no one follows us? Beyond that, how can we expect to live a life of influence if we haven’t taken time to create relationships with those around us? Get to know your team…better yet, let them get to know you. My secret weapon is the candy bowl in my office. It draws ‘em in! Once I’ve got them in there, I’m able to be nosy and dig around to see what’s going on in their lives.

If we believe that coaching is more than the X’s and O’s, the wins and losses…then we’ve got to be intentional about creating a respectful environment that is conducive to leadership.

Can You Praise Your Way To Success? I Think So!

Coaching strategy, Practice, Team chemistry,

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No Sh*t Coaching. When I was first starting out in coaching, I attended a conference where one of the presenters introduced me to that phrase. What is No Sh*t Coaching? It’s saying the obvious thing rather than the helpful thing. Imagine a basketball player standing at the free throw line. She goes through her ritual: bounces the ball four times, raises it up, shoots…completely misses the rim. She throws up an air ball. Now imagine her coach jumping up out of her seat, stomping her foot and crossing her arms while yelling, “Come on…you’ve got to make that shot!” To which the player is surely thinking, “Really coach? The idea is to make the shot? No sh*t.”

The one thing a coach should never have to comment on is the mistake itself. The player (and their teammates) knows that the basketball ideally goes into the hoop and the volleyball should be spiked in bounds…so we don’t have to remind them of that. The more helpful and accurate correction is to tell them how to get the ball in the hoop or in bounds. Before you get to that point though, you should work on getting to know everyone on your team so they’re more likely to be responsive to your critiques. Lay the groundwork early and you will have a team of players who aren’t super sensitive to correction.

3 ways to appreciate your team and create good relationships with your players

1. Make a personal connection. A while back, I wrote an article about ways to create rapport with your team. As a coach, we’ve got to get to know “the team” as well as our players as individuals. I’ve written about things I’ve done during preseason so that “the team” is solidified early. With individuals, there’s no substitute for good, old-fashioned time. Whether it’s chatting with each player during their warmup or having position practices where you can get your athletes in a smaller setting…we coaches should be intentional about getting to know our players. This way, when we have to make a correction, we can give it to them in a way that they’ll receive it.

2. Look for opportunities to celebrate. This goes along with making a personal connection. Do your players play in the orchestra or on another team when your season is over? Or are they active in other student groups? Be sure to let your team know when good stuff is happening on with their teammates. Keep your ears open to find your players doing being successful outside of your sport. Now they know that you care about them as a person, instead of only as someone who can directly benefit you and your program.

3. Acknowledge their successes. I’m not saying I don’t get after my players when they deserve it, but I try to congratulate them when they deserve it to. I’d rather find the one person who’s trying exactly what I want and highlight them rather than complain about the team playing like crap (though I do that sometimes too!). If you take the time to create an atmosphere of praise in your gym, your players will quietly desire to be the one singled out for doing things right. Before you know it, you’ve Jedi mind tricked them into doing what you want without having to give them a figurative kick in the butt.

Try it out and see! I believe that correction, critique, and solid relationships go together. We need the last one in order to be able to do the first two.

Upcoming Ebook: Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes

Books, Female athletes, Published articles

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So…I’ve written a book! After lots of correspondence with various coaches, I figured out that there’s a great desire to “figure out” the female athlete.

What Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes is all about

Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes is a 56-page guide that will give you specific steps to increase the competitiveness of your female team. It will show you why battling “girl drama” should be at the top of your list in order to dominate the competition. Also, it has example after example from my coaching life, on how I’ve handled tough situations in the past.

If I know one thing about coaches, it’s that we want to be good at what we do. And I know you want your athletes to be winners and have fun with the sport, this book could be just what you need to go to the next level.

The information in the book is beyond what you’ll find here on the blog. You won’t find this stuff anywhere, on my blog or elsewhere, in one place and in such detail.

How much will Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes cost?

Unlike the posts that are here on the blog, I will charge for the ebook. How much? $10. Now before you start thinking that $10 is too much to spend on a PDF file, I want you to consider the quality of the information. I think you’re getting it at a steal for only $10!

