Originally Posted by
JeffOYB
What about the role for a godfather type? ...Someone who is just around the periphery observing the overall tone -- and the particulars -- at races. Checking in on the various teammates, as you say, who are into that. Seems handy. Like the one coach has a metabolic monitoring focus. Seems like he might still be part of a bigger picture that a godfather type could keep the pulse of.
Our team has a board of directors responsible for overall guidance. The LBS owner and team captain is a 40+ Cat1 with experience in Europe, and he sets the (Godfather) tone. But the Chairman of the Board is another experienced masters racer, so that the chairman is independent of the LBS sponsor.
Then, at the risk of bursting it all at the seams (what it would feel like anyway) what about development? Recruiting, retainiing, building juniors -- whew! Organizational strength needs a guiding hand, too. Like, I remember getting awfully self-centered in my prime. Now, I tried to be a good teammate, but even a winning group focus can be myopic in terms of overall team health (and longevity). Basically, and maybe this is another topic, making sure teammates rotate through in organizational support roles seems good -- volunteering at events -- not trying to race everything the club puts on. Non-race task delegation. I suppose the club/team president might do this more than the coach.
Basically, it seems like a team of all/only racers is at risk in these ways. Although I suppose people can deal with infrastructure AND race.
We have a few juniors on our team - youngest is 15 and he just won the state Cat4 crit championship. 17yo won juniors and does well in Cat2. I expect to see him in the pro ranks one day. There is a junior development team that is loosely affiliated with our shop/team, and the 17yo is part of that. It is a program that not only develops the junior's cycling, but growth as a person as well. Guy running it is terrific, and often rides alongside the juniors coaching them.
Organizationally, we have the board, and they solicit volunteers in different areas. For instance, I helped with our communication platform (Facebook centric) and scheduling. Everyone pitches in to set up the tents and such for races. So far, it is a very supportive and collaborative environment.