Community Rec Magazine’s Post

🌟 Redefine the game! 🏀💡 Check out why we need a revised narrative for pay-to-play: https://hubs.li/Q02bPk0C0. Share your thoughts! #PlayToStay #YouthSports #GameChanger #InjureFree Sports Business Journal

That’s a wrap for the 2024 Beyond The Field Player Development Conference! I had an amazing time networking, reconnecting with, and learning from some of the best in the industry!! Thank you Edward Jones II and your wonderful team for the amount of effort and work put into creating this experience and opportunity, I can’t wait for 2025. Player Development/ Engagement is a crucial element in enhancing the athlete experience. A lot of important conversations were had on how we as professionals and can enhance our approach to benefit our athletes. Thank you to all the speakers Michael Miller M.A., DSO, Jeremiah Brown, Fernando Velasco, Ashley Goodman, Darien Harris Savannah Bailey, Jessica Gray, Khristian Carr, Lacee' Carmon-Johnson, Ph.D, Kurt Richardson, Gus Felder, M.Ed., Antoine McClain, Alexander Martin, Josh Marriner, Arkeem Byrd, Reggie Lane, and Kevin Washington for sharing a wealth of knowledge! Here are a few takeaways I want to share: Michael Miller M.A., DSO One size does not fit all. Creating value for yourself and your program is understanding the specific needs of your organization and athletes. Continue learning, sharing ideas, and using your resources to help ypu grow and provide opportunities for your athletes. Jeremiah Brown Base your program off transitions. Help identify meaningful majors that will aid in creating value for your athletes beyond the game. Ashley Goodman Be intentional and selective about your programming. Savannah Bailey Utilize your program necessities when designing how your program is powered. Approach with a vision, measure the success of your program & create a brand to ensure sustainability and maintain access to players in the future.

The NCAA has launched Draw the Line, a campaign prioritizing student-athlete education on the effects of sports betting while also addressing problem gambling for all who consume and participate in college sports. Last fall, the NCAA began advocating for states to update their sports betting laws. In the wake of the effort, multiple states have moved to restrict prop bets, wagers not tied to the overall outcome of a game. In Ohio, student-athletes, campus leaders and the national office worked with gaming regulators to prohibit player-specific prop bets. Since Ohio's move, West Virginia, New Mexico and Maryland have taken steps to protect student-athletes from sports betting harassment. #OhioGambling #SportsBetting #OhioModel

The NCAA has launched Draw the Line, a campaign prioritizing student-athlete education on the effects of sports betting while also addressing problem gambling for all who consume and participate in college sports. Last fall, the NCAA began advocating for states to update their sports betting laws. In the wake of the effort, multiple states have moved to restrict prop bets, wagers not tied to the overall outcome of a game. In Ohio, student-athletes, campus leaders and the national office worked with gaming regulators to prohibit player-specific prop bets. Since Ohio's move, West Virginia, New Mexico and Maryland have taken steps to protect student-athletes from sports betting harassment. #OhioGambling #SportsBetting #OhioModel

We can improve youth sports, read this post by by friend Bill Grosse, the author of The Score Guide.

The adoption of in-game audio from mic’d up college athletes has been somewhat contested for many years, with colleges and the NCAA prohibiting microphones on players. College athletics programs have allowed certain uses of audio in sports venues, such as music, sideline interviews, and pre-game presentations – but we have yet to see the players on the track, court, field or ice personally mic’d up.   The pro leagues have permitted the use of in-game mics in live broadcasts for a few years now. This has made for amazing social media content and has allowed those watching games at home to feel closer to the action while also getting to understand some of the big stars on a more personal level.   Wiring athletes for sound in collegiate sports could be a game-changer for televised live events. It would allow broadcasters, leagues, and teams to bring their audiences a more unique and exciting experience while continuing to grow the brands of these athletes – which has been a trending topic since the introduction of Name, Image and Likeness rights for college athletes..   Glad to have shared some of my thoughts in this  @Sports Video Group article: https://lnkd.in/g7_bbRXW    #NCAA #SVG #Audio