You can spend hours on the internet trying to find this information…but it’s not out there. That’s why I wrote the book!

Plus, isn’t your time worth more than $10?

You’ve got practice plans to write, teams to scout, and video to study. Why make more work for yourself? You’ve already got a job…so don’t add scouring the internet for tips on coaching female athletes to your to-do list.

Because it’s a PDF, once you purchase Coach Dawn’s Guide To Motivating Female Athletes, you’ll be able to download it and read it that same day! You can begin putting the ideas to work immediately.

Here are the chapter titles:

1. Motivating the Female Athlete (with four subcategories)

2. The Myth That Is “Girl Drama” (with three subcategories)

3. Why This Is Important (with one subcategory)

Book excerpt from the introduction:

I’d love for you to see this book as a conversation between us. There will be times when you’re reading this and you will feel affirmed because it’s something that you’re already doing. There will be other times, though, where you feel as if I’ve put my hands on your shoulders and am giving you a good shake.

I love coaching female athletes…and I’m not being sarcastic! I enjoy coaching so much that it truly pains me when I hear folks complaining about working with women or girls. Or when I hear a coach say that “girls just aren’t competitive.” Or even worse: “girls can’t get along.”

I just shake my head because it doesn’t have to be that way! If you’re currently a coach and having trouble with your female athletes, take heart. You’re not the only one who hasn’t mastered working with female teams.

Let me tell you what…I’ve been there too, coach. I’ve had those teams that look like world beaters on paper, but they can’t get along well enough to put it all together. As you’ll read later, I’ve even had teams where the setters wouldn’t set certain hitters because they had some sort of issue off the court that had nothing to do with our sport.

It’s so frustrating!

So that’s why I wrote this book. Because we’ve all been there.

Working with female athletes is our chance to teach leadership, goal setting, team chemistry…all of the intangibles of sport that they can carry with them for their entire life.

Most importantly, to me at least, we have a chance to show them that females can get along. That female coaches of females can be successful. That women can work and play alongside of one another…and still be friends.

Keep checking in on the blog and on the ebook page for the announcement when it officially goes on sale!

Fake It ‘Til You Make It: An Introverts Leadership Guide

Captains, Coaching strategy, Leadership

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Socially awkward. Shy. Unfriendly. Those are just a few of the stereotypes that are out there about introverts. Do you know why? Because studies say that most people, 75% to be exact, are extroverts. So before you throw in the towel on the introverts on your team, see what makes them tick.

I thought of this post back during football season when all of the hubbub with Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was going on. If you remember, he came out of the NFC Championship game with an injury and carried himself very poorly on the sideline. Sport talk radio blasted him, saying he was not a leader and was pouting on the sideline. From all accounts, Cutler is an introvert who is not all that interested in what others think of him. My advice to him is to start caring and learn how to fake the extroverted traits that people want from him (getting fired up about good plays, fist pumps, etc.) so that he can be an effective leader with his teammates.

So what’s the difference between an extrovert and an introvert anyway? Very basically: extroverts are energized by other people and introverts are energized by time with themselves. Since I’m an introvert myself, I’m interested in showing people how to encourage and manage the introverts on their teams. Here are a few tips for empowering your introverts to be amazing leaders and captains.

3 things to do when your team leaders are introverts

Help them to watch their body language and facial expressions. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times. Someone will ask me “what’s wrong” when absolutely nothing is wrong…things are great, as a matter of fact! The problem is you can’t tell by looking at me, so I’ve got to constantly be aware of how I present myself to people so they don’t think the sky is falling or that I’m just an angry, angry woman. I actually gave a speech on being an introvert to my Toastmasters group and the one correction I got was to smile more. *sigh*

Encourage them to make personal connections with their teammates. Introverts like making real connections with people, so when we’re in group situations, we typically identify a few people to get to know. Whereas the extrovert is the “upgrader”, always looking over your shoulder trying to find someone cooler to talk to or checking their phone instead of looking you in the eye…introverts are willing to invest the time into getting to know you. The extrovert may have two thousand “friends” on Facebook, but the introvert will have created solid relationships.

