When you season ends one of the best things you can do to help identify areas of improvement is survey your players and assistant coaches. 

You might be surprised at what comes up!

It is also a great way to give your players and coaches more ownership and a role in shaping your program for the future. 

If someone offers a good suggestion that you were already considering, hearing it from the players or coaches not only confirms that’s the direction you need to move in, but also gives you a great reason to implement it as something players wanted from their own feedback. 

We are always trying to find ways to get more buy-in and this I feel is one of the best ways to start the process. 

End of Season Player Survey Questions

Here are the questions I require (Adapted from Coach Fore HERE) the players to answer for reflection at the end of the season. Typically I will put it on a Google Form and send the link out to the players to complete. 

THIS EVALUATION FORM MUST BE TURNED IN BEFORE YOU RECEIVE YOUR LETTER OR ANY POST SEASON AWARDS AT OUR BANQUET!

  1. What did you like most about this past season?
  2. What did you like least? (Probably LOSING, but think of something more critical than that.)
  3. How did you feel about practices? The length? The tempo?
  4. How did you feel about the positions you played? Like them? Hate them? (make sure you list which ones you like and which ones you don’t)
  5. Are there any positions you are interested in trying? (Not all requests are possible)
  6. How would you evaluate last years team captains and the leadership on this team from last year?
  7. What did the coaching staff do that helped you the most as an athlete?
  8. What did the coaching staff do that helped you the most as a person?
  9. If you could change one thing about your football experience last year, what would it have been?
  10. If I were the Head Coach, I would:
  11. Any more advice or anything else you have to say about the program at this time?

Coaches Evaluation Form

Another thing you can do to give your coaches some really great feedback on how their player feel they did is to have them fill out a Coaches Evaluation Form. 

While I haven’t ever done this, I love the idea from Coach Fore you can find HERE about how to do it. It might be scary to be asked to be graded by your own players but it could be very insightful. 

Here’s a quick sample of what the survey involves:

Indicate which coach is your position coach with a * next to his name!

Give each coach a grade based on the A-F scale that we use for scale.  See the scale below!

A = way above average; B = above average; C = average; D = below average; F = failed in this category

Final Coaches Meeting Evaluation

Coaches have asked me what questions they should be asking their assistants at the end of the season for an end of season interview or evaluation. 

I have never done something like this, but I think it is a great idea so I went out searching for some ideas. 

This article HERE has some great ideas on how to hold a meeting with your coaches and have it be a positive experience. 

I would also give them the same questions as the players only worded a bit differently. Here’s what I would suggest: 

  1. What did you like most about this past season?
  2. What did you like least? 
  3. How did you feel about practices? The length? The tempo?
  4. How did you feel about the positions you coached? Like them? Hate them? 
  5. Are there any positions you are interested in coaching? 
  6. How would you evaluate last years team captains and the leadership on this team from last year?
  7. What did the coaching staff do that helped you the most as a coach?
  8. What did the coaching staff do that helped you the most as a person?
  9. If you could change one thing about your coaching experience last year, what would it have been?
  10. If I were the Head Coach, I would:
  11. Any more advice or anything else you have to say about the program at this time?

Conclusion

Player evaluations are a critical part of your program development and can really help you get a clear idea on how your season really went instead of just how you think it went.

Honestly, it’s one of my favorite things to look at because it gives me so much clarity on the directions we need to either keep going or stop going.

It also helps us avoid the typical gripes among staff members that tend to come up when we think about “kids these days.” So even if you miss the window or it’s pre-season, you can still survey and meet with players and coaches to get their feedback. I promise you it will be worth every minute of you time!