Putnam County Schools Working With Consultants To Improve Student-Athlete Experience

The Putnam County Schools Athletic Departments are involved in a year-long partnership to strengthen relationships throughout their programs.

Cookeville High School Athletic Director Adam Kefauver said the program is focused on clarifying expectations and communication between all people involved in student athletics. Kefauver said the partnership with the firm, A Better Way, encourages coaches and parents to follow a curriculum centered around preventing interpersonal tension.

“If I could put it into one word, it’s relationships,” Kefauver said. “It’s how can we build relationships with all stakeholders in the athletic department? That’s with athletic directors, that’s with coach to coach, that’s with coach to parent,  that’s coach to player.”

Kefauver said some 70 coaches throughout the district have begun to learn the curriculum and parents are encouraged to follow along. Meetings have been held to share the information.

“What’s most important is, you know, the athletes having the best experience they can,” Kefauver said. “Sometimes that’s hindered based on tension in relationships from parent to coach or coach to parent or communication maybe not being the way it should and all of the things that can come up throughout the course of the season.”

Kefauver said he has been excited to see coaches and parents from all levels of Putnam County schools buying into the program. Kefauver said that when expectations are uniform in athletics throughout the entire district, student-athletes and their parents benefit from consistency from coaches and athletic directors.

“We’ve got middle school kids that are feeding into our high school and their parents and the coaches that they had are already having exposure to some of these concepts and using the same terminology that we’re going to use,” Kefauver said. “That’s going to do nothing but help their experience when they come here.”

Kefauver said Cookeville High School has already conducted two coaches meetings this year where concepts learned through the new partnership have been discussed. Kefauver said the district is in the process of getting parents logged into the website where they can find tools and resources like video series and lessons about how to make school athletics the best experience possible for their children.

Kefauver said the firm is made up of former coaches and athletic directors who share their perspectives on how to keep school sports as healthy as possible.