Let them know that sometimes they’ll have to fake it. As awesome as we introverts are…there are times when we’ve got to channel our inner extrovert. Personally, I’m not as introverted when I coach my team. I don’t think “silence is golden” or “I need me time” are good foundations for working with athletes. You can teach your introverts how to fake it as well. Typical extrovert traits are: being outgoing in groups, loving competition, being aggressive, taking risks…those sound like athletic traits instead of extrovert traits, right? But as I said before, most folks are extroverts and the introverts on your team will just have to jump on the bandwagon for two hours each practice and game day.

Now that you know more about the rare gems out there that we call introverts, I hope you will embrace us and our quirks. I also hope you learned that you can have introverts who are quite effective leaders. But mostly, I hope you learned that introverts are awesome!

Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox! It’s free and easy…and I won’t give your email to anyone else. Scouts honor.

3 Reasons Why “Want To” Is Not Enough To Guarantee Success

Coaching philosophy, Goal setting, Mental game

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I was out running the other day and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said, “Want Is NOT Enough!” I thought it was great and couldn’t agree more. If I want to run a marathon, but I haven’t run more than a mile…I’m going to be pretty unsuccessful at that marathon. The same is true for our athletes and our teams. Here are a few reasons that wanting to be good isn’t enough to turn our teams into winners.

3 reasons why “want” must be combined with “work”

1. Want is easy, work is hard. Everyone wants to be good. Every team wants to win the championship…that’s the easy part. The hard part is the daily grind of practice, working out in the weight room, and meshing as a team. Each of those things requires both mental and physical commitments from each of your players. Your team has to be focused each day in practice…even when they’ve got midterms to study for or papers to write. They’ve got to hit it hard in the weight room even when the coach is there breathing down their necks. And they’ve got to be committed to building a strong team base by hanging out with each other off of the courts or fields.

2. Want is talk, work is walk. People who want to be good talk a real good game. Talkers generally find someone else to blame for why they aren’t walking their talk. Maybe the coach is playing favorites or just no good. Maybe the officials blew a call or didn’t call enough fouls. Whatever it is, it’s not the talker’s fault. Walkers on the other hand, they may face the same challenges but figure out how to work around it. They may think their coach is playing favorites, so the walker works so hard that they become a favorite. As an aside, all coaches play favorites! Our favorite players are the hard-working athletes who don’t complain, but contribute in a meaningful way every day.

3. Want is future, work is present. Want looks to the future, it sets goals and gives teams something to strive for. Work is the dirty side of want. Work pushes up its sleeves and goes about making the wants happen. Without work, our goals are just ink on paper or words floating in the air. But without the wants, work is mindless and pointless…the beauty is in the intersection! When want is combined with work, goals become real, living, and tangible.

There’s nothing wrong with having wants. As a matter of fact, wants are what bring teams together. But we can’t stop there! When we combine want with work…that’s when our goals and dreams are realized.

What To Do When Your Program Does Not Have A Strength And Conditioning Coach

Collaboration, Practice

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By now, you know that this blog isn’t about the X’s and O’s of sports, but rather the intangibles like leadership and team chemistry. So why am I writing a post about strength and conditioning? For three reasons: 1) because I believe that strength and conditioning is what separates good teams from great ones, 2) because we all don’t have someone whose job it is to get our athletes into their best possible shape, and 3) because we care about our athletes’ welfare and want them to stay as healthy as reasonable over the course of their careers.

Back in the day, I was super fired up about strength and conditioning. As a matter of fact, if I hadn’t started coaching volleyball, I’d be a s & c coach right now…I’ve always loved the science of how the body works. So I appreciate what a good strength and conditioning coach can do. I met Barry Lovelace through a good friend on Facebook and we’ve been chatting ever since. He loves working with athletes just as much as I do and is very good at it. Whether it’s club teams or Olympians…he’s worked with them all. He also works with non-volleyballers, like softball and baseball players.

