As coaches, we are constantly leading athletes to control the controllable and make incremental improvements daily. How is that working for your coaching staff? After 20+ years in the profession, one thing that is consistent is that there is stress for all coaching staffs around the country in the last ten minutes before an event or activity.  Knowing who is there, who is missing, and finding out why someone is missing all lead to disruption at the least, and often utter chaos. The stress created by the unknown can impact an entire coaching staff daily and, in some cases, more than once a day.  

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Programs using XA Score Events are not only able to automate attendance tracking but are providing real-time data to their phone about the entire team’s status leading up to an expected check-in.  XA utilizes a 10-Min Warning. Every athlete not checked in to an expected event is sent a notification reminding them of their upcoming event, 

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“Heads up: Braylon Banks, your team event, “Report & Weigh-In” is at 7:00 am.  We’re missing your Weight & Attendance check-ins. Open XA to update your coach.

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Athletes are then able to respond in a single press of a button with one of the following responses:

• I should be there on time
• I’ll be late, but I have a good excuse
• I’ll be late,and I have no excuse
• I can’t make it, but I have a good excuse
• I can’t make it, and I have no excuse

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Athletes who are hustling, driving, or running to be on time, don’t need to type a text or call.  The last ten minutes before an event, such as a team meeting, can be very stressful if five or six athletes are absent.  Position coaches begin to text athletes.  Graduate Assistants are worried they missed them coming into the room and are frantically searching the crowd while Head Coaches begin to get heated.  When in reality, three of the guys are in the building about to walk in.  Another told his position coach yesterday he had a test today and might be late, but his coach didn’t write it down and now forgot.  

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The reality of the situation is one athlete is genuinely missing, which should be a legitimate concern, but it is hard to clearly identify and focus on that because of all the other noise.  XA Score removes the noise, distresses the situation, and allows staff to pinpoint a real situation that definitely requires their attention.  That is a student-athlete who had the event on their phone, was sent a 10-Min Warning notification, and has not responded.  That is a legitimate concern that coaches need to deal with.  All the other perceived issues are quickly cleared up.

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Then, completely flip the pain point of attendance tracking by scoring how well your athletes are at being on time, and now you have a measure of your culture.  Understanding how your team, position groups, and individuals are at being on time today and over time is a crystal clear metric to know if you are improving the discipline of your program.

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When student-athletes are notified prior to an expected check-in, information can flow to clear up the unknown.  Moving the appropriate information to correct people helps an entire organization stay both connected and informed. Clear up the picture between what is known and what is a concern.  Notify only those that need to be informed, and the communication is streamlined, while coaches are not being inundated with information that does not pertain to them.  No additional messaging or communication is required.  All scheduled activities can be tracked: team meetings, classes, training room, nutrition station, study table, community service, etc.

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