Road to Success: Recruiting
Because a whole two days have gone by since my last article as I'm writing this, I decided it was time to work on my next piece. This series titled "Road to Success" is going to talk about different aspects of establishing a successful dodgeball program, and doing what is necessary in order to grow as an organization. The first section is going to be one of my favorite topics, recruiting.
So you have made it past step one of creating your new dodgeball team at ________________________ University/College and you have become a recognized sports club (or competitive club, inside joke for my VCU peeps). Great! Now where do you go from here? It can seem like a daunting task trying to build a dodgeball empire from the ground up, and it certainly has its challenges. However, I am here to point out what should be the very next step in that process, recruiting, and how you can effectively recruit a solid unit before your first tournament.
Players are the obvious foundation of any team, and having enough to fill out a starting 15 seems like a necessity to be able to compete at this level. Here are some examples and advice for putting together that starting 15:
1. Host Dodgeball Nights During Freshmen Orientations
Orientation is a great time for incoming students to become acquainted with their new home for the next few years of their life. Why not be the first people that help them make that transition from High School to College?
There are a lot of benefits for doing this, and there are also a lot of incentives for your school to let you do this as well. By running dodgeball events during orientation, you become the very first student organization that freshmen come in contact with, and you will have the most lasting impression on them. It also gives you a first glance to see what kind of talent you may be able to find for the upcoming season. Be sure to bring information packets, references to your team's Facebook page, and sign up sheets in order to get them as much information as possible, and also have a way to contact that potential recruit during the summer and at the start of the year.
It is actually easier to convince your school than you might think. Just bring up these points to your school in order to guarantee success:
- Your dodgeball team is running an activity for them, so as a result they have to plan less events
- By you being there, it also gives a break for orientation leaders and gym staff, something they will greatly appreciate
- You are a student organization sponsored by your university, as long as you're not asking for money, most times they will do whatever they can to help you, so emphasize how much it can benefit your club as well as the school
- All or most of your team has been at your university for a number of years and obviously have reasons for staying and experience with being a college student, let your university know that you can connect with those incoming students, and provide them with even more information about the school than they would normally get
2. Be Visible
If you followed step 1, this is really easy because everyone already knows who you are, if not, that's OK! It would be great to get 100 people together to join your team, but how are they supposed to join if they don't know you exist?
Being visible just means that you are making your presence known, and that people are acknowledging you existence. The most obvious method of making your team known is having a presence on social media. Connecting onto things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even making a team website adds both legitimacy to your club, and an interesting outlet to promote the team. They're free, easy to use, and can spread like wildfire if used correctly. That being said, if you do decide to use some of these tools, you have to remain active on them. If a potentially interested player stumbles across your Twitter account and sees that you haven't tweeted since November 10, 2014, they might assume that the club doesn't exist anymore, and that is terrible for recruiting. So make sure that while you do have quantity, you also have quality as well.
Besides being visible online, make sure you're visible on campus as well. This includes attending major campus events while wearing team gear, hosting on-campus events and fundraisers, and of course participating in your school's student organization fair. In the same point as the social media section earlier, practice quality and quantity in order to maximize awareness. Your team is your brand, promote that brand well.
3. Don't Be Afraid to Show What You Can Offer
It can be easy for people to think showing off and bragging are bad things (to be fair sometimes it's over the top) but you have to be willing to lay it all on the table if you want to attract as many people as possible. People are always thinking "what's in it for me?" especially when making a potential financial commitment. So you have to show them the benefits, whether that be cool gear, being invited to cool parties, a chance to network and meet new friends, something more than just dodgeball. Maybe some people only want to be there because they love dodgeball, great, but that's not everyone. If you have a lot to offer, make sure it's known. If you don't, either try to expand more of your offerings, or really work hard to explain why what you have is great.
People want to see that you take pride in what you do, that shows the strength of your team and will make potential members feel more secure about the stability of the organization. Part of that is not being afraid to flaunt from time to time. Show off your cool uniforms, tell them how the team will take trips to Atlanta and Pittsburgh, brag about your uniqueness. Anything goes!
4. Cast a Big Net
There is probably a 0.00000000625% chance that an incoming freshmen has played legit competitive dodgeball in a league like this (with maybe the Michigan schools being an exception, idk). With that in mind, virtually everyone is going to be new to this style of dodgeball, so it is very hard to say right off the bat who will succeed and stick around. As such, you need to make sure that your team is not exclusive when picking up players. The best way to stack the odds in your favor of finding that future All-American is by recruiting as many players as possible. Numbers are what will make the club grow and give you a better chance of cracking those 0.00000000625% odds.
As special as you might think your team is or can be, excluding people is the worst way to grow for the future. It casts a negative image on your club, and as I said, you truly never know who will develop if they are not given the opportunity. Once you get to picking your A-team and possibly B-team it's a different story, but when you're on the initial recruitment trail and you're just starting out, there is no reason to dismiss help from anywhere.
There are definitely many other ways to get students interested in your club, but I just wanted to list a few points that stick out to me and that I think are important for new teams. If you have any other cool ideas/tips, be sure to let us know!