You can check out some of his videos on YouTube to see what he’s all about and when you’re ready to take it to the next level, you can buy some of his stuff from his website, Training For Volleyball. For the highest level, I’d suggest you get in contact with him so that he can come and train your athletes in person. Quite simply, he can train your athletes to jump higher, get a stronger core, and improve their quickness and reaction time. Sounds good, right?

I suspect at some point, Barry and I will start working together to take over the training world a la Pinky and The Brain. He’ll train the athletes’ bodies and I’ll train the coaches’ minds. Until we combine forces though, you should check out his website and let me know what you think.

If you knew that you could give your team a leg up on the competition…wouldn’t you do it? You can start now by checking out how Barry’s training would transform your team.

Follow These 4 Principles To Make Your Team Lucky!

Books, Coaching strategy, Guest post, Leadership

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Today’s post is written by Randall Kreider, the Head Volleyball Coach at Elizabethtown College. I asked Randall to give me some info so that he could toot his own horn about his team, but he wouldn’t…but I will! His regionally ranked team won over twenty matches this season and almost ran the table in conference. He helped a player earn conference Player of the Year as well as an All-American nod. Want to know how he did it? Read on!

Maybe not frequently, but often enough to call it regularly, I’ll have a conversation with a parent, an opposing coach, or maybe even a player that invokes the word luck in relation to a volleyball match. Comments like, “Boy, you were lucky Sally stepped up when Suzie wasn’t playing well.” Or, “You were lucky your team was able to cover line so well tonight.” Most times I will simply smile and agree, but we’re pretty sure it’s not luck that’s involved here.

A quick internet search on “How to make your own luck” reveals a multitude of articles, books, blogs, and other items. Many of them point back to a Professor Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire in Britain. According to Professor Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor, only about 10% of life is purely random; the remaining 90% is defined by the way we think.

Professor Wiseman offers the following four principles, which I’ll use as a format on how you can make your team lucky.

· Principle One: Maximize Chance Opportunities

This sounds a lot like being in the right spot at the right time. But it’s more than that. On the volleyball court it can easily relate to know your opponent. If you know the team you’re playing has a tendency to rocket jump serves long, teach your team to protect the end line. Know the likelihood of what may happen in the future base on what the team has done in the past, and then prepare your team for that likelihood. Then, when you’re libero is perfectly positioned to pick up a thundering middle attack, it won’t be just luck.

· Principle Two: Listen to Lucky Hunches

Do not disregard your own intuition. In fact, Wiseman would say work to hone your intuition. Have you ever gone against your gut and then later wished you hadn’t? I think we all have. I’ll translate this to know your own team. The better you know your own team, the more in tune your hunches will be. I don’t recommend blindly following every thought you might have, some of my thoughts are pretty far-fetched. But when your gut is pointing you in a direction, often times you’ll be best served to follow. So get to know your team. Know not only who they are, but what they’re about, and how they respond to different situations. Be ready to make the move that feels right.

· Principle Three: Expect Good Fortune

To me, this is all about being positive. Be that coach with the smiling face. Be that coach giving encouragement. Be that coach that is expecting your team to win. Volleyball is a confidence sport; a team with confidence plays so much better! A few years back, we were playing a team that was much more talented than us. Midway through the match, after we had lost the first set, but were leading in the second, their coach began to get surly, began to “ride” the players and “get in their face” with negative comments. While I believed we had a good chance all along, it was at that moment I was sure we were going to win. What you believe, your players will also believe. So make sure you’re believing good thoughts and voicing them expressively.

· Principle Four: Turn Bad Luck Into Good

On the volleyball court, this means have a contingency plan. In fact, have several contingency plans and test them often in practice. We’re going to encounter our share of misfortune along the way. So, imagine such scenarios and develop plans to offset them. What if one of your primary passers can’t pass tonight. Or worse, what if your star pin hitter tweaks her ankle and is out for the match. What will you do? Imagine as many as you can and practice the practical ones. It’s not luck when a player off the bench is ready to go, or you focus on an alternative option.

There’s more to it, probably much more, but this is certainly enough to get you started. It will all boil down to this…if you know your opponent, know your team, stay visibly positive, and be prepared for as much as you can, then your team might start to look lucky. But we’ll all know, it’s not all luck, it’s good coaching.