Things have changed in youth sports. Kids are trying to tell us they don’t like being treated like a commodity anymore. Putting a first grader on a traveling team so they can begin preparing for their varsity season twelve years down the road is absurd. Does everything have to be organized? Does everything have to be tournament-related? What happened to the driveway time? What happened to good old-fashioned 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 games on the playground? Where have all the pick-up baseball games gone that used to be played in the back field or schoolyard with no adults present? We must stop putting unrealistic expectations on our kids and let them enjoy the journey. We have to end the anointing of our children as being the next 5-star prospect or prodigy. Our children want stability, consistency, and loyalty. They want coaches who care enough to catch them smoking on a bridge and help them get involved in something productive. They want parents, not just their pets, who will love them unconditionally, like our Lord and Savior Jesus does with us. They want a stress-free environment they can trust, like #sports used to be until parents and adults, in general, goofed it up. The best part is we can fix it, too. The SCORE book series can help us regain what we’ve lost. To learn more, please visit: https://bit.ly/3N1q0cI Together, we'll ensure that Christ-centric sportsmanship is the rule, not the exception. Bill Gosse #health, #family, #leadership, #culture

In a guest article for #ProjectPlay, Linda Flanagan explores governments in three communities that are making sports more accessible. Plus, download a new resource with five ways cities and counties can better organize and support youth sports.

Youth sports is the classic "programs-rich, systems-poor" institution, a siloed space lacking any government-recognized structure for organizations to collaborate and speak to officials and policymakers about shared interests. It doesn't have to be this way. Today, we release a two-pager on five ways that cities and counties can better organize and support local sports, and a report by the author Linda Flanagan on promising models used in three jurisdictions. Essential resources!

It was a first-year blunder. But I learned and accelerated. It was my first year at Notre Dame. My role was focused on growing women's basketball attendance. Keep scrolling, this is bigger than basketball. I was very fan (consumer)-focused. From the moment I stepped on campus, I wanted to learn about our current fans. →Who were they? →What was the fan journey to season tickets or single game purchase? →Why were they coming to the games? →What did they like about the experience? What could be better? There was little fan information at the time. It was mostly tribal knowledge from people who had worked at ND for years. Some was accurate, some were stereotypes. So, I started reading academic articles, stories about Bill Veeck, and most importantly, I started listening to the fans. I sat with them in the stands during the first games. I watched them. We chatted. I listened to what they said...and what they didn't say. I.learned.a.lot. Despite all this learning, I made a mistake. I thought I was being fan centric...and I was but my listening was just a little off. I had asked them about their favorite music, thinking if I played some of their favorite music it would enhance their game experience. So I played music these parents and empty nesters loved during warm-ups. Turned out they didn't want to hear their favorite music at the game. 😯 The players definitely didn't want to hear this fan-centric music either. 🙄 Where was the mis-fire? I listened to the fans but missed an important "jobs-to-be-done" moment. Many fans were partly coming to the games to escape, to feel young and a little rowdy again! They wanted to hear the music the PLAYERS wanted to hear. They wanted to live a bit vicariously and feel pumped up, ready for gametime. While their favorite music was still their favorite music, it made them feel a bit more reflective and nostalgic. This was a disconnect for one of the reasons they were "hiring" the game for their entertainment for this occasion. Don't worry, I listened, learned, and pivoted quickly. That's the power of having the pulse of your fans (consumers). When you're dialed in you can do this. If you're dialed in with the right frameworks from the start you can build amazing fan bases. This is just one of the many learnings enjoyed along my career. These learnings have happened in the sports world and with multi-million-dollar brands in Corporate America. Now my company, NEXT 5 TEAM, INC., leverages consumer need state frameworks, fan insights, and best practices from Fortune 500 companies and sports marketing, to help sports organizations create insight-driven growth strategies. We've sat in your seat, had the accountability for growth, and now we're rolling up our sleeves with you. Let's get this planning party started! 🎉 --- Would love your follow (Heather Maxwell, PhD) if you enjoy posts on #insights, #brandbuilding, and living a #wellplayedlife