Player Evaluations
Updated: Mar 25
Have an honest meeting with each player about where their strengths and weaknesses are and suggestions on how they can improve this offseason.
As the season comes to an end for high school basketball programs across the country the process of player and coach evaluation rises to the forefront. For most coaches is it a common practice to meet with each player individually before everyone parts ways for the Spring sports season. These kinds of meetings are an important step in ending the season on a positive note and beginning the process of a new year. Each season key players graduate and younger players step into prominent roles and the expectations that go along with those changes should be clearly laid out.
The goal of these Exit Meetings or Player Evaluations is to give the players a better idea of what they need to work on to continue to grow as a player. Players should leave these meetings with a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, their expectations for next season, and a general plan for improvement. In this post I'm going to dig into the evaluation I use with my players, but adding things like film and self-evaluations are ways to add another layer to these meetings.
What to Address -
What is discussed with each player will be geared toward that specific player's experience, role, and future expectations. We start the process by asking players to fill out a self-evaluation that we can start our conversation. I have found that for the most part players give pretty accurate assessments of their own skills. From there I will go through my own evaluation of their skills, typically with statistics and game film clips to reinforce my assessment.
Ideally, we want to make sure that these meetings are a mix of constructive criticism and positive reinforcement. At the conclusion of these meetings, I would like players to head into the offseason with a clear idea of where improvement is needed, and a better understanding of what their own personal expectations for next season are. While these meetings are meant to be specific to each player there are going to be common themes discussed with all players.
Common Discussion Points:
What are their Strengths & Weaknesses as a Player
Evaluation of their Performance this Past Season
Leadership, Attitude & Effort
Skill Focal Points for the Offseason
Personal Goals & Expectations for the Next Season
General Offseason Plan
