• VISION: What is the Vision for your Club? What do you want to be known as? Lets’ assume if you are reading this, is not as simple as being any of these: Best, Biggest, best Established, most Successful. Vision is about Where you want to go NOW, based on where you have been.
  • Mission: Is it about Training people, it is about helping them learn about life through Team Sports?
  • Plan of Execution: How will you do what you propose to do? Is it based on certain type of Coaching or Training? Is it based on Winning? Is it Based on going to Nationals? How will you get where you want to go?
  • Retention: How are you engaging your players from last season and making sure they return to your club? Your club’s retention rate should be about 80%+.
  • Tryouts: Typically clubs will offer 10% over the the number of spots available, dependent on location. Strive for about 90%+ in number of spots accepted. Some regions run differently.
  • For Younger focused Clubs, it may be about Why Volleyball not other Sports? Remember, you are in competition for everything that draws on Athlete’s Time.
  • What do you want to make sure you state that you know other Clubs in your area will say about you? This is not about Talking Badly about other Clubs, but if you phrase something, it should be something to the effect of: “You might have heard ‘This’ about us. We would not say that is part of our Vision or Mission.”
  • Based on the Ages your Club is focused on, what will you say about what you are going to do. For Younger Ages, it may be more about Learning the Game, and being part of a Team. For the Older ages, it may be about them being better High School Players or going to College.
  • On the topic of College, for the Players 14 and up, what is your Strategy Regarding how to help with Recruiting.
  • How will you Communicate on an on-going basis? What is your Web Presence Like? How do you use Social Media?
  • If you are looking back a Year from now, what will be the 2 or 3 things that you will be most Proud of your Club for having Accomplished?

Understand that for each item, I am not suggesting a Monologue. Make the Dialog interactive with Parents. Take Questions as you go. Have Visual Aids support your Story. This could be Slides, but More and More, we live in a Video Driven World. Video Clips can be very effective.

Samples might be:

  • Player clips about their Experience
  • Shows of Teams winning or playing together and supporting each other
  • Coaches talking to players about the Game
  • Former players who are now in College talking about their Experience. These do not have to be Long. Remember, we all have Short Attention Spans these days. Make them brief. Consider your words carefully. Don’t lecture. But have a Plan of discussion going in. It will make all the difference in the long Run!