Recruiting
- Before game Prep
- Print out Roster or pull up on phone
- Team List is can aid in helping to know if player is a first year or second player
- Use old youth hockey hub tourneys to find out which kids played where and what year they are (for example; if you pull up the Squirtacular from the last season. Pull up the certain team you are watching. If they were on the Wayzata Squirt A last year and now is on the Wayzata PWAA team this year you know he’s a 1st year PW.)
- Check Basecamp for past notes on players
- Someone may have already watched
- Or there maybe notes from the year before
- Or contact information
- Have a plan of attack before going to a game
- Are you looking for new Members?
- Are you watching an applicant?
- Have you watched a guy twice and still like him
- Make contact with parent
- What to Do at the Game
- Watch game for potential members, applicants, and existing members
- Stay after to meet with kid, especially if you don’t know the parents
- Search out existing members parents
- Ask about how life is
- How their player is doing
- Maybe ask who else on his team we should watch out for
- Parents can be your biggest recruiter
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- Talking to Potential New MAP/FHIT Members
- (a) Find parent of new member
- (b) Ask random parent or sometimes current Member parent can show you or introduce you
- Talking to Potential New MAP/FHIT Members
- Introducing yourself to Parent
- Get names and introduce who you are
- Give business card
- Ask if they know what the MAP program is
- If they know you can move forward, otherwise an explanation maybe needed (try to keep it fairly short because it can be a lot of info to digest)
- Why their player would benefit from our program
- Can use who else is in the program, that they may know
- Also you giving them you experience can be a big factor
- At the end you can ask them for a business card or an email or phone #
- Tell them there is more information/video you can send them (program overview link)
- Offer to provide a tour of the facility and run through of what we do in detail
- That way now you have their contact info, so if they aren’t interested this year you can reach back out to them in the future
- Parents will lose or forget they have a business card
- Follow up is key
- It’s also great for using later if they decide not to do the program
- Emailing follow up
- Mention what game you met them
- And appreciate their time
- You can send them the link with the program details
- Or if they have no clue, explain further what we do in a session
- At the end of the email put a date saying if I don’t hear back from you by then, I’ll email or give you a call to discuss any questions you might have about the program
- I usually do a week
- Gives you a reason to contact them again and hopefully helps you get an answer from the first email
EMAIL EXAMPLE WHEN MAKING CONTACT WITH A NEW POTENTIAL MEMBER
Katie,
It was great to meet you this last weekend. I get to watch a lot of hockey from PeeWees to High School. And I usually watch defenseman pretty closely. As the game went on I noticed Sam more and more. Skates well, does a great job of supporting and moving the puck and he’s a 1st year Peewee so I know he’s only going to improve even more as the season progresses.
We have a pretty cool futures program that runs June-September out of the Plymouth Ice Center. Our program has top players from the west metro area (OMGHA, Tonka, Wayzata, Orono and many others). Our goal is to help the kids continue to develop their game, through on-ice, off-ice workouts, and off-ice shooting and stickhandling all in one building.
The link I have provided below will explain what our program is all about:
I hope you don’t hold it against me that I’m a Tommie. But we have a very good program in Plymouth and myself and our staff are very passionate about hockey. I’ll check in with you next week to see if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Garrett