Friday, May 28th
Today was my final day in the office at Capital. I still have one more week of work but I’ll be working from home throughout the week. It feels bittersweet but I am hopeful that my next chapter will be exciting and will enable me to grow as a professional. I started my morning with a meeting with three football recruits. They were all from Rocky River, OH and although they looked like brothers, they were just good friends. They go to all of their college visits together but said that they didn’t necessarily intend to go to the same school in the end. They were very polite and engaged and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. They were also looking at schools similar to Capital but noted that athletic facilities would play a major role in their decision-making process and we are not as strong as most school in that category. Later in the day, I answered several emails from baseball and football recruits and tried to tie up as many loose ends as possible. I want to be sure that these student-athletes and coaches are well supported even after I leave next week. It’s been a bittersweet ride but I am so thankful for my colleagues and the opportunities that Capital has provided me with over the years.
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Thursday, May 28th
Today was a tough day as I had to tell my mentor and the athletic director that my last day at Capital will be next Friday. I think she was surprised but she definitely understood and respected my decision. There has been so much turnover due to the compensation and culture at Capital and she completely understood that I needed to seek other opportunities. She called me back shortly after to determine who would be taking my spot as the athletic department liaison and I noted that the decision had not been made yet. She asked what I thought about the head golf coach taking my position and because I know him well, it seemed that it could be a good fit. The golf coach is currently part-time so taking this position could get him a full-time salary with benefits, which would be great for everyone involved. However, it did sound like the golf coach would have to interview for the position and we currently have over 100 applicants to sort through. Later in the day, I continued to follow up with baseball recruits to get them to the next steps in the admission process. To my surprise, many of them were responsive to my calls and it seems like we made great progress. Wednesday, May 26th When I logged into my email this morning, all I could see was a string of emails from the interim baseball coaching staff. They are actively trying to recruit players for their new program but without knowing if they will permanently fill the role, it kind of puts us in a standstill. We use a CRM called Slate, which houses all of our student’s information as well as all interactions that the student has from someone from Capital. This excellent tool connects both the admission and athletic departments so that we can see each conversation that is had with a student in real time. However, I am reluctant to teach the baseball coaches about Slate because it is truly a bear to learn. Until they are here for the long haul, I do not want them to have to worry about that in their recruitment efforts. Unfortunately though, what that means for me is sifting through tons of emails that I am cc’d on between the coaches and their recruits. This is also a difficult method because it gives me no background information about the student when I am reaching out to them. During my outreach yesterday, I discovered that most of the students were actually transfers and would be best served by talking with our transfer counselor. This disconnect has proved to be very stressful and has added a great deal of tedious work to my plate. I am excited to learn whether or not this coaching staff will stay on or if we will begin a national search for a new group. Tuesday, May 25th
While the students have all left and the faculty are enjoying their summer breaks, the admission and athletic departments are still pushing toward our goal of meeting our enrollment numbers. Although or funnel is far smaller than it was previously, there are still a few students that are expressing interest in the university which means we have to get them up to speed as quickly as possible. Many of these students are actually transfer athletes and this is a difficult population for me to work with. Many of them are bringing in copious amounts of credits that need to be reviewed and this requires many hands and lots of correspondence. Today I worked closely with the football coaches to identify and contact a few remaining recruits that they have in their funnel. One of the students is just waiting on a financial aid offer letter and has been for several weeks now. As frustrated as the coaches get with me for not being able to speed up the process, financial aid takes a great deal of manual work that can only be completed by the financial aid office. I do my best to relay this message to them but it isn’t always heard or taken well. I just do my best to provide as much information and guidance as possible. Tuesday, May 4th
Today was rather relaxed as I was able to catch up on most of my calls and emails yesterday. I continued to touch base with some of my football recruits as we did see some movement with the financial aid offers today. I connected with the football recruiting coach to communicate these updates as well. Additionally, I talked with my boss during our one-on-one about the future of athletic visits. Previously, our office was not providing tours for coaches so that they could use that time for additional bonding with prospective student-athletes. Many of the coaches even had their current players give the tour so that prospective students could meet other players on the team. My boss noted that we would be able to accommodate athletic tours if necessary and asked me to connect with the athletic director about this. I sent the AD an email and she noted that she would ask the coaches about the option and get back to me. Later in the day, I drafted an email that would be sent to all baseball recruits regarding the coaching staff transition. I forwarded the message to the athletic director for edits and she sent me back some additional information. I plan to make the edits and changes and send the email to all recruits tomorrow. I am hopeful that address the coaching change will allow us to be transparent with recruits and ensure them that they will be in good hands with the new coaching staff. Monday, May 3rd
