You invest in your athletes as people—not just players.
On The Team helps you extend that investment beyond the game by building an alumni-led mentor community that guides athletes as they turn their strengths into real career opportunities.
The Potential
Every day, your athletes are developing skills that will serve them far beyond sport. Those skills—leadership, teamwork, accountability, and resilience—are the foundation for success beyond the game.
The challenge? Too many don’t receive the personalized support needed to learn how to translate their skills into real-world opportunities.
On The Team prepares alumni mentors to guide athletes as they:
Navigate their career journey with clarity and direction
Communicate their skills and experiences through compelling stories
Build professional relationships
Turn introductions into opportunity
“Working with my mentor has helped me navigate career uncertainty with more confidence and direction. Through thoughtful conversations, networking opportunities, and encouragement to explore different paths, I have gained more clarity about what genuinely energizes me! My mentor has helped me grow professionally and personally, and I now feel more excited and confident about the next steps in my career journey. ”
Through this process, athletes gain the confidence and experience to take real steps in their career journey.
“I came in knowing I wanted to be a small animal vet but I had no idea where to start in order to gain hours of experience. My mentor helped me make a great connection with a local vet and turn a networking conversation into a shadowing opportunity at her clinic. Not only did I lock down a plan to make my journey to vet school possible, but I also gained a new confidence in communication that will help me for years to come.”
“What I appreciate most is how On The Team fits into our athletes’ schedules and builds on their strengths. It’s personalized support that works seamlessly alongside their commitment to academics and athletics—it doesn’t compete with their focus, it adds to it, maximizing their growth and development.”
How It Works
On The Team is designed with two key elements: intentional structure and support.
THE STRUCTURE
On The Team is built around a simple, repeatable process: the Goal Cycle.
A Goal Cycle is a focused 4-week, 1:1 mentoring experience between an athlete and an alumna.
Each cycle follows four steps:
Define a Goal
Choose a specific, right-sized goal.
Build the Plan
Break that goal into actionable steps.
Take Action
Move forward with mentor support.
Reflect/Next Step
Capture learning and set the next goal.
The following roles are designed to reduce load on coaching staff while engaging alumni who are excited to give back.
COACH
Bring On The Team to your team. Support a culture that values growth beyond the game.
LEAD MENTOR
Build and manage the alumni mentor community. Coordinate each Goal Cycle.
ALUMNI MENTORS
Guide athletes through a Goal Cycle by asking questions, elevating strengths, and supporting action.
ATHLETE MENTEES
Set a goal, take action, reflect on progress, and build momentum through each cycle.
THE SUPPORT
You don’t have to do this alone.
On The Team provides the training, resources, and support to make this work.
Mentor training equips alumni with the mindset and skills to guide each conversation.
Resources—including AI tools, template emails, forms, and slides—help the Lead Mentor easily run the program.
Support provides real time guidance and perspectives from On The Team and our community of alumni.
Why It Works
On The Team moves beyond one-off workshops to a personalized, relationship-driven experience — helping athletes take real steps toward opportunities like job shadows, internships, professional relationships, and jobs.
At the core is a different approach to mentorship, focused on building athletes’ capacity to take action.
FROM jumping to advice TO building on athletes’ strengths
FROM giving answers TO asking questions that build ownership.
FROM one-size-fits-all curriculum TO personalized, relationship-driven support.
This shift matters.
Athletes don’t need more information—they need mentors who build their capacity to navigate their own career journey.
The approach is:
Practiced — Growth happens through real conversations and real-world action.
Personalized — Goals are aligned with each athlete’s interests, strengths, and stage.
Relationship-driven — Alumni mentors provide guidance and accountability.
Repeated — Goal Cycles build momentum and confidence over time.
Give your athletes the opportunity to turn the strengths they’ve built through sport into meaningful career opportunities.
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Each Goal Cycle requires the athlete to commit 30 minutes a week for 4 weeks. Athletes can choose to participate in as many Goal Cycles as they choose. For most programs 2 Goal Cycles is recommended: one at the start of the fall semester and on at the start of the spring semester.
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As a coach, you need to:
Approve the program to move forward
Send one email to alumni to invite mentors
Share current athlete email addresses with the Lead Mentor so athletes can be invited to an information session
Celebrate your athletes success along the way and be a champion of the work
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The Lead Mentor runs the program with the support of On The Team’s resources, training, tools, and support. The Lead Mentor is nominated and/or approved by the coach. The Lead Mentor is trained by On The Team.
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On The Team will work with a coach and Lead Mentor to develop a strategy to recruit alumni. On The Team also provides the assets needed to do the recruitment (e.g. email templates and registration forms).
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The mentor training is four, 45-minute virtual sessions and is run by On The Team’s Founder, Anne Jones. Mentors will register for a training that works for their schedule. They will be required to complete the training.
In the training, mentors will learn the On The Team approach to mentorship and the program structure, the Goal Cycle.
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Success looks like mentees setting goals and achieving them! For example, an athlete might set a goal to:
prepare for and run their first networking conversation
explore a career field they are curious about
refine their resume or LinkedIn profile
connect with a professional in their field of interest
It is not unreasonable to set an expectation that every athlete on your team sets and completes at least one goal each year. Reaching 100% adoption of the program does take the coach making these expectations clear. The Lead Mentor can work with On The Team to come up with strategies for getting all athletes involved.
Lead Mentors will communicate outcomes to the coach after each Goal Cycle. The report will include information about the experience for both mentors and mentees. To see a template report, please reach out the On The Team.
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On The Team recommends 2 Goal Cycles: One at the start of the fall semester, and the second at the start of the spring semester. Use the On The Team AI tool, Goal Cycle Planner. Mentees and mentors can choose to continue their work after the end of the Goal Cycle.