Tournament participation can change the course of a season and provide a great experience for all stakeholders involved with teams. During these events coaches can test new strategies, find out current limitations of team members, and test new tactics to find successful regular-season outcomes. Finding the right tournament can sometimes be a challenge as geography and team competitiveness play a role in selection. One way to control these variables is to consider hosting tournaments. Teams, schools, and communities gain from a localized setting and maximize potential program and community benefits.

Increase Visibility of Academic and Athletic Connections

Tournament planning does take a degree of vision and tournament directors need to be able to plan well in advance of the actual event. With proper planning, tournaments can become activities that increase school and community pride. With the athletic director and school administration, schools can publicize tournaments to engage the entire student body. Student leadership programs can generate interest on campus which will lead to more student support, but generating more fans in the seats is not the only benefit. Tournaments provide opportunities to engage students in practical learning. To involve the teaching staff and academic classes, coaches can reach out to English and journalism classes to create magazine programs or even write postgame press releases. For those schools fortunate enough to have video production classes, contests can be recorded, broadcast over the internet, or even sold as souvenirs to parents and community members. Art classes can be used to help design programs or even trophies. As a final consideration, health and sports medicine classes can provide real life context to academic learning when the students are given roles in tournament operations.

Increase Community Relationships

Community businesses often want direct connections to schools. Tournaments are a great way to start and even strengthen community relationships. Tournament sponsorship and advertising are two key ways businesses can participate and generate further revenue for athletic programs. Creating mutually beneficial relationships takes some planning; however, one possible way of generating interest is designing a hierarchical sponsorship structure. For example, a tournament director may want to design a three-tiered sponsorship: gold, silver, and bronze. Bronze sponsors would donate a selected amount, be advertised by the PA announcer, and given a selection of tickets to the event. Silver sponsors would donate a higher amount and get the same as a bronze sponsor with program recognition and banners at the event. Gold sponsors would get all of the above with an invitation to participate in the trophy ceremony. These examples could be modified to fit individual school communities, but designing the tiers of sponsorship will allow businesses to have a choice and become an active participant in how much they sponsor and this can only generate more revenue and good will for your programs.

Increase Team Benefits

Home tournaments not only create opportunities for academic connections, but allow coaches to see their teams in a pressurized, yet locally controlled environment locally. It's always nice to participate in away events, but home tournaments give coaches the opportunity to showcase their program to the school community and fans. It is also during these events that coaches can try out new tactical strategies. During a regular season, you may be able to implement one new tactic over the course of a month through practices and games; however, tournaments increase contact time with multiple opponents in a short time span. This shortened, yet competitive event allows coaches to try out plays, review results, and make immediate revisions if necessary to find more favorable outcomes. When framed as a learning experience, athletes may find themselves more willing to try out new strategies to see if they can find ways to help the team later in the season.

Final Thoughts

Hosting tournaments can be a very rewarding experience for all stakeholders and can have definitive monetary and competitive benefits. With proper planning and by keeping the focus on creating a learning opportunity, coaches can set the direction of their programs and create pride for entire communities.