This is part two of a six-part storytelling series, filled with real-world examples for telling the stories of people in your athletic department

Storytelling Series: Athletes | Alumni | Donors | Staff | Fans

July 29, 2026

Your coaches are the most quoted people in your department and, strangely, can be some of the least known. Fans hear from them on social media and in website quotes, but the philosophy behind a program, the vision a new hire is chasing, the weight of a milestone win is what rarely makes it past a two-sentence quote.

It’s a missed opportunity.

Your coaching staff — most certainly your head coach, but also your assistant coaches — are a program’s clearest voice and its most durable brand. When fans understand how a coach thinks, they follow the program through rebuilding years, buy into culture changes, and show up when the record may not demand it. The departments that choose to tell those stories build department-wide trust that survives all seasons, even the challenging ones.

So, here are five story formats for your coaching staff that you can put on the calendar right now.

1. Coach’s Corner

Trust is built one honest conversation at a time. This is a recurring monthly format that gives fans a steady, familiar window into how a coach thinks across a full year.

The format is simple: Once a month (or quarter), sit a coach down for a short, conversational Q&A — what they’re proud of, what they’re working on, what fans might be misreading about the team right now. When this format is recurring, the opportunity exists for compounding value on multiple fronts. Trust is built, fans start to anticipate it, and the coach becomes a personality they know beyond the scoreboard. As is the case with most of these topics, they are perfect for video and podcast formats.

Three questions that consistently produce good answers:

1. What’s something this team is doing well that hasn’t shown up in the results yet?
2. Who on this team is growing in a way you wish more people could see?
3. What core value in your program is the team grabbing a hold of most right now?

Best timing: Monthly, in-season; or quarterly all year long. Keep the cadence consistent so fans learn to expect it.

Example: Gwynedd Mercy: “Getting To Know You: Five Questions With Coach”

2. New Coach Q&A

In the new world of story-driven college athletics, a new head or assistant coaching hire deserves more than a one-time press release. The announcement tells fans who got the job and truthfully, where they came from; a New Coach Q&A tells them what kind of person they just inherited for their program.

The format is simple: Within the first week or two of a hire, run a Q&A that goes past the résumé and into philosophy. Ask about the vision for the program, the culture they want to build, what drew them to your school specifically, and how they coach when nobody’s watching. This is the piece that turns the name in a headline into a leader and personality fans can get behind before a single game is played.

Three questions that consistently produce good answers:

1. What kind of program do you want people to describe when they talk about your team?
2. What’s a coaching belief or hot take you hold that others in the sport might disagree with?
3. Beyond the job, what made this school the right fit for you and your family?

Best timing: Publish within the first two weeks of the hire, while attention is high and fans are forming their first impression.

Example: Westminster: “10 Quick Questions with Coach Luke Butts”

3. Media Day & Season Preview

The preseason is a time when you need content to build anticipation and your coaches have a small window of time before the schedule swallows them. A single well-built questionnaire solves both problems at once.

The format is simple: Instead of booking a series of follow-up meetings, send each coach one thorough preview questionnaire covering the roster, the schedule, expectations, key storylines, and what fans should watch for. One sitting supplies plenty of preview content, from position breakdowns to schedule previews and culture pieces, without ever asking a busy coach to meet again.

Three questions that consistently produce good answers:

1. Which matchup on the schedule are you already circling, and why?
2. What will this team need to be great at for the season to go the way you want?
3. What’s the one storyline you want fans to pay attention to this season?

Best timing: Collect two to three weeks before the season opener, then release the content in waves through the preview window.

Example: Valpo: “Preview: Men’s Basketball Ready for Preseason Exhibitions in Nassau”

4. Major Game, Milestone & Record Moments

Emotion has a short shelf life. The reaction to a rivalry upset, a 200th career win, or a program record is at its most powerful in the hours right after it happens — and sometimes gone a week later. This format is about capturing it while it’s raw.

The format is simple: When a coach hits a milestone or the team pulls off a signature win, get a quick interview in fast. It doesn’t need to be long or polished — a few honest questions caught in the moment beat a produced piece written six days later. These pieces become the content that lives in program history.

Three questions that consistently produce good answers:

1. Right now, in this moment, what’s going through your head?
2. What does this mean for where this program is headed?
3. Who are you thinking about? Who are the people that helped get you here, to this moment?

Best timing: Same day, ideally within hours. Speed is the point.

Example: Lee: “Lee’s Marty Rowe Reaches Milestone with 500th Win”

5. Postseason Reflections

The final whistle of a season can be one of the most emotionally loaded moments a program has, especially amid a conference or national tournament run. While many departments let it pass with a recap and a stat line, a Postseason Reflection gives the end of the season a narrative structure that goes deeper.

The format is simple: After the last game, interview the head coach about the arc of the entire season. Yes, include the outcome, but focus on the journey, talking about things like what the team overcame, who surprised them, what this group will be remembered for, and what carries into next year. This is also where a disappointing record becomes a story about growth, and a great season gets the sendoff it earned.

Three questions that consistently produce good answers:

1. Which moment from this season will stay with you the longest?
2. When you look back at where this team started, what changed the most?
3. What did this group teach you as a coach?

Best timing: Within a week of the final game, while the emotion is still fresh and before the offseason resets everyone’s memory.

Example: SMU: “The roller coaster ride: SMU men’s basketball season recap”

Making It Repeatable

Every format above shares the same operational challenge: collecting responses. Getting time on a head coach’s calendar during a season is where these ideas usually stall. The story concepts are easy, the logistics are the bottleneck.

That’s the problem FanWord’s Online Interviews and Feature Stories features were built to change:

• Create an Online Interview and set up questions
• Send coaches a link
• They respond on their own time from their phone via audio, video, or text, between meetings or practices
• Every answer lands in one place — no email chains, no chasing, no transcribing
• From there, one-click import into Feature Stories turns raw responses into a working draft
• Customize the voice and length of each story​
• Use our built-in review process to speed up collaboration​ with the coach
• Your team spends its time editing and publishing instead of collecting and formatting

If you want to see how programs are running series like these at scale, we’d love to show you.

Next up in the series: Storytelling ideas for your alumni— reconnecting the athletes who built your program with the fans who still remember them.

See what FanWord can do for your communications team: 
➡️ Request a demo using the contact form below
➡️ Reach out to our CEO directly to talk through your team’s workflow