In the past, I have written about how DRIVN has helped my football program at Greenwich High School with communication and accountability. In this column, I want to explain how it has helped develop a sense of community among my players.
Now that we have mastered the basics tools DRIVN allows, we are going to do much more with it. We are always finding new ways to use it, and sometimes we discover that it has improved a situation we didn’t think it would.
Here’s an example: one of my captains said the other day that he doesn’t know who the freshmen are but he has started reaching out and communicating with them because of the position group chats. They see a kid walking around school with a Greenwich football shirt on and they ask him his name. They‘ve seen his name in the chats so it brings them closer together. The kids have their own group chat without the coaches. Its brought us together more as a family because now my seniors know who the freshmen are.
There are two different kinds of communication on any team. There’s the communication the kids have when the coaches are around, and there’s the communication kids have with each other, when the coaches are not around.
We have a mentorship program. We are separated into different “Tribes” that include kids from all classes. The “Tribes” each have their own group chats where they can keep in touch with each other. That stuff has been instrumental in helping all the kids understand that there are more people watching than just the coaches.
Our mentors – our senior leaders – are reaching out to these underclassmen. Now we have a situation where kids are holding other kids accountable. If you achieve that, you are starting to have a program, not just a team.