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Post by ajreaper on Jun 9, 2010 13:22:19 GMT -6
Has or does anyone have a mentoring program that matches older players with younger players or those new to the their program?
I'd be interested in hearing what you do and your thoughts on what makes it work or what caused it to fail there by resulting in your scrapping it.
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Post by Chris Clement on Jun 9, 2010 13:41:45 GMT -6
Had one in University (not football related) but it was too formalized. I've found that mixing your squads as much as possible lets them find the people they get along best with, so have a team dinner, find a place that does Thursday night $10 all-you-can-eat ribs and have the whole program go (call ahead). Make sure the seniors maintain order etc. My coach's proudest moment was when the restaurant called him (he started to panic at this point) and said that we were very polite, quiet, removed our hats, paid, tipped generously and didn't make a mess. This gets you big community points and makes the team come together in a sort-of multi-generational way.
Also, don't treat juniors like second-class citizens, don't let seniors crap on them just for fun. This makes a lot of resentment and tends to beget itself.
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Post by JVD on Jun 16, 2010 7:44:32 GMT -6
I had a mentoring program for Middle School Football. I started it in January. 7th graders (Going to be 8th graders) were responsible for being a mentor to 6th graders (Never played football before).
I made a chart that I kept in my classroom with the name of the mentor and the mentee.
I had 15 or 18 topics on the chart that my mentors where required to talk with the mentee's about. Things like: What do we do durring warmups; hydration importance; position names (Offence); position names (Defense); reasons for penelties; etc. When a mentor talked with a mentee about a topic, they would come in my room in between classes and write the date in the box coorisponding with the topic.
It worked very well, and made my mentors smarter on the game. They had to look up some things.
It also worked because I had the 6th graders all day, and could ask them about their mentors.
I stoped doing it because I got "promoted" to our Junior Varsity team. The coach that took over for me said that it helped a TON because the new players had a clue when he said, "We need a guard over here!" Also, when that 7th graders showed up, he arleady had an expericned player that he had been talking with for a few months, so he had someone he could ask questions of without asking the whole team or the coach.
The JV coach is VERY old school...so the idea didn't work with him...also...I didn't have enough time to get it organized.
I'm now on the Varsity staff....and again, it's a time thing this year. I think next year I may be able to work it out so that gonna-be Seniors will talk with gonna-be Juniors.
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