Nine Steps to Marketing Your Student Athlete

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soccer player

It may sound cliché, but we have all heard that it is not what you know, but who you know.  While many of us Generation X parents are likely tired of hearing this within the workforce, unfortunately, the same logic applies true to sports and we must embrace this concept if our student youth athletes want to expand their careers beyond high school.

By the end of this article, it is my hope, that as parents, we are all more knowledgeable of things we can do to assist our student athletes with their marketability within this competitive sports arena.

Some reading this may think that marketing youth athletes is too premature and unnecessary.  But guess what, our student athletes will be just one of hundreds and in some cases thousands applying for soccer scholarships or trying to get noticed for their chance on a professional team.  If we as parents, and our student athletes cannot speak on their accomplishments, nobody else will.  Let’s face it, coaches deal with hundreds of athletes at any given time. They don’t have the time or desire to promote every athlete that plays for them. Let’s be honest, coaches also have their favorites and if your athlete is not trending to the top, they will likely get overlooked in the discussions.

Think of it this way, on the job, we must have that five second elevator speech on who we are, what we do and how our contributions have impacted the organizations we work for. Our goal, at Team Give & Go, is to help you think about that elevator speech for your student athlete.  May be a little longer than five seconds, but the concept remains the same.  So, let’s begin….

1.    Don’t be afraid to let the coaches and scouts know how amazing your student athlete is. Caveat….they must be able to back it up on the field, because actions still speak louder than words.

2.    Ensure your student athlete is excelling in the classroom.  You’ll notice that I reference student athlete throughout this article.  They are students first, athletes, second.  The combination of good grades and skills on the soccer field will make them highly marketable for any college or university.

3.    Have your student athlete craft a summary of their accomplishments and accomplishments of their teams. Knowing team statistics, goals, assists, shut-outs, will help make your student athlete more marketable.  Also, list any honors received while on the team or participating in the club.

4.    Capture video.  If you’re like me, you’re often too involved in the game to think about capturing video, but content is the best form of self-promotion, particularly now that social media sites like IG and Twitter have become the self-promotion platforms. If you’re unable to do it yourself, identify someone who enjoys capturing video and ask them to assist you. 

5.    Get recommendation letters from coaches, camps that they have attended and parents of teammates.  This provides first hand testimony from someone other than you.  You might find that other teammate parents may be hesitate to provide a note promoting your child. If this is the case, don’t worry, most teams have at least 15 players and I’m sure there is one who understands the ocean is large and there is enough space for us all to swim. 

6.    Utilize the video content that you gather (as noted in #3) and put together a short video compilation that showcases your student athlete.  This can become a quick reference when reaching out to recruiters and coaches.

7.    Understand and align on you and your student athlete’s end goal.  Make sure the goal is coming from the player and not the parent.  Aligning on what you’re really trying to accomplish will help craft your approach, keeping your specific objectives in mind. Knowing what to ask for and when to ask for it will be key.

8.    Don’t oversell. Be confident, but be truthful. Again, action speaks louder than words. If you over sell, and your student athlete can’t live up to the expectations, you will likely damage your integrity and your positioning of your student athlete.

9.    Create a brand for your student athlete and be consistent. What does your student athlete represent? Hard work, superiority, offense, defense, all-around, balance?  Understand the key attributes of your student athlete and use those attributes consistently in your messaging and content.

 When in doubt, reach out to Team Give & Go at tlynn@teamgiveandgo.com  for more information and assistance with marketing your student athlete.  We’re all in this together with an end goal of building a world of diverse and dynamic soccer players.

Author: T. Lynn Jones

Gilbert (Gil) Heron - The First Black U.S. Soccer Player Remains Forgotten.

