Recruiting
Posted On: 11-10-2024
Of all the things team leadership often struggles with it is recruiting. As coaches one must consider a broad range of ways to encourage youth shooters to join a team. First off assumptions need to be overcome. As an example, many youth shooters have taken Hunter Education. While that would be a large group to recruit, often many are not interested in clay target shooting. A second assumption is clay target shooting is competitive and maybe not as fun as one would think. Finally, a third assumption is shooting is expensive.
As an advisor to the Mizzou shooting team before retiring I remember well the team having recruiting meetings. Flyers were posted and students showed up to hear about the team. Unfortunately, after the meeting, of which many showed up, few attended a first practice. Somewhere and somehow a disconnect had occurred. Upon further inspection it would have been letter to have had the students at the range the first time and offered to shoot as a team member.
My first thought is organizing an introductory shoot for youth and parents to attend. Perhaps have a BBQ and provide the shells, targets and if necessary, guns to encourage kids to come out and try clay target shooting. Keep in mind, many have never shot on a range much less seen and shot a five-stand, skeet, bunker or sporting clay course. Keep the first shoot introductory and provide some instruction by the current team members. Keep it fun. Safety is paramount so make sure all know how important it is and how much attention is paid to always ensure gun safety.
Get the word out using social media, print, and flyers. Make sure you cover all the bases but don’t assume everyone is accessing your Facebook page. Get a date set well in advance to make sure you can continuously post and refresh the invite up and to the time provided. Look ahead to school calendars to make sure your time is not corrupted by other events. Note youth are busy and sports are active throughout the year. Find a time and date that you feel would work best.
Get to know your organizational support. If 4-H, FFA, school or home schooled know where the team resides within the schools’ shooting and sport activities. I mentioned home-schooled so perhaps there are youth nearby that might want to shoot but have no idea they could shoot with your team.
Get the team out to recruit and ask them to tell their friends about the invitation. Be positive and go out of your way to get the word out to as many as possible. Having existing members out recruiting establishes the retentive character of the team. Show how team members stick around and shoot for several years. Typically, shooters begin in Junior High around age 13 so there is a long window of team membership to establish and retain.
Be prepared to show off the team’s success and let parents and new recruits know what lies ahead as to events, practice time required, and costs. Make sure you share your Midway USA Foundation account information and discuss your thoughts along with gaining suggestions on ways to grow the endowment.
Finally, ask about going to classrooms and doing a short presentation on the shooting team to help interested kids in deciding to come to a first meeting. Show how much fun being on a shooting team can be for all youth.
Recruiting can be difficult, and it takes work. Simply posting a meeting may not bring in the number of kids interested. As a goal try not to leave anyone out that might want to participate.
David R. Vaught, Ph.D.
Executive Director