Loading summary
Transcript72 lines
- [00:02]
A
Dive into the dynamic world of high school sports. Whether you're a seasoned athletic director, a newcomer to the field, or simply curious to learn more about this exciting profession, this podcast is your go to resource for inspiration, education, and a deeper understanding of the game changing decisions that shape the world of high school athletics. Welcome back to AD360. As always, I'm Greg Vandermayten, joined by my co host, Scott Rosenberg. Today we got our first returning guest on the podcast, so we're super excited about that. Scott, how are you doing today?
- [00:36]
B
Great, man. How about you?
- [00:38]
A
I'm doing well, my friend. I'm pretty excited to get through this episode. We got Steve Montoya from Max Preps joining us again today. So Steve, welcome back. And, and how's it going in your world right now?
- [00:51]
C
Doing good, guys. I really appreciate you having me back on. Looking forward to jumping into this combo and good time of the year with.
- [00:58]
B
With.
- [00:58]
C
With basketball postseason going on and all the winter sport action and spring action mixed in. So good time of the year for sure.
- [01:06]
A
Yeah, it certainly is a busy time of year. I'm sure you and the Max Preps team are just a little. A little busy over in your offices with all the events that are taking place nationally. As I mentioned, you know, Steve, you're a returning guest today. We're super excited to dive into a new topic with you. And what we'd like to cover today is how can athletic directors build program identity, work with media, create more visibility for their athletes? You know, really kind of that overall brand, not only just from an athletic department perspective, but also helping to elevate their student athletes. So we're really glad to have you back and excited to talk through this with you today.
- [01:46]
C
Yeah, yeah, looking forward to it and excited to jump in.
- [01:50]
B
How do you feel about being our first returning guest? That's the important stuff.
- [01:54]
C
Yeah, that's a big honor. I, I feel, feel good. So thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
- [01:59]
B
Awesome.
- [02:00]
A
That makes Scott and I feel good because at least we get people coming back, right?
- [02:04]
B
That's right. Yeah. I'm excited to have you too, Steve. Like, you know, Greg, we're going to get into this, but I was thinking this morning, I think about it sometimes, like, being a former educator, if I had enough money, I've always thought about, like, I want to start my own school, right? Like, and if I start my own school, of course, I want athletics to be really important, academics as well. And like today's episode, to ask Steve, just about how, like building a program and building like the media relationships I mean, you don't have to start your own school for that. But I'm kind of excited to dive into that. For me, I mean, I would right off the bat, think, like, I want to hitch my wagon to the biggest, best player out there. And if it was college or the pros, I'd probably be thinking about espn. And if it was high school, I'd be thinking about Max Preps, like, just to kind of get my school's name out there. So I'm, I'm stoked to start asking Steve some questions here.
- [03:03]
A
You know, Scott, I think that's actually a good segue into to. The first question that I wanted to ask Steve today is, you know, when we're looking at it from a national media perspective, what can really help high schools in athletic departments stand out, separate themselves from the pack? I mean, the obvious one is this can be from like winning. You know, wins and losses certainly separate you. But what other factors beyond just wins and losses can help really elevate and separate programs?
- [03:34]
C
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I think, you know, number one, is like, a clear, recognizable identity for a school is key, especially on the media side. And what I mean by that is a school might be a football factory. We know of them because they're always pumping out high level players into the collegiate level and then ultimately into the professional level. So they have this, this identity as a football powerhouse. And when you have that identity, it definitely helps decisions of families nearby to say, well, they have reputation of helping young men or, or young women get to the next level that they want to be. You know, you, you mentioned, you mentioned winning. It, it is part of it, you know, sustained success. You're not just one year. You, you have a reputation of building winning programs. That, that always helps. And, and you know, the talent pipeline just to bring that back up there. If you're always pumping out talent, people know of it and, and the media know of it. And when you, when you have that too, you start to build a, like a professional relationship with media members like Max Preps or your local media or your recruiting service, whatever it may be. So I, I would go back to just that, a clear, recognizable identity.
