Control Team Growth

You have evolved to quickly become one of the most popular teams at your school and the interest of new students and volunteers to join your team is very high. Managing this high level of interest can be fun and challenging.IMG_3229

Here are the areas of growth you will need to consider:

  1. Size of coaching staff
    • This may include downsizing to fit team needs.
    • This may include recruiting coaches who do not have an athlete on the team
  2. Size of team
    • Third year teams will see more returning established athletes. Therefore the ability to add new athletes may become very limited due to shooting range and coaching capabilities.
    • Consider how many athletes you can manage to meet the leagues motto of Safety, Fun, and Marksmanship.
    • Allow the correct amount of athletes based on time and range availabilities. Limiting the number of athletes on your team can be determined by using a couple of criteria:
      • Existing team members are first.
      • Use the hierarchy of the grade that new student is in. Seniors are first, Juniors second, etc.
      • First-come-first-served. Athletes must meet requirements (ie: already have a firearms safety certificate) to signup for the team in an equal opportunity process and timeline.
      • The League does not encourage tryouts.
  3. Size of volunteer staff
    • Evaluate your volunteer staff and establish areas of need and surplus.
    • The duties of a Head Coach are many so don’t be afraid to ask for more volunteer help for tasks such as:
      • Clothing orders
      • Fundraisers
      • Awards/acknowledgments
      • Equipment management
      • Etc.
    • You will discover that as your team grows so will your demand for excellence, take the time to make sure that the people you have in place are being productive.
    • As teams progress volunteer roles may no longer be needed. You may want to consider reducing the amount of people on your coaching staff based on what your current needs are.
  4. Size of team equipment.
    • It’s inevitable that as the years go on you will collect more “stuff”
    • Determine how much of each of the following you will need:
      • Team guns
      • Team hearing protection
      • Team eye protection
      • Team ammunition
      • Spare team jerseys, vests, hats, etc.
    • Factor in what is a “need” and what can be discarded or donated to another team. Your equipment inventory should match the size of your team.
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