Souderton Area High School Girls Volleyball Program had been struggling prior to 2018. The program only had enough girls trying out for the team to make a Junior Varsity and Varsity team. The only fundraising they had done was a car wash and bake sale to pay for their end of the year banquet. The program had never made it to playoffs and had losing seasons.

April 2018 I was brought on to be the Head Coach of the program. I had expectations to turn the whole program around and create a winning team with a long-standing legacy. To do that, I knew I would have to do a lot of marketing.

Before the school year ended, I stopped by the middle schools to have informational meetings with girls who had interest in trying out for the coming season. In June I started open gyms throughout the summer. They were scheduled every Wednesday throughout the summer. I created an Instagram account for the team, so I was able to connect with the Souderton students and get the information out there. I started running fundraisers that didn’t entail the team to participate yet, but just spread the words (i.e., Rita’s, Chipotle, Dairy Queen). Once the teams were finalized, then I started implementing hands on fundraisers such as a car wash, bake sale, and Philly sports raffle.

Since I had been promoting the team and tryouts all summer, we had over 75 girls tryout. I would only be taking a total of 24 (12 on JV and 12 on Varsity).

Once the season had begun, I had wanted to create a great fan base. I had game day promotions planned such as free t-shirts, buy a pizza and get a free drink, serve-a-thon, etc. Having fans come to the games and buy food from our snack stand also contributed towards our fundraising.

With the funds we made from our fundraisers and games, we were able to buy everyone on the team including coaches, new athletic bags, warm-up shirts, t-shirts, sweatpants, spandex, socks, and shoes. We had enough funds leftover to also purchase new balls for the next season, a new net, and new antennas. The team also had a goal to gain enough funds to cover the cost of their end of the year banquet at a country club rather than in the high school cafeteria. We met that goal with additional funds to carry over to the next season.

Not only did we increase our funds, but we created brand awareness. I believe in positive coaching and that was abundantly clear to all who attended our games. Our team was known for their positive attitude and the fans as well as referees enjoyed watching us for that. Due to our positive team culture, we had a local photographer gain interest in us who followed us around and created great content for me to utilize.