- [05:10]
A
And that makes a lot of sense. I mean, like, you, you really want to make sure that, that, that brand that you've built is something that's, you know, top of mind. When you think of you, you said football powerhouse, you think of football powerhouses. And I'm sure, Scott, all of us on this call can list off like 5 to 10 off the top of your head. That immediately come to mind when you say football powerhouse, you know, whether what, whatever part of country you're living in, you know them. So certainly building those strong programs helps immensely is what I'm gathering.
- [05:44]
B
I mean, winning breeds winning, right? Winning breeds winning. Sorry. And gosh, in New Jersey there's always like that recruiting factor that people talk about. Legal, illegal, when can you recruit? But in a sense, when you build that identity and you build that like winning mantra, a lot of coaches don't really have to recruit, right. Once you start, I think that's what Steve is saying. Like they come to you as opposed to you having to go get them. But the biggest question is just how do you start? And I think that's kind of what we're talking about. Right? So like Steve, if there was one thing that you would say, like you're starting a program or you're starting, you really want to start getting a more prominent name out there. Is there one thing that you would like key on that you would say this is what you should do first?
- [06:34]
C
Yeah, if I, if I was just like a, ad starting, starting something up, you know, I'd sit down with my coaches and probably say, what are, what are three things our athletic program wants to be known as? What. What do we be. Want to be defined as? And it may be, you know, something simple as we want to be winners, we want to win. That's what we want to be known for. But it, you know, it could, it could be other things too. It could be we want to develop kids to get them into college, or it could just be we want to be known as a school that has multi sport athletes everywhere and we're known for our toughness. But I think for, for the, for the athletic director and their coaches to just basically get on the same page of when someone hears of, you know, Smith School or whatever you, the school is, they think of X, Y and Z. When you're, when you're going up against that school or when you, you know, when people talk about that school. So I think it's important just to, to have a, a clear identity from the start in the, in the athletic program.
- [07:44]
B
Love that. Greg, your thoughts on that?
- [07:49]
A
It definitely does come to mind. First, Scott, I'm going to say in the, in the recruiting world, the private school guy, we, we market. That's what we do is we market. Okay. We just, we just mark it. Well. No, but I think that to your point, Steve, like you have those three pillars, you know, I worked with Bruce Rollinson for a bunch of years. And he would always say, pride, poison, courage, like, those were the pillars of modern day football. Like, that is what you thought of. And he really encompassed his program around that. You know, like, those were the elements. And what I'm hearing from you is like, take that approach to your athletic department, you know, like, have your standards, you know, that you're. You're striving for across all departments. And, you know, like, you see some of those harder nose teams that are maybe in more, you know, rural areas with not a huge number of kids, and they may have the mantra of, like, we're bringing a lunchbox to work. You know, like, that type of mentality is what you really want to kind of build your identity around, and then you can build upon that is kind of what I'm hearing. Does that sound directionally, right?
- [08:52]
C
Yeah. And then your coaches know it, and then your athletes know it, and your parents of those athletes know it. There's. There's a. There's a clear path that everybody understands of. This is our program and this, this is what we're known for, and everybody needs to buy into that philosophy.
- [09:11]
A
Love it.
- [09:11]
B
Greg, going back to your point, that marketing comment coming from a public school guy, I'm just gonna throw this out there. Those big powerhouses that you were at, they market to like, the middle school, math, science and engineering academy, football programs and stuff like that in the middle school. That's who they. Right. Is that the marketing that happens?
- [09:31]
A
Typically, yeah. I mean, like, that's, that's really what we were. We're gearing towards on that one.
- [09:37]
B
I just want to be clear.
- [09:39]
A
Hey, we still got to be eligible. Still got to be eligible, right?
- [09:43]
B
Correct? Absolutely. Absolutely. Steve, for schools and ads who feel like their program doesn't get the kind of coverage that some schools receive, is there, like a proactive approach that you might recommend an ad or coaches take to kind of get their athletes some more exposure or develop better relationships with the media?
