redefining​​CHAMPION

Academics. The first metric of success will be the continued betterment of our team GPA. Although the goal an increase in team GPA, we will first need to determine what measurable increase might be considered “successful.” The amount of expected increase in team GPA will be reviewed annually, suggested by the team captains and set by the coaching staff.

The second measurement will be graduation rate. As the philosophy focuses on academic success, family, and service in addition to athletic success, graduation rate will be indicative of how successful all aspects of the program have been. The goal is the players understand that their college experience does not culminate with their final game; instead it culminates when they walk across the stage and receive their diplomas.

Character Development. Although participation in development activities will be an expectation within the program, the goal would be a broad-based approach that would impact a cross-section of the community. Therefore, it is important that we measure the student-athletes’ participation outside of football. As we set the expectation and recruit student-athletes who espouse the philosophy, 60 percent participation outside of football would be a good place to start. Obviously, as the program grows it is important to increase the expectation. Additionally, it is imperative to note that participation in developmental activities means more than membership in an organization. Participation should be active; membership without active participation is worse than not being involved at all.

Recruitment and Retention. As recruiting and retention goals are set by the institution, our goal is to meet and exceed those goals by recruiting student-athletes who will be successful and stay.

Competitiveness. We cannot measure ourselves against the best in the conference; we must measure up versus the team right in front of us. If we focus on the mountain, we will trip over the pebble. As a program, competiveness will be measured it multiple ways.

• how good can you be right now?

• how good can we be right now?

• are we better than we were the day before?

Community Service. Although student-athletes will be expected to serve, this initial expectation is only intended to expose students to service and provide them the opportunity and teaching them how to serve. Once student-athletes have been involved in the program for a year, we would measure success in this area by their continued participation (60 percent) and their initiation of additional service projects (25 percent) with increasing expectations annually.

Staff. Although staff evaluations are likely to be based on institutional expectations, staff success would be measured in their commitment to the program in all of the aforementioned areas as well. Standard institutional evaluations will be used.