As you may recall, I'm involved in volleyball and with the start of the new school year I've decided to offer my expertise to two local high schools. Of course, I can only choose 1 due to county regulations, but I put feelers out to two just to give me a selection.
Yesterday was the "official" start of the volleyball season and the first day that teams were allowed to start practicing - i.e. tryouts for the team rosters.
So last night I'm talking with a player from School A. School A is a 2-time defending state champion in their division, and all but 1 graduating senior (out of 6) were granted scholarships to various colleges (the 1 that didn't get a scholarship chose to pay tuition to go to her favorite university rather than limit herself to only those offering her free rides). I assisted with School A last year and they had a really solid program with good parental support. In fact, several of the parents had to donate uniforms for the team and cover expenses to local school tournaments because there weren't any funds in the county athletics budget for it. School A is having a week-long tryout, with general conditioning drills yesterday involving running bleachers, 1-mile runs, strength testing, and plyometrics (the ability for the body to develop explosive bursts, like jumping). Today each player is meeting with a personal trainer to develop their own individual conditioning program. Tomorrow and Thursday the coach will be videotaping each player performing skills exercises at various stations. Final roster cut is this Friday.
Later that night I was speaking with a coach from School B. School B had a losing record last season, with its 3rd coach in as many years, and had to hold its games at a junior high school because School B's net system was worn out and unsafe. Last season a local news reporter covering School B's final game interviewed the opposing team's coach, which described School B as "my team saw (School B) warming up and knew it would be an easy victory, so the girls took it easy and played poorly. (School B)'s players are like babies out there." The Athletic Director for School B approached my contact and got a list of requirements that the team would need for the new season, including new nets, poles, balls, pads, referee stands, and adapters for the holes in the gym floor so that the new poles would fit. Yesterday the coach (my contact) was unpacking all of the new gear before tryouts and realized that the adapters never arrived. Turns out the AD never ordered them, as a cost-saving measure. So the coach summons the AD out of his office and shows him the 3/4 gap all around the poles, making the net system unsafe and useless. The AD contacted the equipment vendor and ordered the adapters, which will arrive in
10 days.
In 10 days School A will have completed its final roster cut, have each girl on a conditioning program, will be reviewing video tape of the previous week's skills tests to identify what each player needs to focus on developing, and will be getting its offensive scheme in place.
In 10 days School B will just be starting its tryouts.
The first game for both schools is in
15 days. The regular season concludes October 23, and comprises of 13 games (4 of which may be cancelled by School B due to budget constraints, making a 9-game season where every match counts, magnifying the importance of prep work prior the first game. School A will play a full schedule plus at least 2 local tournaments and 1 out-of-city preseason tournament). School B will have 5 days to build a roster and teach the girls the basic offense and defensive alignments. Conditioning drills are out of the question at that point, and certainly won't involve personal trainers and individual skill development.
The real losers in this scenario are the senior girls at School B, who are getting shafted by the school and being shortchanged out of their future, particularly when it comes time for the college scouts to come around and evaluate each team and player in 2 months.
Now ask yourself - is your employer more like School A, or School B?
When I first started at my corporate job, I spent the first week sitting at an empty desk doing nothing, waiting for my work terminal to arrive (this was the age of the mainframe). I read a couple of binders about corporate policy, which took all of 2 hours, and spent the rest of the time just walking around meeting people and getting underfoot. Then it took another 2 or 3 months to learn the ins-and-outs of the business model and service conditions as on-the-job training. The company missed its plan and a year later the company did the lay-off dance, and a year later it was bought out by IBM, then a year after that it was sold to AT&T, and 3 months ago AT&T let the upper tier managers off with a severance package. I'd say my company is/was School B.