- [10:07]
C
Yeah, I think the. Right now with. With the media and just the general landscape of high school coverage across the country is, as we all know, that you don't have the. The 20 high school reporters in every market around the country like there used to be when we were growing up. It's. It's thin. They can only cover so much. So the. The more that you. You're. You are putting out your program and you. You're helping define. I don't want to say define the, the full storyline for, for the, the media, but you're at least giving them something and building that relationship with them so that they, they know of your athletes, they know of your program, they know they can go here or there to find out information about your program. And it's not, it's not a secret. Your program's not a secret to the media because the media for the most part we're in high school sports to celebrate high school sports. We're not in this business to bring down high school sports. We're doing the exact opposite. We want to lift it and elevate it. But sometimes we need help from coaches in schools to, to understand what are the storylines coming out of your program that we can tell. So the more that you build that relationship with, with your local media or your national media, whatever, the more you're going to get coverage because the more we're, we're going to know and understand and we need help too to do that. So I would say that you're never going to bug a media member by sending us too much because for a lot of times it's, we have to dig it up to get anything. So I would say just continue to press that gas on building relationships with, with all the media you can.
- [12:05]
B
I think that is so important what you said. I was going to ask you, like, can we be annoying if we send you too much? But like your point of number one, this shrinking local media, media all over the place, right. Like we have in the local paper here one sports reporter for basically every single sport. She's great, she's just overwhelmed and there's just no way she can cover everything. Especially like those special interest stories, I would say kind of the cool stuff. Besides for just the wish she's going to know who's winning, you know, the most. But like those cool special interest stories are the ones like that they can miss very easily. And even a lot of the other sports that are, you know, maybe not the quote, money sports. So I think that's awesome to hear. Like you're not going to necessarily bother somebody from the media by making sure that if even over communication happens.
- [12:57]
C
Yeah, 100%
- [13:01]
A
love it. Kind of a two part question for you that I'm thinking of right now.
- [13:06]
C
Yeah.
- [13:06]
A
One like recruiting has changed dramatically. Like that landscape from what all of us on this call knew years ago when we were of that age is completely different. Not even the exact same, nowhere near the same. Right. And in that realm, you know, like what role can an ad play in helping athletes gain exposure? And with that, the second part of the question is going to be, you know, as an ad, you can kind of have some control over exposure and that stat reporting, you know, getting accurate information out there for when media outlets like a Max Preps or others are looking for it as well as recruiters. Like kind of a long winded way of saying one, how important is it for ADs and coaches to accurately get their stats and information out to media members and platforms like Max Preps? And two, how much does that really help change the recruiting role that an athletic director can help in elevating their program as well as their athletes?
- [14:11]
C
Yeah, I think, I think of the AD as kind of the infrastructure builder. They're making sure that their athletic department is. Things are very easy for their athletes to gain exposure. So the AD is not the one sending out the emails to the college coaches and doing that. But if a college coach wants information on an athlete like they want to see their stats, is there a place like Max Preps where the college coach knows that this school's stats and information is going to be accurately kept and updated? Because we hear this all the time at Max Preps that college coaches rely heavy on Max Preps just to even know when and where to go go watch a player. So is, you know, for baseball, for example, are they really playing at 3:30 at the school? Because we're going and showing up there. And so if that information is not easily accessible, the college coach might not be at the game or miss it. Same thing when it comes to, you know, an, an athlete's film or anything like that. So you're, you're basically building a culture of promotion for your athletes and you're setting that standard within your program that if somebody's looking at our athletes, it's not going to be hard to find them and get information that they need. And then I think the AD is, is really the, the educator for the coaches and families of, of here's how we're going to promote our players and get involved in recruiting and not shy away from, from recruiting because the athletes want promotion. They want, they want help. And I think the AD plays a important role in that in, in building the, the structure of how our program is going to get the kids out. So even things like, you know, putting, putting all your information information into Max Preps, like not just to promote Max Preps, like I'm a coach myself, like I use Max Preps all the time as just a coach and as a dad and as a, you know, a family member. Because you just want easy information at your hands and it's just on max preps. It's all there for you. So I, I highly promote that. Not just because I'm a long time employee, but as, as also just someone who lives and breeds high school sports all day. It's, it just makes it so much easier to, to understand everything from as simple as who's that kid out there to wins the game.
