Our fears were confirmed. The rain came and hit hard. However, we were prepared. I had drafted all the necessary emails the night before and we had everything planned out to be at the facility about 6 hours in advance of the first camp to map it out and set everything up.
I was in charge of getting the emails out to college coaches, campers and the camper’s parents. I also put up notices on the NFCA website and called the office to let them know all the details in case people called there for information. We tweeted the information out because a lot of the college coaches who would be attending follow us on there. Any way we could we got the information out. Getting things like that out the day of an event is hard because not everyone checks their email regularly.
The other precaution we took was getting someone from the facility to go over to the previously scheduled fields to set up a sign and hang out there al day to direct anyone who did not get the message to the right place.
The indoor facility is great and we made it work. The actual camp portions of the camp and everything involving the student athletes were facilitated just as it would outdoors which was important. The tough part I found was what to do with the parents and coaches. The area inside for them to linger and watch was extremely limited and it became very crowded. I have never done a camp indoors before so this was an all-new experience. We had a lot of the college coaches ask us if we could tell the parents to leave after they dropped their kids off. Of course we could not accommodate this request because we had not mentioned at any point during the selection process or the months of preparation that this could be a possibility. Knowing what I know now this would be something I would gladly add in.
The Academic camp on Wednesday runs with everyone there at the same time so the crowd was hectic to say the least. The camp on Thursday was much better because the kids come in waves. All together it is more people but spread out. We also set things up slightly different on Thursday to make things a little easier.
Our other big hurdle with using this indoor facility is the parking situation. With that many people involved the parking lot just could not handle it. People were parking illegally regardless of our signage and announcement. We had a few incidents with tickets and even some parents and coaches’ cars getting towed. The NFCA staff was unaware ahead of time that this would be an issue so on Wednesday night after we had the situation mapped out I sent an email out to everyone detailing where they could and could not park and asking them to obey parking restrictions for their own good.
Overall the camps were highly successful and everyone seemed to think it was beneficial for them. We had a couple of people complain they did not get notice of the change and by the time they figured it out they missed their session so I offered partial refunds and processed those accordingly.
I was in charge of getting the emails out to college coaches, campers and the camper’s parents. I also put up notices on the NFCA website and called the office to let them know all the details in case people called there for information. We tweeted the information out because a lot of the college coaches who would be attending follow us on there. Any way we could we got the information out. Getting things like that out the day of an event is hard because not everyone checks their email regularly.
The other precaution we took was getting someone from the facility to go over to the previously scheduled fields to set up a sign and hang out there al day to direct anyone who did not get the message to the right place.
The indoor facility is great and we made it work. The actual camp portions of the camp and everything involving the student athletes were facilitated just as it would outdoors which was important. The tough part I found was what to do with the parents and coaches. The area inside for them to linger and watch was extremely limited and it became very crowded. I have never done a camp indoors before so this was an all-new experience. We had a lot of the college coaches ask us if we could tell the parents to leave after they dropped their kids off. Of course we could not accommodate this request because we had not mentioned at any point during the selection process or the months of preparation that this could be a possibility. Knowing what I know now this would be something I would gladly add in.
The Academic camp on Wednesday runs with everyone there at the same time so the crowd was hectic to say the least. The camp on Thursday was much better because the kids come in waves. All together it is more people but spread out. We also set things up slightly different on Thursday to make things a little easier.
Our other big hurdle with using this indoor facility is the parking situation. With that many people involved the parking lot just could not handle it. People were parking illegally regardless of our signage and announcement. We had a few incidents with tickets and even some parents and coaches’ cars getting towed. The NFCA staff was unaware ahead of time that this would be an issue so on Wednesday night after we had the situation mapped out I sent an email out to everyone detailing where they could and could not park and asking them to obey parking restrictions for their own good.
Overall the camps were highly successful and everyone seemed to think it was beneficial for them. We had a couple of people complain they did not get notice of the change and by the time they figured it out they missed their session so I offered partial refunds and processed those accordingly.