Parents Playbook

By Bill Holland

Parents Playbook: 7 Rules to Take Your Athlete from College to Career is a concise pocket guide about what, why and, most important of all, how parents can provide excellent counseling to get invaluable life lessons from athletic competition.
In reality, the information can be used by parents of all athletes, from early-aged beginners onward even if they play only for a short time. It is a book about the rules of life and career; and about preparation for the professional job market at graduation using what is learned from athletic competition.
Practical and specific, this handy playbook helps student and parent avert disaster by treating college as a four-year-discovery-and-preparation period for career after graduation. The seven rules in this book are supported by the resources of Bill Holland's enterprise and that of his consulting practice, College to Career Catalyst, offering career advisory services, online courses, books and other help aids so that the parents of students can participate with their kids in successful preparation for life after college.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Wetta
• Release date: Mar 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9780996618717

Bill Holland

As an award winning college professor, business executive, entrepreneur and author, Dr. Bill Holland knows all sides of the career management process. Parents Playbook is your opportunity to take advantage of what he knows. This “mini-book” is jammed full of useful information for parents as they counsel their kids from college to career.Those are some of the reasons why Bill has been asked by Michigan State University, Albion College, the NAACP and NBA scouts to share what he knows with the many parents they encounter.

Book preview

PARENTS PLAYBOOK

7 Rules to Take Your Athlete from College to Career

By Bill Holland, PhD.

Founding Principal

College to Career Catalyst, LLC

Copyright 2016 Bill Holland

Smashwords Edition

Author website: www.collegetocareercatalyst.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including printing and photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permissions contact RW Holland Consulting: [e-mail]

E-book by Daniel Wetta Publishing, www.danielwetta.com

Cover design: Eric Keller, www.erickellerdesign.com

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to:

David Seid and his great team at MiniBük

Daniel Wetta Publishing for the e-book

Boo Williams: Hampton Roads AAU basketball coach, visionary and role model

Jess Womack: Long-time friend and confidant

Preface

Gifted athletes, like other students graduate college and still have difficulty finding good jobs. That’s a big change. It used to be that if you had a college degree, you had a professional, well-paying job if you wanted one. Now, getting from college to career is more difficult.

A parent at a recent invitational basketball camp brought this home. He had attended college on an athletic scholarship and his son was now a high level recruit. I did all they asked - got my degree and everything - and it didn’t do a damn thing for my so-called career.

Every college athletic director can cite the graduation rate of their student athletes because it is the life-blood of successful recruiting. Parents want to send kids to universities with high graduation rates. Coaches who are great recruiters produce winning athletic programs, which in turn have a profound effect on applications, the quality of student life and alumni donations.

But graduating from college is no longer enough. According to the Department of Labor, nearly 50 percent of Americans with degrees have jobs that do not require them. And the same percentage of recent college graduates report being under employed. That rises to 55 percent for people of color.

Is this the fate of your athlete? Is there anything you can do about it? The answers are: It doesn’t have to be, and yes, you can do a lot. That is why I wrote this playbook specifically for parents.

The rules apply to all students beginning as early as middle school or before. You will also find them useful long after your athlete stops playing. Times have changed and it is past time to modify the myths associated with athletics.

The first is that athletics teaches life lessons. The truth is that applications to life are neither automatic nor best taught by coaches. That’s your job. This