It was difficult waking up this morning after a long weekend on the golf course. I was thankful to be working from home but had many messages and voicemails to reply to. Saturday was May 1st which is national college decision day. This is usually our busiest day of the year with students calling with questions and wanting to deposit. Unfortunately, there was not the mad dash that we hoped for. While our numbers were better than last year on May 1st, we still have a ways to go to meet our enrollment numbers. I started the day off by checking in on my remaining football recruits. About five students are still interested in the football program so I reached out to each one individually to see where they were. Four of the five students were still hoping to move forward so I talked with them about the next steps they need to complete. The final student let me know that he is no longer considering Capital and asked for his application to be cancelled. While it is difficult to hear, I appreciate when students are honest with me so that I can focus my time and attention on students that are still interested. After I talked with each student, I called their recruiting coach to let them know of the information I discovered and the steps each student would need to complete. It is convenient to keep everyone on the same page so that we can adequately support the student through the entirety of the process. Sunday, May 2nd
Today was the final round of the Ohio Athletic Conference championship. The weather was absolutely perfect, with a light breeze and warm temperature. I was thankful that I got to coach Capital’s only senior during her last round of college golf. I kept reminder her to stay on the moment and to soak up every minute of the round because I would do anything to have another chance to compete at the collegiate level. The team got off to a really strong start on the day. I was so impressed with each player’s attitude of optimism and competiveness and enjoyed coaching them throughout the day. I tried to catch them on holes that were traditionally more challenging to provide a bit of strategy to their game. Sometimes it just helps to slow down and talk about the best course of action before just stepping up and hoping the ball goes straight. I stayed with our senior most of the back nine as she started to become emotional. It was hard for me too as I remember my last round so vividly and not realize how much I miss playing on a team. The girls all finished strong on the last few holes and I got to help our senior read her last putt. She immediately broke down and it was so cool to see her hug and shake hands with her playing partners that she’s played against for several years. I thoroughly enjoyed coaching the team this weekend and was thankful to get a small taste of college coaching experience. Saturday, May 1st
Today is day two of the OAC conference championship where I am serving as an assistant coach. The weather is much better today although it is still a bit cold for golf. We all were able to sleep in a bit as we are staying at a hotel much closer to the course. The girls started the day much like they did yesterday, at the driving and chipping ranges. I watched each player tee off with their groups and then hustled up to hole 4 to catch our first player off. I continued this system to make sure each player received equal coaching throughout the day. After the round yesterday, the team mentioned that they could use some help on the greens, reading putts etc. so I tried to meet them on several greens today. It was fun to reach putts for the girls and give them a general idea of pace, especially when they made putts! The players performed about the same as yesterday and all turned in very similar scorecards. Most of the players were pleased except for our number one, as she struggled mentally throughout the day. She often gets so ahead of herself and frustrated when she plays and so I tried to take some of the pressure off her. I tried to calm her down and told her what I wish someone had said to me when I was in her shoes, “slow down, relax and stay present. One year from now, you won’t remember if you birdied or triple-bogied this hole, so enjoy the day, have fun with your playing partners and don’t give up on your round”. She seemed to settle in a little after that and it was fun to see her smile and enjoy the day. The girls finished the day in the same spot they were yesterday with hopes to jump up to 4th place by the end of the tournament. Friday, April 30th Today I have the pleasure of serving as the assistant coach for the women’s golf team at Capital. The head coach reached out to me yesterday and was in desperate need for someone to coach the team this weekend and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to coach the athletes at their most important tournament. Our morning started with a two-hour drive to the course. I must say it was a little bit stressful driving a 12-passenger van across the state. Thankfully, there was no traffic and the drive was pretty easy. When we arrived at the course, the girls started to warm up on the range and chipping green. It was cold and super windy and many of us quickly realized we did not pack enough layers. Just before the girls went to tee off, the weather changed and started to rain and blow sideways. The players’ attitudes quickly shifted and no one wanted to be there at that point. I tried to get them to refocus and mentioned that it is much easier to get an early lead on teams when the weather is bad. They needed to bear down and concentrate to gain a competitive advantage. The girls struggled at first but remain focused and started to have some good holes. I had played the course several times before and felt confident sharing strategies and tips with the players. Overall, the team played well. No one played awesome but the girls were all fairly consistent. They finished the day in 5th place out of 9 which was exciting as they had not beat a team yet this year and they also beat last year’s conference champion. Thursday, April 29th It is crunch time! At the beginning of the week, our enrollment numbers seemed to be making a positive shift but they have seemed to have plateaued since then. You can definitively feel the pressure in the air to meet our goal but because May 1 is only two days away, I am not feeling hopeful. I continue to monitor and check on my remaining students (most of them are athletes) and try to meet my daily call numbers. The head golf coach reached out to me today and requested that I travel with the team this weekend to coach them at the conference championships. While I am thrilled to have the opportunity to coach the team in their most important tournament, I am also feeling anxious to complete all of my work today before the weekend. The day before May 1 is always super crazy in the admission office so I hope to get all of my responsibilities completed by the end of the day. It is also my all night so my main focus of the day is reaching as many students as possible. While I am leaving a lot of voice messages, I also have connected with a few students that have told me they are still considering Capital. Hearing these messages from students makes me hopeful that we will reach our goal after all. It has been so interesting to see how late students are making their decisions this year. I am sure that COVID has had a massive effect on their college search. |
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May 2021
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