3 Ways To Research An Athletics Program

Whether you are researching schools to help build your initial list of colleges or because coaches are reaching out to you, there are three aspects you need to make sure you look at in order to help learn if their athletics program is the right fit for you.

Researching the team’s schedule 

There is so much you can learn from researching the last few years of a team’s schedule.

The first, is you can learn about how competitive the team is in their respective conference and division. This is good to know because you need to understand what a season may look like for you. If a team is continuously vying for conference championships, then it is likely that you will be able to take part in that. On the flipside, if the team is towards the bottom of the conference each year, it is possible that they can remain there and you may have a lot of struggles competitively. 

The second, is that you can learn how the program has developed over the last several years. Teams have up and down years so it is hard to gauge the future of the team based on just one season. Looking back at previous seasons can let you learn more about where the team may be heading. Maybe they are middle of the pack currently, but each year their record and place in conference has been growing. This can be a good sign that the program is getting stronger perhaps will be at the top of the conference in the near future.

The third use for the schedule is you can learn about other schools that you may be an athletic fit for. If you are being recruited by a specific school, looking at their schedule will let you see what other teams are about the same level. If you are looking to expand your list of schools, this can be a great way to reach out to new coaches to learn more about their programs. It is likely that if one team has interest in you, then another of a similar level might as well.

Researching the roster

Looking at the members of a roster can give you a lot of insight of if you could potentially be a fit for a team.

In individual sports this is the easiest because you can compare your rankings, ratings, times, etc. to the current members of the team. If you are close to what members of the team are producing, you would likely be an athletic fit.

For team sports this is a little bit more challenging. When researching a roster you should first look at the members that are in your position. See what their high school accomplishments were and how they compare to yours. If you are a baseball player competing in a small area that is batting .300 and the current members of a roster were batting .500 while playing in one of the toughest areas in the country, it is unlikely you would be a fit for that program.

Research the coaching staff

Taking a look at the coaching staff, mainly the head coach, can give you an indication of what your years may look like if you became a member of that team. 

Typically it takes a coach anywhere from 3-7 years to establish their program. Some do it faster, some it takes a little longer. But what you can learn is where the program is headed under that coach. If a team has finished 5th in conference for the last 5 years and the coach has been there a decade, it is likely the team will remain at that level.

But if you see a coach has been at the school for 3 years and the team went from finishing 10th, to 7th, to 5th, this could be a sign the coach is building the program and it may continue to keep growing under their tutelage. 

Also, researching the coaching staff can give you an idea of the stability of the program. If they have had 4 coaches in the last 7 years, this could be a sign that the program is going to continue to have coaching turnover, which might not be what you want as part of your athletic experience. 

There is so much you can learn from spending 10 to 15 minutes researching a team’s athletics website. This can help you make informed decisions that can guide you towards finding the right school and athletic program for you. So whether you are beginning to research schools or are trying to learn more about a school that has recently contacted you for the first time, be sure to use the team’s athletics page to gain as much knowledge as possible. Taking the time will pay huge dividends in the end and help you either add or eliminate schools from your search.