- [16:59]
A
I, I love it because like, we're in the information age, right? And that is across every industry. And you see like, I saw it a lot this year when I was following Indiana's tremendous run from a football perspective and listening to Coach Signetti talk about data points when recruiting athletes, things that were never thought of 20 years ago, like, hey, is this, is this player going to pan out? We're going to look at these, these data sets. And really the way that I'm interpreting what you're saying is you're providing more data points for athletes to get exposure, you know, and be visible to college coaches across all levels. And then at the same token, you're elevating your athletic department by providing those opportunities to be searchable, to be findable. Right. So I think that's, that's a tremendous opportunity that, that you can take advantage of for both your student athletes as well as your overall program. Scott, what are your thoughts?
- [18:00]
B
I mean, yeah, of course, right. Like, I think the AD is the coach of the coaches, I guess you would say so. I love when Steve said, like the ads got to kind of set the structure. They're not going to be doing it every day, but they've got to help the coaches, they've got to coach them up, they've got to help build the program, they've got to set high expectations for how their coaches communicate with college coaches, how quickly they respond to college coaches being truthful and realistic, right? Like, I had a coach one time that I knew was kind of pumping up their kids to play in programs that they probably where they did not, they would not like succeed. And that's a bad thing for the kid. It's also a terrible thing for the school because, like, you ruin your credibility, right? Like, call a college coach and say, you need Greg, you got to look at Greg, you know, and they spent some time looking at Greg and Greg was never going to play at that school. Terrible for Greg, terrible for the school's reputation and the credibility. So, like that athletic director helping set the standard, coach up their coaches in order for those things to happen that Steve is talking about and that you mentioned, I think are critical I think I really do.
- [19:09]
C
Yep.
- [19:12]
B
You know, we did an episode on branding previously at the high school level. And so I'm interested in your perspective, Steve, on like how important is the visual identity for a school? The logo, the uniforms, the social graphics, especially when it comes to building a national program. How do you feel about that?
- [19:35]
C
Yeah, I think, you know, the visual identity shapes first impressions for sure. So it, I think what, what you're talking about is really, it, it kind of elevates the media amplification of, of a lot of that stuff even. You know, it's, it sounds simple and, or it sounds like something you might not even think of, but you just even having your logo, logo in high resolution that, that media members can use to promote your school. And your logo pops in the newspaper or on Max Preps or on NFHS network. Even the lower thirds, like any, anything like that, like, you know, might not seem like it's a big deal, but it, it just makes you look a little bit more professional and you look more like a college or a pro feel to your athletic program just by having a nice logo that the media could get for it. Or you know, if you're promoting, if you're on social as a school, like, your graphics are clean, your colors are consistent, your, your photos look sharp. So it's not like a make or break. Your kid's not going to get looked at because, because your photo is a little blurry. But it, it also does bring that, that sense of like professionalism to your athletic department, department and your overall program. And it, it also kind of makes you feel like, ah, this, this school is really taking this serious and they're really trying to make our athletes look good and that's a good feeling for an athlete. When you're on your social and you, you're scrolling on Instagram, it's like, whoa, they're really doing a good job on there. Like it makes you feel good. So I think that's what I would say on that on that point.
