The midwest regional was a fun experience which really helped bring the team together and more importantly the coaching staff. Throughout the two day experience a lot was learned and even more questions about management, organizational structure, and business planning and preparation. As fun as the tournament was and the excitement subsides as the business element to this begins. How are we going to get 20 players and 7 coaches to Bradenton, Florida and how can we do it as cheap as possible? Flights are difficult to coordinate for that many people with so many working parts. We need to be in Bradenton, Florida on June 21st for the Cam Newton Skills Competition at 5:00 pm.
A big hurdle will be to customize each individual player schedule for their June Camp schedules and get them to the schools that have interest in them without conflicting with the National Championship. It's interesting because last year's national tournament was actually a week into July, but because of Nike's: The Opening which airs on ESPN and is at the University of Oregon, some players chose to attend The Opening instead and to avoid that conflict IMG moved the tournament to June 21-23. So we have a lot of work ahead to get kids to as many camps as possible. There is a conflict because have some players that attend Catholic schools and they attend the Notre Dame one day camp and 7v7 annually as a team on June 21 and June 22 so we will have to get that figured out quickly!
Another element to the preparation for this trip is the exposure and recognition. The local media in Fort Wayne, Indiana will receive text message updates and IMG will also send a news feed to them with highlights of our games to keep everyone back home posted on the progress. In the next week or so CEO Mike Ledo will be on the local sports news to discuss the trip and our journey thus far which will be a great opportunity to continue to mold the brand and more than that, provide life experiences for the kids involved and hopefully make a powerful impact on these kids who will eventually become key figures in our society.
As we sat and discussed all of these issues, it became evident that we are at the mercy of responses via phone or e-mail from college coaches before determining our plan of action to get down there (bus or plane) and what players we need to bring on the trip in case the ND campers/7v7 attendees cannot secure transportation separate from us down to Florida.
Until next time...
A big hurdle will be to customize each individual player schedule for their June Camp schedules and get them to the schools that have interest in them without conflicting with the National Championship. It's interesting because last year's national tournament was actually a week into July, but because of Nike's: The Opening which airs on ESPN and is at the University of Oregon, some players chose to attend The Opening instead and to avoid that conflict IMG moved the tournament to June 21-23. So we have a lot of work ahead to get kids to as many camps as possible. There is a conflict because have some players that attend Catholic schools and they attend the Notre Dame one day camp and 7v7 annually as a team on June 21 and June 22 so we will have to get that figured out quickly!
Another element to the preparation for this trip is the exposure and recognition. The local media in Fort Wayne, Indiana will receive text message updates and IMG will also send a news feed to them with highlights of our games to keep everyone back home posted on the progress. In the next week or so CEO Mike Ledo will be on the local sports news to discuss the trip and our journey thus far which will be a great opportunity to continue to mold the brand and more than that, provide life experiences for the kids involved and hopefully make a powerful impact on these kids who will eventually become key figures in our society.
As we sat and discussed all of these issues, it became evident that we are at the mercy of responses via phone or e-mail from college coaches before determining our plan of action to get down there (bus or plane) and what players we need to bring on the trip in case the ND campers/7v7 attendees cannot secure transportation separate from us down to Florida.
Until next time...
