I’ve had several friends and colleagues, even coaches at my
school, ask me how I find and keep so many good student aids. We treat our student aid program just like we
would if we worked at the college level or if these students were employed
through us. We have high expectations of
our students and hold them to a high standard.
I think there are several things that contribute to
developing and sustaining an effective student aid program. These are things we do at the high school
where I work; there definitely is not a right or best way to do it… but this
has been working for us over the past 5 years, and interest in our student aid
program continues to grow.
I think the first step is evaluating the needs of your
athletic programs to determine how large, or small, you would like your staff. We start the year with around 20 student
aids, and typically have an additional 3 or 4 students in class that do not
have obligations after school. Inevitably, you will have student aids
quit. They either don’t know what they
are truly getting in to, decide they want to spend their time doing other
things, or move; but for whatever reason you will lose at least one student aid
every year. The extra students who start
the year with no obligations can serve to fill those spaces, in the eventuality
you have a student aid leave your staff.
Next, we have an application that all students interested in
the student aid program complete. The
application includes a summation of duties and expectations, a brief
questionnaire, and a grade report to be completed by the student’s current
teachers. We evaluate each application
before contacting students for an interview.
During the interview, we go into more detail about what will
be expected and required of the student aids in our program. We stress the amount of time that is required
to become a student aid, and try to reiterate that point several times during
the interview. We get to know each
student to determine if they would be a good fit with our current staff. Then, we answer questions the student may
have for us.
Upon completion of the interviews, we send a letter to each
student informing them whether we are offering them a position on our student
aid staff, desiring them to take our class with no extracurricular obligations,
or (in rare cases) saying “Thank you for your interest, but….” I believe by treating the process of
selecting our student aids as a professional application, we emphasize the importance
we place on our program and give students selected a sense of pride and
accomplishment.
Before the school year begins, we hold an in-service with
our newly selected student aids to teach them basic skills we want them to know
early on (e.g. CPR and First Aid, basic taping techniques, etc.), and then
another with our entire staff to go over rules and procedures, brush up on
basic skills, and prepare the athletic training room for the coming
season. Throughout the year, we hold
monthly meetings to inform student aids on upcoming events and to discuss any
issues that may have occurred.
We also try to have fun with our students. We carve pumpkins
together at Halloween, have a Christmas party, and several other things
throughout the year to show our student aids that we appreciate their hard work
and dedication. I know our students
look forward to having homemade lasagna and Secret Santa at the Christmas party
every year.
While this has worked for my school, you have to find
something that works for you and your situation. However, I encourage you to expect more from
your student aids; if you hold them to a higher standard, they will begin to do
the same for themselves and may surprise you with what they are capable of.
