Today’s lesson on how we became a successful bowling program is getting people involved. What I mean by this is that you can not do everything, it is impossible to build a successful bowling program by yourself. You have to get some help from people, so make sure you ask the right people to help. I had an idea that I wanted to have a JV team that was being developed to get ready to become varsity bowlers at some point before they graduated. How do you do that? Find someone to coach your JV team and tell them what you want them to do, for me it was, develop the JV team by working on the fundamentals of bowling game, get them the correct equipment, teach them the basics and don’t worry at all about winning. I have told my JV coaches over the years that I could care less if they ever win a match, as long as the kids are learning the fundamentals and getting ready to become a varsity bowler, that is the only thing that matters. Now here is an important point, whomever you hire to become your JV coach has to be able to teach the kids what you want them to learn. Don’t hire a coach that has their own ideas on how things should be ran or what should be taught, this will never work, they will undermine you and your program will take a step back, not a step forward. A JV coach must understand that they are a JV coach and their job is to get the kids ready to bowl on varsity someday. I was very fortunate to have what I will consider the best JV coaches work with me for more than 7 years. Scott and Stephanie Gruener agreed to be my JV coaches and helped our program become the best in the state. Our JV program grew from 1 team to 2 JV teams under their guidance. We had kids coming to try outs like never before with these people helping out. They both showed a genuine interest in the kids and taught them the basics of bowling and made it fun for them. They also opened my eyes up to show me how important it was to have that JV team and to do what we could to make sure they were getting recognized for their accomplishments. Scott and Stephanie had many good ideas on how to raise more money in fundraising so that their JV teams could do more, bowl in more tournaments and get nice uniforms like the varsity teams. Scott and Steph have since retired and I have hired a few new coaches who have continued the same ideas. They are continuing to teach the fundamentals and get the kids ready for varsity some day. Please remember that some kids will not ever get to the point that they will compete for a spot on varsity but that is OK, you still need those kids in your program and what does it hurt to have them. I have heard some coaches say well if a player can’t make it to varsity by the time they are a junior you should just cut them, they don’t do your program any good, I totally diisagree. Why cut them, let them continue to bowl and have some fun as long as they want to. In bowling they have a JV state finals tournament and bowlers no matter what grade they are in look forward to that. Main point is to start a JV team, hire good people to help you out, people who have the same ideas as you and develop players for the future. You have to have someone who is willing to work with the youth for nothing more than the pleasure of helping out because we all know that coaches are not making much money if any at all.
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