Path to Play NAIA online community
Video:
What if there was a place where qualified student athletes could connect with the NAIA schools, scholarships and coaches that fit them best?
A place where all NAIA colleges and universities could market themselves and recruit the best and brightest talent?
A place where the information that parents and students need to make an informed decision is right at their fingertips. And the right students for your
institution are at yours.
Now, there is.
That place is Path to Play – a virtual world where student athletes, NAIA coaches and admissions can come together in an easy-to-use online and
mobile environment.
Students get inside access to the recruiting process and more opportunities to prove themselves to coaches.
You get greater exposure, qualified prospects and ultimately, better retention.
Path to Play. It’s a good fit for athletes. A good fit for coaches. And a good fit for the NAIA.
Path to Play NAIA online community
Path to Play: The really good ideas are the ones that can be boiled down – captured in a few words.
(Point) – 55 seconds – “A place where qualified student-athletes connect with NAIA schools, scholarships and coaches that fit them best.” – 17 words
Path to Play NAIA online community
We outlined this concept at the April convention, but we’ve been working on it for a couple of years:
Innovation Workshops, Eureka Ranch, Cincinnati – Les, Rita, John – yellow card “Pathfinder”
Really lit a spark for me through a conversation with one of our EC employees: Nikki Vandepopulier
Talented, smart, anchored in our core values
Sent information – couldn’t connect with coaches
Eventually found a home at a state school in Missouri
We missed the connection with Nikki – not part of any NAIA coach’s network
Path to Play NAIA online community
Good ideas are the ones that speak directly to people’s needs.
Thousands of students like Nikki – quality student-athletes – looking for a home
And there are thousands of NAIA coaches each year looking for students:
We surveyed 1,000 NAIA of them
80%: expected to drive enrollment in their sport
Recruiting budget: $1,000 - $2,500 per year
85% would like a database of regional recruits
88% would like to get their eyes on recruits at an NAIA Showcase
We looked at data supplied by NAIA athletic directors:
Looking at the reported rosters on our campuses right now, the NAIA institution in the middle of the range – the
median – carries 20 fewer players than the standard roster established for NAIA championships.
In the next two years, our institutions will add 200 new sports teams
Students looking for schools & schools looking for students. There is a need.
Path to Play NAIA online community
And good ideas are unique.
There is nothing else in the mobile space where students live – no site, no platform, no recruiting service – dedicated entirely to you, this community of
NAIA institutions. It’s time we change that.
And let me make one more very important point by way of introduction.
This is a one-of-a-kind model: we are a national association of intercollegiate athletics – 254 institutions of higher education, 5,000 coaches – with
actual teams, actual roster spots, with actual classrooms, and actual scholarships, offering to share our knowledge, introduce our coaches, explain our
process, and open our doors – to families interested in exactly that.
This is not a recruiting service. They don’t have what we have. They say: “Build a profile with us, and we’ll tell you how to attract the attention of a
coach. We don’t have any, but good luck . . . .”
Meaningful connections to our coaches – through an established, credible national athletics association – is something of great value. It is innovative,
and it is unique.
Path to Play NAIA online community
So how does it all fit together?
As you saw, two pieces of the puzzle. The first piece is you: let’s tell the story.
This is your community – populated by you, shaped by you, and introduced by you:
Special experience at NAIA institutions
Financial aid administrators, admissions officers, coaches, students: unraveling the mystery of college recruiting
Academics
Campus life
High-caliber athletics
Character initiatives
All told through your pictures, your video, the authentic voice of your students, your coaches
And, of course, Path to Play will highlight your coaches, and their particular recruiting standards and needs
Path to Play NAIA online community
The second piece of the puzzle? Students.
Let’s invite students into the community.
Tell us about yourself. Full picture of yourself as a student and athlete.
Tell us what you’re looking for in your college experience.
Show us you’ve got what it takes:
Academically (Eligibility Center)
Athletically (NAIA Showcase)
Character (service, faith, community)
See how you measure up. Compare your Showcase results, your academic performance, with:
NAIA varsity student-athletes
NAIA conference and national champions
Sample workouts
Track your progress toward recognition as an “NAIA-caliber” student-athlete, based on national standards established by NAIA administrators and
coaches
Chat with current NAIA student-athletes and coaches
Post information on the student-athlete ‘social feed’
Path to Play NAIA online community
Now, Path to Play connects the pieces of the puzzle:
Path to Play NAIA online community
“Students (one hand) with schools and coaches (the other hand) that fit.”
Path to Play NAIA online community
Your coach – women’s soccer – enters this information:
Center midfielder
3.5 cumulative HS gpa or better
24 ACT or better
Verified 40-yard time of 5.5 or under
At least two years HS varsity or elite-level play
Verified HS conference or elite-level honors
HS or premier coach recommendation
HS student is looking for:
School within 300 miles of Chicago
Offers athletic aid in women’s soccer
Nursing & health sciences
2,000 students or fewer
Faith-based
Path to Play NAIA online community
It’s a dynamic system:
Feel free to change your preferences, modify your weighting
As students complete more pieces of the puzzle (Showcase, test scores, classwork), they demonstrate they have what it takes and score higher as a
‘fit’ for you
As you find students of interest (those you want to recruit & those to keep an eye on), you build your list.
Communicate
Let students know you’re interested
Reach out to make contact
Set your permissions to establish when (and how) students can contact you
You’re in charge of the communication process
That’s how Path to Play works. Connecting qualified students with NAIA schools and coaches that fit.
Path to Play NAIA online community
$1.5 million in initial start-up expenses
Like any start-up, need cash to ensure operations to break-even
High tech start-ups – critical mass
Revenues: student Path to Play subscriptions, Showcase, sponsorships
Seeking investment of $5,000 first year from each NAIA institution, with commitment to Yrs 2&3 based on COP’s review of financials
So, let’s consider that $5,000 investment. Is it worth it?
Well, what is it worth to identify and market the NAIA and your institution to half a million to a million HS students every year for this coming year and
every year after?
What’s that worth to you? What’s that worth to all of us?
What’s it worth to have qualified students – you decide the number, 100, 200 – students who have indicated they’re looking for a school like yours, with
the programs they want, the atmosphere they desire . . . what’s it worth to have those students to build your existing teams, this year, next year, the
year after that?
For your coaches to have a place where they can go – devoted to the NAIA, with only our coaches in attendance – to see hundreds of highly motivated
students introduce themselves and showcase their athletic skills?
To help your inexperienced coaches and coaches in new and emerging sports build quality teams on your campus in the years ahead?
Is it worth a $5,000 investment now to build a model that, after a few years, delivers cash dividends annually for you and the COP to use as you see fit?
What is it worth to have your colleagues outside the NAIA look at this model, and call you and ask: What are you all doing over there?
Path to Play NAIA online community
We have been charged with growth, and we’re bringing to you an initiative that speaks to your strategic priorities:
Grow awareness
Grow the pool of students
Grow revenue
Grow membership
Now, it’s yours to evaluate the product, and its worth.
.