Saving Time in Athletic Departments Through Use of AI Programs

Using AI in High School Athletic Administration
Whether coming into a new department or maintaining operations of an existing one, paperwork, school presentations, and adapting internal documents for the school community is time consuming for both athletic directors and coaches. Though knowledgeable in their positions, coaches and athletic directors may not always have the time to keep up with administrative duties that require a high volume of written tasks. Programs like ChatGPT and Magic School AI are great resources to help coaches, athletic directors, and even school administrators with the tedious obligations of running successful high school athletic programs.

Time Saving with AI in High School Athletics
AI can be a great tool when needing to get started on major projects or finalizing minor details before the start of the school year or sports season. Editing a coach’s handbook or creating a new team policy with updates in legislation, league schedules or rules book changes for the upcoming season could take athletic directors or coaches who have strong writing skills hours. With the use of AI, such tasks become a simple prompt into programs like ChatGPT by uploading or pasting existing documents into the application, typing “edit to new state guidelines” or “current dates” and pressing enter.

Creating, Editing and Adapting Content for Various Platforms
In addition to creating documents, AI can help adapt existing materials for different audiences and support final edits before publication to the school community. Copy-editing forms, preparing presentations and generating scripts for the press box and pregame announcements, are just a few examples of how AI applications can support administrative tasks within high school athletics. Without requiring long hours of revision, AI can also be used to promote accessibility of information about school programs to community members. For example, it can translate published materials to improve communication across diverse communities or simplify lengthy policies on safety regulations and eligibility requirements into language that athletes and their families can easily understand without losing meaning.

Revising updates for social media, webpages, public-address systems and other platforms becomes efficient, while enhancing school communication. AI can also assist with tasks such as drafting emails to parents, planning events or creating social media posts. Some applications can develop hashtags, captions or posts designed uniquely for various social media and school platforms – making it easy for a coach or athletic director to quickly create content and post information in the best way possible for each platform accessed by the school community.

Using AI When You Aren’t the Expert
Professional development, certifications, and years of experience all support an athletic director or coach in being effective within their programs; however, it may not always be enough to support them throughout the school year. New sports, legal updates and job expectations are always changing, but AI applications can help coaches and athletic administrators fill the gaps without having to sacrifice too much of their time.

When schools add new sports like archery, Esports or Unified teams, it’s usually up to athletic administrators to find the right coaches to lead them. This can include drafting interview questions that are both general and sport-specific, while overseeing hiring a panel – even when the sport is not within their own area of expertise.

AI-based resources can support creating interview questions to fit the specific needs of an unfamiliar sport or activity, in addition to criteria for the hiring panel to assess candidate responses. This allows an athletic administrator without a coaching background in a specific sport to ask questions that effectively screen candidates’ skillsets.

Using AI to fill gaps in knowledge can also support coaches with team communication, preseason night materials, team policies and other essential documents. A platform designed for educators, such as Magic School AI, offers features like an email responder that can assist in crafting professional responses to difficult or contentious messages. By pasting the original email into the platform and entering the message they wish to convey, coaches can generate a polished and professional response, empowering them to address parents with clarity and confidence when handling sensitive topics such as cuts or playing time.

Precautions and Things to Avoid
AI has the potential to support coaches and athletic administrators by saving time, generating resources and filling skill gaps that may still be developing. However, athletic directors and coaches should take some precautions before using AI within their programs. This includes referencing any school-based policies or state legislation regarding its use. Such policies regarding the utilization of AI may include avoiding the input of confidential staff or student information directly into the platform – exact names, contact information, student medical records or information regarding special education should not be input directly into the AI database or Chatbox. When using AI to draft responses to emails, it is best to use a generic name in the application – such as “Student” – then edit identifying details after pasting the draft back into a document or email.

AI is constantly learning and improving, but those that use it should know that it is not perfect. Before sending an email or publishing information to the school community, it remains important to proofread and ensure that the AI-generated information still communicates the intended content. This includes reviewing sources when using search engines that use or embed AI to synthesize.

Final Remarks
Coaches and athletic directors contribute long hours to support student-athletes and their school community – using AI-based resources may better support work and life balance by making important, but time-consuming, tasks more manageable. It is not that an athletic director or coach is incapable of drafting an email, creating a slide deck, or jumping into pregame announcements in the press box; however, tasks that might normally take an hour to complete can be handled in seconds through the use of AI. No school professional should rely solely on AI-based programs to run their department or generate new ideas. It is a powerful tool for improving efficiency and expanding knowledge, freeing up more time to focus on students, athletes and the school community.

Monique Paris Anderson is a special education teacher, girls tennis coach and assistant boys tennis coach at Emerald High School in Dublin, California. She is a member of the High School Today Publications Committee.