- [21:26]
B
I love that, you know, like, I'll do a shameless AI plug on this one. I was thinking about a brand book. Like we're, you know, in the business world now and I see for businesses like a lot of times they have their own brand book which is like the colors, the logos, the print. Right. The font, this. And I'm thinking sounds like a lot for an athletic director to kind of put together. But then I thought a lot about what if you just plug stuff into AI and said, I want to create a Brand book and what do I need? Like, they're going to ask you, what are your colors? Submit some pictures. Is it higher resolution enough? Like, it will do a lot of that for you. So I think sue to professionalizes everything and ads listening. Think about a brand book for your school. Plug it into an AI. They will. The AI will lead you through that and you can have something pretty darn cool that you can send out to your coaches, to media outlets, etc. Greg, any thoughts there?
- [22:22]
A
No, I love it. I mean, like, that was something that we, we were fortunate to have, you know, like that was. And that was coming from like our advancement department and everything like that. Because, you know, private schools, again, you got to market and you wanted to make sure that everything was consistent. And that's what. When we had that episode with Leo, you know, he was from De La Salle, he was saying the same thing. He was like, you want it to be consistent to where anytime they see that image, they know immediately what it is, you know, and it's just the, the professionalism like you had said, Steve, you know, and this is going to be the coaching cliche, the old coach still in me. But you do the little things, right? And the big things fall into place, right? And when you're taking something that you think is maybe minimal, like it's a logo, who cares? But then you see it stretched out over a jumbotron at a game and you're like, man, we kind of look second rate compared to our competitors because they had a high resolution one this. There's going to be that perception, you know, just of the people in attendance and it may be a quick hitter and they forget about it in three seconds. But the same token, you want to be presenting yourself very well. And I, I really like the idea, Scott, of having that brand book and being able to have something to reference. So you're not constantly going back and searching like, is this the image that we should send out there? Like, no, here's our standardized version. This is going out to the media, this is going out to your social, etc. So I like that one a lot.
- [23:44]
B
I bet you you guys could think of like two or three. Steve, you could think of two or 300, probably, but you could think of like two or three schools that right off the top of your head, like, they always look good. Everything always looks good at that school. Every uniform you see across all sports, like, it always looks good. And it's not about how much money you spend necessarily on that stuff. It's just like you know, those schools do a good job thinking about these things in advance and they, it just says something about him. It just does.
- [24:13]
C
Yeah, it does.
- [24:16]
A
So question for you, I mean like this is something that's, that's been around now for, for a good minute or so and talking about like short form video, how do you, how are you seeing that really kind of changing for the, the visibility for student athletes, you know, like short form video. I'm just curious, like how impactful is that for athlete visibility?
- [24:41]
C
Yeah, I think it's, it's definitely impactful for sure. I think it's compressed like the timeline of discovery. Right? It used to be, it used to be you send your film out to coaches, you email it to them, the coach sees it and then it takes, it takes a little bit of time. Now you could post a short form clip of a one handed catch you made in a game or a, or you know, hitting a home run off a pitcher and all of a sudden a 26, 20 second clip has 50,000 views overnight because it, it got in the mainstream of an algorithm and now all of a sudden you're one of the most popular, you know, high school players on the planet for a little bit and then coaches are hitting you up and all of a sudden you, you went from just posting a clip of you making a great play to now a coach is hitting you up saying hey, we want to talk more, look into you. So I think it, the short form really rewards moments and it's, it's what people are used to seeing now in their feeds and it's just the way, the way we are. So I, I think it's, it's changed just that visibility that you can become a, you can become a little, a major celebrity or just even a localized celebrity just by posting a short form clip. And who knows, it could be, it could lead you into something that may have taken forever because you, you may have just been sending emails after emails to coaches and what do you know, a coach saw you on, on X because you posted a short form clip and now you're, you're talking to that coach. So I would say it's all about that. The visibility is really what it's changed.
- [26:28]
A
I, I think that's awesome, you know, because like in my mind where I go to is remember back when you'd actually go to the movie theaters and you see previews like that short form content is the preview for somebody to get interest to go and watch the full length feature and you're catching the attention of Some recruiters where they're like, that was a hell of a catch. You know, maybe that was, that was a great hit. You know, fantastic defensive play. Let's dive into more, see what this, this student athletes film looks like. So I could certainly see how that is really elevating some, some student athletes who in years gone by, maybe they would have been overlooked because they didn't see those great plays. And yeah, you sent your filament and they watched the first three plays and nothing caught their eye. So they hit eject and then they're on to the next one. So great point on that. Definitely changes the visibility.
