Athletic Director Question.

[Vanderwel]

I’m new to the AD position, serving as assistant AD last year. Our Board wants to establish a metric for determining if the football season was successful. Do most AD’s set a goal for how many games should be won during the season? (Yes, I know we want to win all of them). Or do most AD’s determine a successful season in other ways? There are a lot of factors that go into a winning season, just wonder how some organizations monitor that success?

 

[fajitapete]

Personal opinion: If you believe the ultimate goal is simply to win, then yes—winning becomes your metric.


But if that’s truly your mindset, then I don’t think you should be in a teaching, coaching, or mentoring role. Competitive athletics should be about helping young adults develop life skills, strong morals, and a sense of what makes humanity work.


Sportsmanship is a major part of that—it teaches athletes how to approach life, how to treat others, and how to handle both success and failure. Coaching should include teaching players to respect the rules, build character, and develop both their physical abilities and their mental self-worth.


Those are meaningful goals. And as an Athletic Director, you should be mentoring your coaching staff to focus on achieving them.

Of course we all like to win—but what matters most is seeing growth in the individual.

Not trying to insult or start a word war - just something to think about.

 

[BigCzech]

Why don't you talk to the board members and try to get a since of what they feel like a successful program is and tailor the metric to that? Give them what they want to see. I would also talk to the superintendent. Then you can combine their wants with any others you may have so everyone can see, and track, what is most important to them.

 

[Texlonghorn75]

Your board appears to be wanting you to define how much rope to hang your football coaches and you with. Draw up the parameters and the expectations and try to live up to them. A gift that keeps on giving.