By Dr. David Hoch, CMAA

Looking to improve your end-of-season athletic awards ceremonies and banquets? In this blog, David Hoch, EdD, CMAA, Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Baltimore County, Md., shares his thoughts on planning these important events.

Recently, I attended our annual Fall Sports Awards Evening. It was my 40th such banquet as an athletic administrator. When you add to the equation the number of awards ceremonies I participated in as a coach, the total easily exceeds 90. I believe this collected experience makes me a fairly knowledgeable observer of such functions.

On the whole, I consider our events as coming off successfully in that they accomplish their purpose—to honor the successes of our teams and athletes. For the most part each event is consistent in content flow. However, there is one component that I consider to be a bit of a wild card from event to event: speeches. Admittedly, there are instances when I cringe at some of the comments coaches make during their descriptions of a completed season. I’ve found that when I give a coach a microphone, I’m never quite sure what how their words will be interpreted.

I think the reason for that is because public speaking is not a natural skill for most people and coaches are no exception. Certainly, they are used to addressing their teams and maybe even speaking with small groups of parents, but making a presentation in a crowded auditorium, cafeteria, or banquet room brings out a case of nervousness and even trepidation.

To ensure a better evening for everyone from parents and athletes to administrators and other coaches, it is incumbent upon athletic administrators to provide coaches with guidelines and a structure to increase the probability that everything will go smoothly.

Here are some public speaking tips you might consider adopting and/or passing along to the coaches in your department prior to an event:
•Establish and stick to a time limit for each coach’s speech. However, even with guidelines in place, it can be difficult for coaches to stay within the limit. Many will go on and on and this isn’t fair to the following coaches or the audience, for that matter.

As Athletic Director, you can help coaches stick to time constraints by holding up a sign indicating that they have one minute left. I heard a humorous approach in which an assistant athletic director, dressed as a shepherd and armed with a crook, would usher a long-winded coach away from the microphone.

• Suggest to your coaches that they should be very careful when attempting to use humor in their presentation. Humor is different for everyone and certain expressions may not be universally received by every audience member. Unless the coach is experienced and has a natural, universal sense of humor, it is probably best to avoid it. This is particularly true of sarcasm.

• You should also ask your coaches avoid telling inside jokes because those who are not part of the team—which might include 95 percent of the audience—will not understand. When not in on an inside joke, an audience typically loses interest and becomes restless. Instead ask coaches to save inside jokes, nicknames, and team-specific comments for a team-only pizza party.

• Remind your coaches that they should only make positive comments about players. It is imperative to follow the maxim that we learned growing up: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. This also means not making snide comments about other teams. Always consider beforehand how a comment will be perceived—especially by parents.

• Encourage your coaches to plan and practice what they will say during the program. Off the cuff comments rarely work well so it may be advisable to write out a script beforehand. That will also help a coach stay within the time limit.

• Suggest to your coaches that they should conscientiously try to speak more slowing and distinctly when at the podium. It is normal for most people to get excited and nervous when standing in front of an audience, which causes them to speak too quickly, making them difficult to understand.

Here are some tips to spice up a department-wide awards ceremony and help things run as smoothly as possible:
• In addition to hints to improve the individual speeches, have your coaches encourage their athletes to dress up for the awards evening. A shirt and tie for the guys and a dress, skirt, or slacks for the young ladies would be appropriate. Our principal recently observed this at one of our awards banquets and remarked that the athletes’ attire made a significant contribution to the decorum and dignity of the evening. Year to year, our teams get somewhat competitive and athletes take getting dressed more and more seriously, making it a point of pride for each team.

• It might be advisable to notify the major award winners ahead of time so that they will be in attendance. Whether the coaches do this in a subtle manner or outright tell the young people is a matter of personal preference. However, it often becomes awkward when an award is presented to an athlete who is not in attendance.

• Through a variety of approaches —announcements, explanation at pre-season meetings, notices on the school’s Web site—it’s a good idea to ask event attendees not to leave after their son or daughter’s coach distributes team awards. This is common courtesy as the last team receiving awards should be afforded the same attention, support, and recognition that the first team received.

The more that you can do to help your coaches prepare, think about their comments and how to more effectively deliver their message, the better the evening will go. When this is accomplished, each team and athlete will have their place in the sun. And everyone, from athletes and coaches to parents and administrators, will have a positive and memorable experience.

David Hoch, EdD, CMAA, is the Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Baltimore County, Md. He is past President of the Maryland State Athletic Directors’ Association and a frequent contributor to Athletic Management. He can be reached at: dhoch@bcps.org.

FEEDBACK:
Thank you for your detailed article. I plan to share it with our new
high school athletic director and the athletic booster club board members.

Sincerely - a parent of an athelete

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