Details matter…your name matters. Your name is part of your identity whether you like it or not. Some of you were given Smith or Davis or Berg and when you are at a meet, the announcer always pronounces your name right. You probably don’t think much about it.
Many others, me included, have names that are not so intuitively pronounced. Seguin for example. Is it See-quinn? Se-goon? Se-gwine?, Se-geen? It none of those. It’s See-gwin. Percent times it gets pronounced right? About 6.34%. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter?
I am going with yes on this one. Even though I am an adult, and I am more than used to it, it still bothers me a little bit. I know it’s not intentional, and people give it their best effort, but if you don’t know my name, then how can you possibly know me. Think about how you would feel if someone calls you by the wrong first name. I had a physics teacher that always called me Matt instead of Mark. Not intentional but left me with the impression that he really doesn’t even know who I am, or I don’t matter that much if he doesn’t get my name right.
Details matter…your name matters
There’s a trick I’ve come up with over the years and it’s really simple for coaches to implement. I have a list of my roster with everyone’s name spelled out phonetically next to it. I print off ten copies at the beginning of the season and keep them in my clipboard. My clipboard goes where I go. Anytime we have an away meet, I give the announcer one of the copies and ask if they have any questions on the names. It takes some stress off the announcer and let’s them know that pronouncing my athletes’’, coaches’, and managers’ names correctly is important to me.
Give it a shot. You wouldn’t think that it makes that much of a difference, but details matter and they do.