Proposal — draftA proposed season rhythm, seeded for the director conversation. No date and no window count here is ratified.
MEETING ARTIFACT — a proposed rhythm for discussion. Every date below is a suggestion, and the number of windows is the open question.
The season, one loopProposed evaluation cadence · 14ers skill development

The season, one loop

Four beats. The first 3 are evaluation windows, when a coach scores her own players against the rubric. The fourth is not an evaluation at all. It is what the first 3 get used for.

That last part is the whole point of running a cycle rather than a one-off. Tryouts stop starting from scratch, because by the time they arrive the club already has a season of evidence on every player, gathered by the people who watched her all year.

1Evaluation window
Baseline
About a month into the season
Suggested: late October
The coachScores her own players once, on her age group’s five rungs per skill. One pass through the roster on a phone form.
The familyNothing yet. The baseline is the measuring stick, not a verdict on anybody.
The clubEvery player has a starting rung on record before the season has had time to shape her.
Why a month in and not day one: coaches need a few weeks of ice before a score means anything, and the girls need to settle onto their teams first.
2Evaluation window · open question
Midseason
Roughly halfway
Suggested: January
The coachThe same form, the same five rungs. Nothing new to learn.
The familyA short report card, if the org wants one mid-year.
The clubThe only moment a coach can change course inside the season instead of after it.
This is the beat to decide today. The plan as built has two windows, not three.
3Evaluation window
Season end
The last weeks of the season
Suggested: March
The coachFinal scores, plus one written note per player.
The familyThe report card goes home, and every player gets a one-page off-season training sheet: her two priorities, her next rung as the target, and three drills for each from the association drill book.
The clubThe season’s real picture, by player, by team, and by age group.
This is the window that pays for the whole cycle, because it is the one families see.
4Not an evaluation
Tryouts
Spring, before the new season is set
Suggested: April
The coachWalks into tryout day with the board already built.
The familySees a placement informed by a season, not by one weekend.
The clubA ranked age group with a season of evidence behind it. The new teams then start the loop again in the fall.
Not a fourth evaluation. This is beat 3’s scores, re-cut as a tryout board.
and the new teams start beat 1 in the fall
Then it repeats: and the new teams start beat 1 in the fall.

What this meeting can settle

Two windows, or three?

The version built today runs two evaluation windows a season. The loop above draws three. A third window costs one more round of coach forms, and buys two things: a coach can correct course inside the season, and every player carries three data points instead of two, so a flat stretch or a jump is visible rather than inferred from the endpoints.

Three decisions

  1. Two windows or three. Everything else follows from this one.
  2. The dates. Not months, actual weeks, so the forms can be open and closed on a calendar the coaches already have.
  3. Whether a second coach ever scores the same players. That overlap is the only honest way to calibrate a strict coach against a generous one.

Spring and summer sit outside this loop on purpose, so the loop itself can be agreed first. The season-end data does roll up to which skills each age group is weakest in, which is the clinic-planning conversation, on another day.