Strategies that high school athletic coaches can use to support academic performance of student-athletes: An analysis of different strategies and their effectiveness based on teacher evaluations

In the United States today, sports are a major part of the educational system. Many students participate in athletics, especially during high school and college. Athletic coaches have a special relationship with student-athletes because of the amount of time that they spend preparing for athletic competitions. In light of that close relationship, coaches have the opportunity to support student-athletes in their academic pursuits in ways that many other teachers cannot. The purpose of this study was to evaluate strategies that coaches used to support the academic performance of student-athletes and to determine if a correlation existed between the coaches' strategies and the academic performance of the athletes. The data collection methodology required using a teachers' survey to evaluate academic performance and a coach's survey to evaluate coaching strategies. Then the academic performance of student-athletes under coaches who use certain strategies and those student-athletes under coaches who do not were compared. The strategies found to have a significant effect on academic performance were those that involved direct communication between the coach and the players.