Starting off strong: Tips for athletic trainers working with new coaches
Let’s be honest, the working relationship an athletic trainer has with their head coaches and administrators can make or break their work environment and stress level. We’ve all heard stories about coaches and athletic directors who are difficult to work with and cause an A.T. an extreme amount of stress, sometimes even leading to a job or career change.
Scheduling a time will … ensure enough time to get to know the new administrator and, more importantly, give you a chance to highlight your skills, policies, dedication to the safety of your athletes and pride in your school.
In my nearly 30 years of working in a secondary school as an athletic trainer, I have worked with eight football coaches, seven athletic directors, 10-plus principals and countless head coaches for all sports. Through trial and error, I have found ways to make the working relationship between an A.T. and the coaches and administrators a successful and positive experience, even working with many different personality types. It’s rewarding to go to large tournaments or events and see a coach you have worked with in the past and be told you are missed, or to have a coach move to a new school without an A.T. and, because of the positive relationship you have built, they rally for an A.T. to be hired.
The first step to building successful relationships is to set up a meeting with your new athletic director. Scheduling a time will show respect and ensure enough time to get to know the new administrator and, more importantly, give you a chance to highlight your skills, policies, dedication to the safety of your athletes and pride in your school. Some administrators may not be familiar with the A.T. profession, so this is a fantastic opportunity to educate and inform. Typically, head coaches are supervised by an athletic director, so if you have the A.D. on your “team,” they will support you if there are issues that arise with coaches, parents or athletes.Here are some topics to consider discussing when meeting with a new athletic director or administrator:
- Start with getting to know them. Where are they coming from? What led you both to your current positions? Finding out someone’s passion and the reason they enjoy coming to work can tell you a lot about them. When I ask this question, my preferred answer is: “Because I love kids.” You should also share your philosophy as an athletic trainer. What are your overall goals for your athletes, teams and athletic department?
- Determine if it is necessary to review your contract. Discuss your job description, coverage policies, work schedule and liability insurance at this meeting. It would be impressive to show up to the meeting with a checklist and/or access to all of these documents so the athletic director can review them if necessary. Some things to think about: Who are your clients? Are you expected to treat spectators, P.E. students, coaches or others? What does your liability insurance cover? Do you require 48 hours notice for schedule changes? Are you expected to work unreasonable hours or on Sundays?
- How do you communicate with parents? Determine which situations will warrant parent contact? Do you call, email, text or set up an in-person meeting? What is your general time frame in which you try to make contact? And, likewise, how would you prefer to be contacted by parents?
- Go over your emergency action plan. It is important to review what the athletic director’s role will be in an emergency, what others will be responsible for and what they can rely on the A.T. doing beyond patient care. Also, preplanning “medical timeouts” with the A.D. is advantageous. We use a form so that it is easy to modify each week at games.
- Develop a visitor’s game plan. Many administrators send a game plan to visiting schools. Be familiar with this document. Is the athletic trainer’s contact information listed? Does it give information on what services you provide for visiting athletes? What would you like visiting teams to know prior to coming to your school? The A.D. can include the medical timeout out meeting time and place in the game plan and invite a representative from the visiting team to participate, too.
- Preseason athlete paperwork. Make sure you are on the same page for all forms and permissions that parents and athletes need to provide, such as sign-ups, insurance info, preseason participation exams, injury policies, concussion testing and more. Who keeps records of all of these forms and how they are stored? Who is in charge of collecting the forms? Typically, it is an athletic administrative assistant, and getting to know that person is key. They do a ton of work and you often will rely on them for help.
- Coaches meetings and communication. I have found it very helpful to be involved with all head coaches’ communications. Not only does it build unity and respect between you and the athletic department but also helps keep you informed on team activities and schedules. Ask to be on the agenda at major coaches meetings. Come prepared with a list of what you want your coaches to know, such as A.T. facility hours, management of coolers, medical kits, injury policies, etc. It helps for the entire staff to know how you can help them win games and how they can help you in return.
- Determine budgets and supply needs. What is the ordering process for supplies at your facility? Do you have a budget? Do teams have a budget for items such as sports drinks, snacks or cups or does it need to come out of your budget? What about other supplies specific to a certain sport?
- Review athletic training policy. Do you have an athletic training policy and procedures handbook? If so, make sure your A.D. has a copy. Likewise, ask for the coaches handbook. Is there a section on athletic training information that you can review and collaborate?
- The NATA Safe Sports School award. This award requires the signature of an administrator. I have found that going over this entire application with the administrator helps show them everything you are doing on a daily basis to keep athletes safe. I have had administrators completely shocked at everything athletic trainers oversee and monitor. On the NATA website, there are several other resources, such as the Secondary Schools Value Model and PASS (Program Assessment for Safety in Sport), an online tool designed to demonstrate the health and safety areas your program is sufficient in and where improvements can be made.
When a new head coach is hired at your school, the process is the same: Start with a meeting. Begin by establishing a relationship and getting to know one another, then you can share your philosophy as an A.T. For example, are you conservatively aggressive or very conservative? It helps for a head coach to know what to expect from you and why you make the decisions you do and eliminates misunderstandings when you have an injured athlete.
It’s also important to know how a coach prefers to communicate about injuries and injury status.
It’s also important to know how a coach prefers to communicate about injuries and injury status. This can be a joint decision. Do they want to be notified during practice or have a quick meeting before or after? Should you inform the assistant coaches first? Does a coach prefer email, text or hard copies? Some will simply prefer a sticky note as they walk out to practice. Figure out their expectations for game days, too.
Additionally, what are some things that you will “give” on and what are some things that you will not budge on? Can some injuries or situations be discussed? In return, ask the coach what his or her most important priorities are and how you can support that. Let the head coach know that you consider yourself part of the team and coaching staff and want success as much as he or she does. I always make sure I tell coaches that I want to take all the medical stuff off their plates so they can focus solely on coaching and winning.
Assuring coaches that athletes will be at practice, even if injured, is helpful. I let them know I will do my best to get their rehabilitation done quickly and adapt as much as I can to be included in their practice time. This way, the athlete is getting mental reps and learning anything new that will be implemented for games if and when they can play. It also keeps the athlete connected to the team dynamic instead of isolating them due to injury. I have found that this is beneficial to the injured athlete as well as satisfying the coach’s needs to have all athletes at practice to learn. In return, I find it helpful if coaches help enforce the rule that the A.T. facility is not a hang-out area.
Having a preseason meeting with your head coaches and administrators, especially if someone is new to the school, has proven to be extremely beneficial to start building that positive working relationship with your coaching staff. It helps to answer any questions ahead of time so that the chance of disagreement or animosity during the season is lessened, therefore reducing your stress.
Are you the new employee at the school? The same rules apply. Plan a meeting with your supervising administrator and head coaches. You won’t regret it.
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