By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.9, December 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0909/bbshoetags.htm
An eye-catching project aimed at facilitating the collegiate recruiting process was tried at several junior tournaments this year. Players wore vinyl shoe lace tags color-coded to indicate whether they were signed or unsigned seniors or members of a rising class. By looking at the tags, coaches were able to get up-to-date information on each player's availability for recruiting.
The shoe tags were the brainchild of Joan Powell, Head Coach at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., and a longtime collegiate official. "I was at a tournament a couple of years ago when a college coach asked me about a player from my city," she says. "The player information guide said that she was unsigned, but I was pretty sure she had signed somewhere. When I talked to her coach, sure enough, she was going somewhere. So either the guide was wrong or she had signed late, but the college coach said this stuff was driving him crazy."
Powell heard the same complaint from another college coach at a subsequent tournament. "So I asked him, 'Is there something we can do as coaches to help you with this, like tagging the kids in some way?'" Powell says. "After we talked about it, he mentioned the shoe, which gave me the idea."
Powell talked to Lindy Binns, Executive Director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA), who got some sample tags from a friend who sold sports items. She then checked with the rules interpreter for the AVCA, who was willing to try the idea. Binns also got Volleyball One to cover the cost of the tags, about $5,000 for the thousands of tags, which were colored as follows: magenta for signed seniors, orange for unsigned seniors, yellow for the class of 2002, purple for the class of 2003, and pink for the class of 2004.
Next, Powell set about convincing the tournament directors to make the tags available to participating players and wrote a letter that described the program to every junior coach, stressing that participation was optional. Many tournament directors did sign up, including the Crossroads Junior Qualifier, Tampa Bay Qualifier, Lone Star Classic, and Junior National Championship.
"We didn't get all of them, but those that participated had pretty positive reactions," she says. "I asked each tournament to set up a suggestion box, and the biggest complaint was that the tags were too small to see, especially at bigger tournaments. One person raised a strong objection--something to the effect that this is like a cattle show in that we were tagging the players."
But most reactions were positive, according to Binns. "One tournament administrator called the tags an unparalleled success," Binns says. "That shows this idea is helpful for recruiters. It certainly saves them time in having to flip open their guide every time they see a kid who interests them. And there were about 40,000 kids total at all the qualifiers who used the tags."
Powell is assessing options for the next generation of tags, with an eye on making them more visible. "We can't really give them armbands or wristbands or big shoe tags that would be distracting on the court," she says. "We talked about colored shoelaces, but that's personal stuff, and kids don't like to change that. One company makes what are basically little bumper stickers for the backs of shoes, which would be good because most coaches are walking on the end lines. But whatever we choose, we hope to keep the same colors each year."
Once Powell and Binns settle on the next tag, they'll be looking for a sponsor. But the real key to the project's success is participation by the tournament coaches and directors. "We hope they rally around the idea," Powell says. "Player information guides aren't always accurate, and they can't be easily updated. So these tags could be the solution."