Gilbert (Gil) Heron was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 9th April 1922. As a schoolboy in the Caribbean, Heron excelled at track and field defeating Herb McKenley, who would go on later to become a 400m sprint world record holder and compete at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics in six events in total, winning one gold and three silver medals. As well as athletics, he played cricket, the national sport of the West Indies. Heron, aged 15, led his Jamaican school, St George’s, to victory in the Manning Cup, contested among schools in the Corporate Area (comprising the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew and most of St. Catherine)

In Heron’s later teenage years he moved to Canada. The young Jamaican played football and continued to compete in athletics, including long jump, high jump and sprinting, as well as taking up ice hockey. In 1940, at the age of 18, Heron became Golden Gloves welterweight champion of Michigan, and later enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Older brother, Roy Trevor Gilbert Heron, served with the Norwegian Merchant Navy during World War II and then joined the Canadian army, later becoming active in black Canadian politics.

In Detroit Heron took a job in an auto plant to make ends meet. Heron continued to play football after moving to America and became the first black person to play professionally in the United States was the only black player in US professional football at the time. In 1946, he signed for Detroit Wolverines, who played in the short-lived North American Professional Soccer League, which they duly won in its inaugural season, with Heron scoring 15 goals in eight games. Though Heron was the league’s top goal scorer that year he was paid only 25 dollars a game compared with the 100 dollars a game paid to white player Pete Matevich, who scored far fewer goals than Heron.

Considering the United States did not have a truly national league until the late 1960s, crowds of 2,000-4,000 were respectable by the US standards of the time. Despite getting paid less than his teammates Heron was drawing personal acclaim with his performances. In a 1947 profile, Ebony magazine described Heron as the ‘Babe Ruth of soccer.’ With reference to the sports roots in England the article said “The ancient Old-World game of soccer boasts a New-World star.”

As Heron’s performances continued to raise acclaim he was selected on the US’ All Star team the year after the Ebony magazine profile. This led to the striker transferring to Detroit Corinthians, who played in the larger American Soccer League.

In the 1950s Glasgow Celtic had a history of making lengthy American tours and doing some scouting at the same time. The goalkeeper Joe Kennaway was an earlier product of this strategy. One of Celtic’s scout must have been at a Detroit Corinthians game as the Scottish giants did not play Heron’s club on their 1951 tour. Regardless of the exact circumstances Heron was invited to Scotland for a public trial. The game was a success as the Jamaican scored twice at Celtic Park.

Heron’s performance convinced Celtic sign him and therefore become the first black player to play the Scottish club Celtic, and the first to play professionally in Scotland. Heron told a Scottish newspaper upon signing in 1951 “Gee, I was tickled, Glasgow Celtic was the greatest name in football to me.”

His impact was instant as he scored on his debut on 18 August 1951 in a League Cup tie against Morton that Celtic won 2–0. As he had done in Detroit, Heron was making a positive impression on the media in Britain. “Right now, he is Scottish football’s Golden boy” said one newspaper. Another claimed “fifty thousand supporters hail him as the greatest thing seen at Celtic Park since goalposts.”

Heron was competing for the centre-forward role with John McPhail, a Celtic hero of the era. As former athlete in his youth, his extraordinarily pace led supporters to give Heron the nickname ‘Black Flash’.

As well as gaining recognition at club level Heron won a place on the Jamaica Football Association XI, which in 1952, played a series against the Caribbean Combined XI, which featured Trinidad star Delbert Charleau. Heron was a truly multi-talented sportsman and also excelled at cricket, having played growing up in the West Indies, and while in Scotland competed professionally for leading Glasgow clubs while resident in the city.

Despite a successful club debut and rave reviews in the press Heron struggled to fit into manager Jimmy McGrory’s lineup, which included legendary performers such as Sean (Iron Man) Fallon, Bobby Evans, John McPhail, Bertie Peacock, Charlie Tully and Jock Weir. Heron scored 15 times in 15 appearances for the Celtic reserve team but ended his Celtic career after five first team appearances, scoring two goals in the process. It’s claimed the reasons for the brevity of his career in the famous green and white hoops were because he wasn’t robust enough for the Scottish game in the 1950s with its tough tackles and rough play. Other reports say the forward was far too stylish a player. The likelihood was, aged 29 when he arrived at Celtic, Heron was probably past his best, especially as pace was a key attribute to his game. Despite this Heron was described as “a great and supremely interesting human being” by the Celtic FC guide "An Alphabet of the Celts."