- [27:19]
C
Yep.
- [27:20]
A
Scott, what are your thoughts?
- [27:21]
B
I mean, I love the analogy about the movie theater. Although those previews are about 40 minutes long these days in general, I do. You know, like, that resonates with me for sure. And like, the short people's attention spans are only so long now, period. You're only going to get them for a little bit of time. So I think it's really important. And listen, you know what I love about what we do here at Play on and Max Preps is like, just having a lot of that available to people. And even like with the NFHS network and the clips, parents can go on and they can literally just clip 20 seconds of something that their kid did and share that out, not only for like, let's say friends and family, but maybe so that somebody notices that like a college coach. So I think there's, there's lots of ways to get it done. And again, in the past, you would have probably had. Have gone to like a video editor, right? You would have had to find somebody and paid somebody to kind of put together a highlight video for you. 100%, they. You would have paid people to do a highlight video. Now you don't have to. Or again, just all those little clips that might go into a highlight video. You can basically do all that stuff yourself now, which is pretty darn amazing. I think. So, Steve, one of the things I know I grappled with at times as a coach and as an AD would be like promoting the balance, I should say, of promoting the individual versus the team. I think for a coach, they have to think about that. For me, as an athletic director, sometimes it was promoting one team over the other team and try to like, find a healthy balance. So any thoughts on, like, how you can find a balance between those things with the media?
- [29:08]
C
Yeah, yeah. I think individual recognition, you know, should reflect your team standards and your, your culture too, as a, as an athletic department. That, you know, if we're. If we're celebrating individual contribution, it. It's, you know, that is. That is part of our culture. It's not. It's not an ego thing like ads should really, in my opinion, guide coaches towards that. That. That mindset of, you know, celebrating our athletes and our individual performances is part of what we do. It's part of our culture. It's. We're. We're celebrating milestones that our athletes are hitting or doing. And this isn't a. An ego thing. This is it. This is. It goes back to tying in that this is how we recognize our. Our athletes and our individual athletes. It's, of course, it's about the team and everything's built around the team, but inside that team are athletes, and we need to celebrate those athletes because the athletes want it, the athletes need it, and it. And it helps the athletes overall go. So it's. It. Hopefully it's something that the, that, you know, athletic directors can promote with inside their program, that the healthiest programs understand that individual recognition is part of what we do. We recognize our athletes when they're doing something, doing something well. And everybody here on. On the team has that same ability to be recognized. So is a. It's a fine line, I. I would say, but hope it's also a line that should be pretty clear, like, we're doing this for a reason, not just to, you know, promote one. One player over everybody else.
- [31:02]
B
And I would think, like, listen, the media loves the individual stories too.
- [31:06]
C
Yeah.
- [31:07]
B
So it's got. You've got to find a way to do both because the, you know, individuals crave seeing stuff about other people. And obviously the media is going to buy into that and promote those kind of things.
- [31:20]
C
Yeah. And. And the individual players, like, help tell the story of why this team is, you know, we're featuring this team or why this team is good. Like, you can't. You can't get around that. Right. Like, you can't get around, hey, there's a reason why you want to watch the Chiefs play. You know, Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback. Is the quarterback, and then the. This guy's the receiver and this guy's the running back and this and this. So it's a bunch of individual stories that makes. Makes up the team. But you can't just ignore that there's individual players on that team.
- [31:59]
B
And it seems to me, like, I agree, the coaches can help the individuals promote the team mentality when the focus is on them. Right. Like, Patrick Mahomes is always Talking about his line or the running backs or the defense got me like great field position. Right. So I would think coaches can do like, can really help out the individuals in terms of like coaching them up on not what to say, but the important parts of celebrating the things that you have. Right. That you accomplish, but helping promote the team as well.
