It may be too long ago for many of us to clearly recall our own experiences, but incoming student-athletes go through a major transition when they arrive on your campus. Most are first-year students, recently graduated from high school, living away from home for the first time.
Adjusting to a new environment presents student-athletes with new responsibilities and new freedoms. Unless they are well-prepared to manage both, the initial excitement of college soon becomes unbearable stress, anxiety, distraction… or all three.
Understanding student-athletes’ expectations and challenges, and supporting their transition to college, will yield positive results. Here’s how:
1. Establish A Support Team
Summer is a great time to gather campus staff with vested interest and responsibility for student success and discuss working relationships. These include:
- Residential Life
- Judicial Officers
- Academic Support / Learning Resource Center
- Health / Wellness Center
- Counseling Staff
- Library Staff
- Student Affairs / Dean of Students
- At-Risk Students or Retention Staff
- Faculty Leadership (including FAR)
- Dining Services
- Others on your campus that interact regularly with students
- Coaches, assistant coaches and athletics staff
The point here is to gather this group and acknowledge the common commitment everyone has to student success. Athletics can take the lead here and reach out to other departments, which will show a strong commitment to student success and build stronger relationships.
2. Prepare Your Student-Athletes
No matter what academic credentials a student-athletes brings to campus, adjusting to college expectations can be a bumpy road.
- Introduce key campus student success team members to new student-athletes. This can be done during a new student-athlete orientation program, or similar gathering.
- Provide new student-athletes with practical skills assessment/training/support. This might include time management, study skills, “living on your own” types of sessions.
- Train and expect coaches to actively monitor and mentor first-semester student-athletes. No single person will have as close a relationship with student-athletes than his or her coach. Utilize this powerful bond to benefit new student-athletes, who already established a relationship with the coach during the recruiting process.
- Utilize upperclass student-athletes for peer mentoring roles. Student-athletes are great resources for how things work on campus, from a student’s perspective.
- Establish an academic progress monitoring system. This is useful for all student-athletes, but especially first-semester ones. A simple progress report sheet that each faculty member must sign will strengthen the relationship between student-athletes and faculty as well as give you/coaches important feedback.
- Provide new student-athletes with meaningful and useful resources. Most student-athlete handbooks sit in the bottom of a drawer. A simple one-page “where to go” and “who to see” for “what” outline can be useful. Coaches should reinforce these types of resources and discuss them regularly with new student-athletes.
3. Have a Plan for Intervention
Even the best efforts may fall short for some students. Effectively monitoring new student-athletes’ transitions and academic progress will allow for early detection of “at-risk” students.
- Utilize coaches as a point of information and, if needed, intervention. Again, the invaluable relationship between coach/student-athlete is an essential component for student-athlete success. Student-athletes won’t want to disappoint their coach, and the best relationships yield an openness that is essential for identifying potential transition problems.
- Integrate coaches and athletics staff into your campus committee structure. No one wants to serve on committees, but it is essential that athletics has a seat at important tables where student success (or potential failure) is discussed.
- Track your success. Annually collect and review data on your first-year student-athletes’ transition successes and challenges. Ask for feedback and incorporate it into strategies for the upcoming year.
Each campus is unique in its structure and approach to student success. You will find the appropriate departments and staff on your campus to include in your student-athlete transition support program. Once you do, and you develop an integrated program that utilizes existing campus support services, your student-athletes will feel right at home during that critical first semester.
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