Something to Cheer About!

Written By: Marty Grogan Vice President | JAMZ

Spring has arrived, and this means prepping for your next Pop Warner Season.

If you’re a cheerleader you can look forward to having fun, working hard, improving from last year, hanging out with friends, wearing your team colors, cheering for your team and being proud at competition!

If you’re a coach you can look forward to rushing home from work, gulping dinner, racing to practice, overseeing warm-ups, motion drills, jump drills, stunt drills, teaching game day chants, half time routines and competition choreography. Then when games begin, it REALLY gets crazy!

The commitment and value of volunteer coaches cannot be overstated. Most work harder at this volunteer job than the one that pays the rent, and they stay because they love the kids, love the sport, and love their Pop Warner friends who have become family.

The secret sauce of a vibrant program is the recruitment, retention and training of coaches and cheerleaders. When a veteran coach is paired with a well-trained team, excellence happens, and everyone notices. Kids want to return next year to continue the tradition. Returning coaches become more comfortable in their role and learn to delegate responsibility to newer coaches while improving their program even more.

Excellent teams have a natural draw and become the best recruiting tool for drawing in new kids and their parents. New parents, who sit on the sidelines this year, are also known as ‘Future Coaches’, they just don’t know it yet. And so the cycle begins!

But what if your cheer program is struggling? What if the fire has burnt down to a flicker? You CAN turn it around! Here are 4 steps in the turnaround process:

1. Create a welcoming vibe. From the moment a potential program leader or coach meets the leadership team, they must feel the culture of support and ‘we’ve got your back’ that they never want to leave.

2. Find ONE great person. Easy to say. Hard to do. You’ll notice the word coach hasn’t yet been introduced in this job description. You need a strong leader. This trait ranks higher than how much they KNOW - at least in the beginning. Look for someone who is strong minded yet light hearted, structured yet kind, someone who leads without intimidation, takes the sport seriously but themselves lightly, is willing to communicate openly but can take critique, and someone who knows enough to spot and recruit people with more cheer and/or dance knowledge than they - who in turn will teach, energize and restructure your teams.

3. Make it FUN. Now that you have a strong leader who has recruited skilled coaches, you must retain this volunteer lottery with the gift of fun. Be honest with yourselves. Kids and coaches have a choice of staying or going. While we know we provide life lessons of hard work, sportsmanship, teamwork, skill building and healthy exercise, the kids only stay if they’re ‘having fun’. It’s our job to make them excited to bring their friends and to return next season.

4. Create a Media Army. Your cheer program is now ready for its ‘close-up’. Create social media recruitment posts and encourage all your athletes and coaches to add their positive experiences and SHARE. Create flyers for kids to give their friends. Have a contest. All cheerleaders who recruit at least three friends will be entered to win the sweepstakes prize. On the designated day, draw the winning name. Have a prize of value donated by a sponsor or community partner.

Admittedly, this is a very short list of the many ways to recruit and retain athletes and coaches, but please remember that EXCELLENCE is the best recruitment tool.

I wish you an excellent, healthy and safe season! Have FUN and enjoy the ride.