- [32:35]
C
Yeah, it's a great point, Greg.
- [32:37]
B
Any other thoughts on that?
- [32:39]
A
No, I really like what your, your last point there, Scott, because like what was coming to mind as we were talking through this is, you know, you certainly, you need to celebrate those individuals like it's, it's warranted. You, you want to make sure that you're showcasing the accomplishments. But when done right within your athletic department programs, you know, the culture is there that when that individual is being celebrated to your point, Scott, they're immediately kind of deflecting the light off of them and shining it onto this is what the program's doing. And that's why I was able to get to this accolade.
- [33:14]
B
Right.
- [33:15]
A
So I think if it's, it's a multi faceted approach, but like culturally, if you're doing things right within your athletic department, within your athletic department programs, then yes, you're going to go out there and you're going to celebrate these individuals and they're going to be getting the praise that's so rightly deserved. And at the same token, they're going to be praising all those around them. And it's kind of one of those like tides raise all ships.
- [33:40]
B
Right.
- [33:41]
A
And I really like all points on that where you, you have the opportunity to spotlight an individual while at the same time showcasing what your program's all about. So question for you now, Steve, is going to be, you know, has this ever changing landscape for high school sports now? I mean it's, it's changed immensely over the past five to ten years just with technology, innovation, etc, you know, do you foresee a point in time where, where schools are designating someone internally that's just going to oversee athletic department content and promotion? You know, essentially, are we going to start seeing sids in the high school realm?
- [34:32]
C
Yes, I think so. And I think we're already starting to see it. When we, for example, when we did the Max preps game of the week in football during the fall season, you know, our national game of the week, many schools that we dealt with, we were, we were dealing with somebody who was in control of, you know, the media and in control of setting up where we'd be in the press box. What we do on campus, getting us on, you know, interviews, things like that. It wasn't, we weren't dealing directly with the athletic director. Now of course, nine out of the 12, let's just say 90% we were dealing with the athletic director. But there were a few schools like St. John Bosco and a Duncanville, schools like that, Bishop Gorman, where you already have someone like that in place. And so may be a slow build out, but I think we're, we're starting to see it already and I think we'll, we'll see that expand especially, especially probably those bigger, bigger programs. But it, it, it's a slow, slow start. But I think, I think we're going to get there with a lot of schools across the country doing that.
- [35:50]
A
And that's awesome to see, you know, because that's just growing the athletic director profession. Right? There's more opportunities for people to get into athletic administration. But also, I mean, Scott, you know this as well, if not better than me, the number of hats you have to wear as an ad, that's a tough one to juggle. I mean, there's a lot of operational elements to ensuring content and promotion and all those things are getting done right, that it could easily become a full time job. And in many cases, like you were saying, Steve already is. So that's, it's exciting to see that taking place in, in the high school space. You know, we've long seen it in the collegiate space and everything's kind of that trickle down effect of high schools looking to college to do what they're doing. And I think that it would be fantastic if we saw that, you know, become more commonplace across high school athletics because all it's going to do is provide more opportunities for student athletes to be seen. Scott, what are your thoughts?
- [36:49]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I think you just have to plan ahead, figure out ways to get this done. Whether you can do the everyday stuff with like student managers or student sids and getting them involved. Obviously when Max Preps comes in for the national game of the week, you're not going to put that on a kid. But if you have students who are sort of trained on the everyday media stuff, they can do a great job and promote and take away some of that work for you. Listen, play on. And other companies too are also helping automate this kind of stuff. If you think about it, right, like, hey, highlights are there for you. Hey, we're gonna have video previews of games. Hey, we're gonna promote the next game. After the game ends on Tuesday night. We're already sending out emails to like, a whole bunch of people who are signed up to get alerts on a specific school and like, they automatically go out. Hey, hope you enjoyed when Tuesday's game. Next game is Friday. Like, there's just ways to kind of automate some of this stuff to take a bunch off of your plate. Because it, as we've talked about, the ad job is big money talks and like, you know, can you afford to pay somebody to just be an SID and commit to that kind of stuff? So I just think there's just lots of ways to think about it and promote it and to make it happen if you're creative. I know we're like, getting towards the end here, so thinking about trying to summarize this. Is there a blueprint that we could all sort of talk about? Hey, ads. You want to get your program more visible starting next fall, what are you going to do? You know, like, what's the guide? And we, I think we probably talked about each of these things individually, but Steve, could you just like, maybe summarize and say, hey, I would do this, this, this, and this. If I was really just trying to get on the map.