Before I close, I’d like to thank Coach Dawn for her consistent posts, and allowing me to add one of my own. I am amazed at how well she plans them and simply keeps them coming. For me, so much of what she’s writing is right on target. Exactly what I would think, only she puts it into words so well. Keep reading Coach Dawn Writes!! There’s a ton of great stuff here.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Best of “luck” to you on the courts!

3 Ways To Break Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Increase Your Success

Coaching career, Connections

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Is your team always in the middle of the pack…never breaking into the top of the conference standings? Do your practice plans look eerily similar to those you used years ago? Is your team getting better? I like to ask myself those kinds of questions periodically and this article (How to Boost Confidence and Success) over at Inc.com had some good tips to challenge us to get better by breaking out of our comfort zones. Check out these three steps that will help you take risks and hopefully become an even better coach than you already are:

Take these 3 steps to be better this season than you were in with your last

1. Recognize your strengths and successes. Too often we harp on the things that we didn’t do well or could have done better. This step is about giving yourself a pat on the back. Grab a sheet of paper and pen, sit down with a cup of coffee, and think about all of the great stuff you’ve done with your team. It could be a community service event you sponsored, challenging your players to give their best every day in practice, or advocating with your boss for a better schedule or nicer locker rooms. As you look forward to the next season, think about how you can use those qualities that made you successful for even greater opportunities. We’ve got to free ourselves up to admit we’re sometimes good at what we do.

2. Do it your way! It’s great to compare ourselves to the great coaches out there…the Russ Rose’s and John Wooden’s of the world. I love studying their coaching styles and trying to understand how they got the best out of their athletes time and again. Eventually though, we’ve got to figure out our personal successes so that we’re not discouraged. As the article says, we don’t want to study the greats and become overcome with “a flurry of fear, envy, and doubt.” We want to study them to become the most awesome coach that we can be.

3. Tell your story. I like talking to my team about my volleyball life. Our teams only see where we are now…but I think they benefit from hearing the whole story. I tell them about my first year in college where learned that I wasn’t as awesome as I thought I was…about how I had to come in to practice early and stay late because I just wasn’t good enough. But I also tell them that the hard work eventually translated into a starting spot on the team. I make them laugh when I tell them about some of my epic failures in coaching. I tell them these things because I think it’ll make them better people (successful people don’t just happen upon their success…there’s usually quite a bit of failure along the way), better teammates (hopefully more patient), and better able to navigate their careers when they’re finished with school.

I liked this article from Inc.com! Even though its focus was on entrepreneurs, I think that it can easily be converted to the coaching world. We all want to reach our greatest potential…perhaps that comes after breaking free from our comfort zones.

3 Reasons Why The Creative Leader Seeks Solitude

Burnout, Coaching strategy, Leadership

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Our lives are so fast these days and we’re always plugged in…phones, laptops, or even just plain old television. Do you ever wonder what would happen if we took some time out to clear our thoughts without being worried that we’ve missed a super important email? I do and that’s why I wrote this post about the steps required to be an effective leader. The foundation of that post was a great article called Solitude and Leadership and it’s also the basis of this post from Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code called Have You Had Your Vitamin S Today? Societally, we think that being alone is bad (being a “loner” isn’t a good thing, right?), so we try our hardest to always be surrounded with people.

Coyle talks about solitude as being a daily requirement, rather than some rarity that we look forward to…like a vacation. As a matter of fact, he talks about the three things that should be hallmarks of solitude: it’s got to be reliable, it’s got to last, and it’s got to be repeatable. Since you’re probably reading this on your laptop or phone, you may think this message is a bit ironic. But I know that I’ve gotten great revelations just by taking time to chill…whether it’s by running, or driving in a silent car, or just going for a good, long walk. If you’re interested in more ideas on how to find solitude, check out this article: The Lost Art of Solitude. Here are a few reasons why I believe that solitude brings out the creative juices in us all.

