Best way to start a school team (going off of experience)
So I'm gonna give my short easy guide to starting a high school team. I started two teams at my school as well as helped other teams in my area get started. Granted, they all fell apart because people graduated and the ones left weren't ready for the challenge of keeping a team going, this strategy works.
1) DO NOT go to any administration in the beginning. This is a huge no no. Many schools will shut you down right then and there and if some s***head goes and shoots up the school or anything happens, they'll go to you first. Also, they won't hear you out at all.
2) just get a few people together and go have a rec day. It doesn't matter how many people are out as long as you have 3 or more. While you're out there, take pictures. Lots of pictures.
3) start social media pages for your team on Facebook, Instagram, and twitter. Social media is your friend. Everyone at school has some form of social media and word will eventually get out. ESPECIALLY if you post often.
4) start building an achievement resume. Take your team to scenario games and get some kind of award, take your team to tournaments and clinics, get lots of pictures and video from all of it so you have to stuff to constantly put up on Your social media accounts
5) fake it till you make it. The idea is to get people talking about the club. If people see you guys are always going out to play, have a bunch of trophies or awards, and are always having "secret" meetings at school, people will be interested. People will talk about it. People will wonder where you're at. How to join. How to play. Etc. At my school, I would go to robotics meetings after school and play paintball videos to the people there, turn off the lights, and take a picture of it from the back of the class and then put it on Facebook. If people see there's already a lot of people, they'll be more tempted to join.
6)once you have a decent resume built, THEN go to administration, BUT remember to not go for a full press and be like hey we want to make this team officially recognized by the school. They won't do that. Ask if you can just have permission to make announcements at school, put up fliers, etc. Let them know that you've been doing this on the DL for some time now and there has never been any problems etc.
7) Once you really have the team up and running, make the players sign a contract. Nothing too complicated. Just something that basically states that no players will act out of line, no one will bring any gear on campus, and that should they bring any gear on campus they'll be turned in and subject to the strictest punishments the school/local law will give. Something simple that you can use to hold players accountable.
8) This should've been further up the list, but I was lazy and didn't feel like editing. Get jerseys early on. Nothing fancy at all. Just tshirts that are cheap and easy to get a hold of. Make sure when you include the school name, you do not specify "high school" for example my school was Matoaca high school out of chesterfield virginia. Instead of matoaca high school, we just put Matoaca Paintball Club. You want the team to be recognized but you don't want to force it on the school that way because you're asking for a lot of legal trouble. Also make sure if you do names and numbers to make sure they are appropriate. Last name and no numbers with inside jokes (69,6.9,.69,etc.)
If you have any questions just post here. I gotchu.
Last edited by OFUrexican : 07-24-2015 at 02:18 AM.
Reason: Make it easier to read
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