- [39:02]
C
Yeah, I would, I would go back to, you know, clarify your identity. What do you want the, your athletic program to be known for? Go all in on that with your coaches. I'd, I'd clean up the, your infrastructure, basically. Hey, we're not just going to try to win on the field. We're. We're going to try to win at everything we do. So our, our logo is going to look better than everybody else's logo. Our stat input on Max Preps is going to look better. We're going to have, we're going to have roster photos and every single page on Max Preps. Everything is going to be clean so that if any, anybody wants to recruit one of our kids or learn more or media members like it, it looks good and, and kids feel good about it, I would start to, to build those media relationships and a lot of it can start just with doing simple things like that. And then I think I would, I would, I would lean heavy on even going strong on, on social media and really making sure that we're putting things around our athletes and our teams on, on social, because media members are on social, we're on social. And you come across those things now in your algorithm. Even if you're not following a team, you might come across something in your feed and you might be. That might just spark something that happens to us every day. At Max Preps, we're, we're building out different feeds and algorithms that we're looking at all the time. And because a good post may have been posted by a high school, we may have just picked up a storyline on an incredible. There was a story in Washington, for example, of two players. Dad had just recently died that day and the two athletes went out and played both son and daughter and scored, I think it was 30 plus points each and won their playoff games. Like little things like that add up because it comes across your feeds things and it just helps media capture those moments, see them and, and make them even bigger than, than they are. So that's where I'd start.
- [41:17]
B
Sounds like a good plan to me. I love it and appreciate it. Greg, you want to add anything to that?
- [41:22]
A
No, I really, I like everything that you had touched on today, Steve. I think it's very informative for ads to hear. You know, big takeaway for me is get your information out there, provide it before someone has to come and ask for it, you know, because then you already have the visibility and people are going to be more enticed to learn more about your programs. And there are, there are many things that you've listed off, Steve, that are actionable items that ads can take back to their office and in the coming weeks and months as they Prep for the 26, 27 year, have those as like checklist items, you know, for each season. Scott, you and I have done multiple episodes of like prepping for winter sports etc and those can become checklist items. And it really just overall benefits your student athletes as well as your program. So this has been very insightful. I appreciate it.
- [42:13]
B
I think so too. Listen, my takeaway, you didn't ask, but I'm gonna say it anyway because that's me. Make it easy. Make it easy. We just talked about how busy everybody is, whether it's a parent going to find some information, a coach, a media outlet, like a prospective athlete. People just want to find things easily because they don't have time. So the more simple and easy that you can make it for people, the better. That's my biggest takeaway.
- [42:49]
A
Love it. This has been a phenomenal episode. Really appreciate you taking the time today, Steve and Scott, I think that, you know, it's implied. I always want your input. I don't think it ever needs to be asked for. I think that you just know it's implied on that. But really appreciate both gentlemen today it's been a lot of fun and for those of you that have tuned in today. If you liked what you heard, make sure you give us a follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast from so you don't miss any new episodes and content. And with that said, certainly a big thank you again to Steve Montoya of Max Preps for joining us today and as well as my colleague, Scott Rosenberg. Really appreciate you helping us through this. And from AD360, I'm Greg Vanderbaid.
- [43:31]
B
And I'm Scott Rosenberg. Monday night, go Kennel on Jefferson. Spartaco up in the state finals in ice hockey.
- [43:37]
A
Thanks. There we go. Love it. Until next time, folks.