Upon leaving Celtic Park joined Third Lanark where he played in seven League Cup matches, scoring five goals but did not appear in the League. His football career in the UK concluded with a season at Kidderminster Harriers, playing in the Birmingham League. As he had been at Celtic Heron was the first black player to sign for the midlands club. In 1954, Heron would leave England returning home to Detroit to re-join Detroit Corinthians. With a family to support, he took a job on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Car Company. A man of many talents Heron later became a referee, as well as resuming his career as a professional photographer. Gil Heron was also a poet and jazz musician.

Despite being a pioneer in the game his achievements have been overlooked by his legendary son. In 1949 poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron was born in Detroit to singer Bobbie Scott, Gil Heron’s wife. The couple separated when Heron left for Scotland and did meet his son again until Scott-Heron was 26. While in Scotland Heron met his future wife, Margaret Frize. Heron had three more children, Gayle, Denis and Kenny, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit, and eight grandchildren. Gayle said her father was not bitter he received so little recognition, “He knows he was a pioneer,” she says.

His son, Gil Scott-Heron became a rap music pioneer of the 1970s and 80s. His Midnight Band are best known for the polemic song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." On a visit to Glasgow Gil reflected that his father continued to take a lifelong interest in the fortunes of Celtic football club, until his death from a heart attack in November 2008, aged 86, "My father still keeps up with what Celtic are doing. You Scottish folk always mention that my Dad played for Celtic, it's a blessing from the spirits! Like that's two things that Scottish folks love the most; music and football and they got one representative from each of those from my family!"

When his father’s links to Celtic became known it became a feature of his son's UK concerts that some of the fans turned up wearing the club’s shirts. Scott-Heron would joke "There you go again - once again overshadowed by a parent. I'm going to wear my Celtic scarf and Rangers hat when I come over!" The singer went into more detail about his father’s career in an interview with The New Yorker “It was after the war, working for Western Electric, he also played for the Chicago Maroons, or something like that. A Scottish team came through, and he scored on them, which was not what they had come for. They was all white. He went to Scotland, and the legend goes he scored the day he arrived. He was dubbed the Black Arrow, and played professionally for three more years.”

Writing this article, I discovered that behind a little-known fact was an incredible life story of a man who may be overlooked as the father of his legendary son. However, Gil Heron was a trailblazer in his own right, and his own personal achievements will go down in Celtic history.

Team Give & Go Mentor Nadia Gomes signs with Orlando Pride!

With the 23rd pick in the 2018 NWSL College Draft, the Orlando Pride selected Nadia Gomes, a forward from Brigham Young University.

Gomes is a dual national who holds citizenship with both the United States and Portugal, though she was born in the latter country. She has played internationally with the Portuguese U-19 women’s team.

“The women’s league is huge and I’m excited to play here,” Gomes said while coming off the draft stage in Philadelphia. “I’m really excited to learn from them (Alex Morgan and Marta) and play with them.”

Gomes has played all four years at BYU totaling 23 goals and 23 assists in 83 games (62 starts), and amassing close to 5,000 minutes in college. She’s known for her explosive speed and left foot. She has received various honors during her collegiate career, including NSCAA All-America Third Team in 2015, WCC Player of the Year in 2015, All-WCC Second Team in 2016, All-WCC Preseason Team in 2017, All-WCC Honorable Mention in 2017, WCC Player of the Week, and MAC Hermann Trophy preseason candidate in 2017.

Even though Gomes was a forward in college, she has the potential to shift to a wingback or fullback spot, which might be better suited for her abilities. With her left foot, it is very likely she could be competing at left back or left wing for the pride.

Unless there is a trade, the Pride are done selecting for the day, as Orlando entered this draft with only a third-rounder.

Here are some of her highlights:

Story by:  By David A. Gray