Football season is quickly coming to an end for most leagues across the country and it’s important to end the season with growth. Evaluations are one of the most powerful tools available to you as a sports administrator or leader to ensure everyone walks away with confidence and improvements.

Knowing their actions will be measured is often encouragement enough for coaches to follow protocol or commit to certain cultural standards. It’s also a great way to positively reinforce what your coaching staff is doing right, and provide truthful and specific feedback on how they can improve.

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Begin the process by having the coach conduct a self-evaluation. After you have collected and reviewed the coach evaluation forms, you will want to provide the coaches with a summary of the information regarding their strengths and weaknesses. Providing this information to the coaches will help them to build upon their strong qualities and work to eliminate their less positive characteristics by the next season.

Then, before the discussion of performance begins, set a positive tone for the remainder of the evaluation to ease any tensions. Ask the coach to answer the following questions:

• How did you re-define winner?
• How did you honor the game this season?
• How did you fill the emotional tanks of your athletes?

 

These questions get coaches to think about their performance in terms of positively influencing athletes, and helps them de-focus on the outcome on the scoreboard from their season. This should alleviate stress on their end, and help you evaluate their performance.

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If you have a coach who receives some serious negative comments from parents and/or athletes, you should be sure to meet with that coach to discuss how they need to improve the situation for next year. If you determine the criticism from parents and/or athletes is valid and substantial, you should consider only allowing them to coach next season with a signed commitment to change. If a coach is not willing to change, that coach should not be allowed to coach in your organization in the future.

Jeaney Garcia, former Athletic Director for Punahou School in Honolulu and Positive Coaching Alliance trainer, was a coach, teacher, official and administrator for 25 years. To learn more about teachable moments and how to discuss them with your athletes, head to pcadevzone.org.

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