Welcome to the homestretch! A few more precious weeks and the student-athletes will be on to their next play—graduation, summer school, internships and professional careers all await.
Throughout the year, we track challenges and opportunities we hear from our customers. Here are three challenges presented consistently from our athletics department customers—platform fatigue, athlete participation and enhancing value.
So as the academic year wraps up, here is an update of Game Plan framed around how we take these challenges head on.
Platform Fatigue
Game Plan is designed to centralize eLearning, virtual career services and virtual mentorship. By integrating these components, Game Plan unifies the three pillars of an athlete’s off-the-field development—education, mentorship and career development. This streamlined approach minimizes the costs, resources and time investment associated with managing multiple software technologies.
“Game Plan’s professional development program is exactly what we have been looking for to enhance the quality of the student-athlete experience and ultimately prepare student-athletes for life beyond college. Its broad range of online initiatives allows us to customize a comprehensive program for our student-athletes without placing additional demands on their already busy schedules.”
Stephanie Ballein, Senior Associate AD / SWA, Radford University
Athlete Participation
Game Plan’s learning management system provides on-demand eLearning courses uniquely designed for the athlete experience. With over 100 courses in our platform, we have already had over 60,000 courses assigned in the first 3 months of 2018. eLearning is an innovative way to extend the reach of staff and drive athlete participation through the roof!
“We use Game Plan here at the University of South Dakota, it’s like having another staff member to help us with career planning with our student-athletes!“
Colleen Evans, Director of Student-Athlete Success University of South Dakota
A valuable part of this library is Game Plan’s new 13 course curriculum that addresses the NCAA’s policy on sexual violence prevention. This curriculum which launched in January has already had over 10,000 courses taken.
“Game Plan has made complying with the new NCAA [sexual violence prevention] legislation very easy. I was able to assign my student-athletes modules and they are able to complete them on their own time.”
Danielle Morrin, Director of Life Skills, East Carolina University
Enhance Value for the Entire Athletics Department
Game Plan has seen first hand how student-athlete development can positively impact fundraising, alumni development and recruiting.
Multi-media rights holders, alumni development and varsity alumni club professionals are now using Game Plan to engage sponsors and alumni. In many cases, our athletics department customers are utilizing Game Plan as a central resource for employer sponsorship and alumni engagement.
“College is a hard transition for any student – especially for athletes who are expected to juggle practices, meetings and classes…Through this innovative relationship with Game Plan, it’s our goal to meet student-athletes where they are—in an easy-to-access platform that they are already familiar with.”
Darlene Goins, Senior Vice President and Head of Hands On Banking, Wells Fargo
To lend a hand in the process, recently Game Plan has created and launched brand assets that our athletics departments can use to enhance recruiting and alumni engagement. Two examples (branded using “Game Plan University”) are:
Alumni engagement – http://powerthejourney.com/gp-mentorship/
Recruiting – http://powerthejourney.com/game-plan-university/
Although these sites are branded with the hypothetical Game Plan University, the sites are designed to be uniquely branded by the athletics department for recruiting and alumni development.
Our mission remains steadfast—guide 100% of athletes through 100% of their journey. If these challenges sound familiar to your department, please contact me at vin@gameplanworks.wpengine.com.