3 reasons why solitude will make you a more effective leader and coach

  • Time for thought and to reflect. I’m a go-with-my-gut kinda lady…and it’s hard to hear what my gut is saying if I’m always ripping and running. Sometimes I’ve got to get away from all of the noise, be by myself, and think about what’s going on. Whether it’s a player issue, a big time recruit I’d love to land, or on-court tactical issues…I generally get my best ideas in solitude.
  • Find our own voice. I know that you’re fired up about being a great leader and you probably read all sorts of great stuff about how to become a better coach. At some point though, you’ve got to sift through all of the things you’ve heard, read, and seen and decide what you believe. I’m an avid reader…love, love, love to read! Years ago, I decided that “my thing” would be advocating for female athletes and coaches…now everything I read is through that lens.
  • Space to create. All of that reflecting and thinking would be nothing if we didn’t use it to come up with creative answers to our problems. I think that too often we get it wrong with creativity. We think it’s the artist or the painter or the sculptor who is “creative”. But what about the coach who’s on a losing streak, but figures out how to start winning? I think that is very creative. Let’s broaden our definition of who gets to be creative and start applying that mindset to our teams!


I wonder if we could all carve out at least thirty minutes a day to be all alone with our thoughts…something tells me that we can.

To Friend Or Not To Friend: Social Media For Today’s Coach

Coaching philosophy, Social media

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Do you friend your athletes? What do you do when you see one of your players (who’s underage) drinking a beer or something from the infamous red cup? Or, if you’re working with younger athletes, what do you do if you see one of your players bullying someone else online? Or using inappropriate language?

I know that some coaches, especially at the collegiate level, force their team members to friend them so they can ensure that everything is on the up and up. I know other coaches who barely know how to email, can’t figure out texting, and want absolutely nothing to do with social media sites. Regardless, whether you’re actively managing pages or putting your head in the sand…you need to have an official stance on how it’s to be used by your players.

Why? Because I heard a talk about social media that scared me a bit. Basically the speaker said that not having rules was the same as complying with what your team is putting out there online. My reaction was something like, “ummm, what?” After that talk, I quickly ran to my hotel room and added a social media section to my team handbook and I think you should too…here’s why.

3 reasons why you need to add a social media section to your team handbook

1. To give your athletes “rules of the road” for their pages. I’ve chosen not to friend my athletes. Because I don’t friend them, my statement on social media can be a little lighter: “Be aware of what you put onto social networking sites. Only friend friends! Set your privacy settings so that only people that you want to see your page can see your page.” Of course, as we go through the handbook at the beginning of the season, we go more in depth about what things should not go on their page: pics of them drinking, not fully dressed, or just behaving inappropriately are no-no’s.

2. To give them repercussions for inappropriate posts or updates. If I were to require them to friend me, I think my social media stance would have to be a bit stronger. Meaning, I’d have to tell them what would happen if I found inappropriate pictures or updates on their pages. This is even more important for you high school and club coaches out there. I received a direct message from a club coach recently that asked what he should do because he’s friends with most of his players and he’s seen some inappropriate things. I told him that he needs a policy so that his players know what they’re getting into. Something like a 3-strike system. 1st strike: verbal warning. 2nd strike: meeting with your parents. 3rd strike: missed playing time. This way, they’re not sucker punched when you confront them about that update they posted on the way to practice.

3. Cover your back. Like I said at the beginning, silence on this issue can be seen as compliance. But beyond that, your players need to realize that it’s a possibility that you’ll talk to their parents or their principal about their pages. That alone should scare them straight and keep them from posting nonsense online. If that doesn’t do it, lack of playing time (or whatever other things you have set up) should help them realize that you’re serious about this social media stuff.

One day, while looking up information on a recruit, I found a page that her “friends” at school had created. It was called “Suzy Q is lazy, fat, and ugly”. What would you do if one of your athletes was mean enough to create something like that? What if they didn’t create it, but they “liked” the page?

We can’t control everything that our players do, but we can try our best to manage it!

Click here and you can get Coach Dawn Writes articles emailed directly to your inbox! It’s free and easy…and I won’t give your email to anyone else. Scouts honor.