So I show up to registration at the Trak Shak about 5 minutes before it is supposed to start. There are already several parents and kids standing in the store. "This is scary," I tell Melyssa, who came to help me sign kids up. It was absolute pandemonium!! Jeff, the Trak Shak owner, had to get out a second table, and had to print out more registration sheets when the 50 I had brought were gone!! I was feeling a mixture of excitement and fear. Similar to when I first went downhill skiing. I loved the initial thrill of success, but I feared what would come as I continued to gain velocity and realized I didn't know how to stop.
We had originally planned (and advertized) a late registration date, but had to cancel that. We had 67 register. YIKES!! I had 15 regulars last year. Don't even tell me the percent increase on that--I know it's insane.
If it wasn't for the narcotic for my cold, I wouldn't have slept that night, I'm sure. I woke up at 3 am feeling quite alert. I laid in bed and thought about what I had gotten myself into, and how to manage it. I considered all the successful big groups I had seen managed well. One was Eli's swim team. Kids ages 5 to 18 all under one coach. She broke them up into smaller groups and had assistant coaches working with each group, though she still designed the workouts and schedule. Another successful big-group management I experienced was BYU's cross-country camp. I went when I was 17. There were about 60 kids, and we were divided into 4 groups according to our speed.
So determined I needed to divide the team into smaller groups. After looking over the numbers and ages of the kids who registered, I decided to break them into 4 groups, according to age: 4-6 year-olds, 7-8 year-olds, 9-12 year old girls, and 9-12 year old boys. My mom, Melyssa,and room-mom-in-crime, Kanita have all agreed to be permanent assistant coaches. I've also had several parents offer to help, which I'm sure I will utilize.
I have decided to assign a color to each group and get flags of those colors. At each practice, we will place the flags at the area of the track where the kids will be beginning practice (shot-put, long-jump, 200m start, etc.). Hopefully that will help keep some order.
We'll also call roll and require the kids to check in if they are late and check out when they leave. They will have to tell their coach when they go to the restroom and will have to take a friend along. 67 kids is ALOT to keep up with.
Anyone with experience managing this kind of thing--please pass along your advive. Heaven knows I need it!
I just hope I can learn the kids names and get to know them. Last year I felt like I really knew my team well. This is SO many more, but I still want them to feel individually important.
1 comment:
I like your ideas about dividing and maintaining procedures to know who should be there and who has left.
When I worked in educare (school-based after school care) we had from 50 to 80 kids. They were divided up into groups by age/grade level. Since the groups went to different parts of the school (playground, gym, etc.) walkie-talkies were necessary to maintain communication and know when a kid needed to come inside for a band-aid or if a parent was there for early pick-up. Congratulations on growing your program so rapidly!! That means you're doing good things and word is getting out!
Post a Comment