Mental Performance Coordinator

DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW:

The mission of the Boston Red Sox Behavioral Health Program is to develop competitive advantages in performance and mental health arenas through quality programming, in-depth relationships with players and uniform staff based on trust and reliability; clear, effective, and integrated performance enhancement strategies for players; and seamless collaborations with player development, sports medicine, baseball operations and coaching staffs to serve the overall goal of maximizing player performance and winning championships. The program is committed to addressing the needs of the whole person - the demands players and staff face on and off the field - to fuel the needed resilience and balance required to attain our goals over the course of the season and year.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

The Boston Red Sox are seeking a highly skilled and dynamic professional to develop and implement mental performance programming throughout the Red Sox organization and to provide mental performance coaching to Red Sox Major League and minor league players and staff. The Mental Performance Coordinator (MPC) position requires that this individual work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary group of professionals that include coaches, athletic trainers, strength coaches, analysts, nutritionists, and mental health professionals. The MPC will utilize excellent system-building, process and people management, and interpersonal skills as well as a strong foundation in sport psychology to build a best-in-class mental performance department that measurably improves player performance and contributes to wins on the field. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Coordinate mental performance program to drive on-field player performance improvement and development, under the direction of the BH Director and in collaboration with relevant development domain personnel.
• Collaborate with BH director and development domain leadership to oversee and manage MPCs throughout the organization.
• Collaborate with BH director to create and drive process that enables the execution of the mental performance vision, including ongoing investigation of the latest, most research-supported interventions in the field.
• Contribute to interdisciplinary player performance teams and ensure that the mental performance group is supporting and enhancing each player’s ability to achieve his skill development goals, helping to maximize his talent.
• Develop and implement effective systems to document the mental performance coaches’ work with players and ensure that the work is optimally integrated into the Club’s player development program, in collaboration with development domain leadership.
• Develop and implement systems to track the success of mental performance programming assuring that interventions are properly documented and measured to inform needed adjustments and performance goals.
• Implement Red Sox educational programs designed to enhance leadership, communication, and performance enhancement skills for our players.
• Collaborate with Learning and Development manager to educate our PD staff on the curriculum of Red Sox educational programs that are designed to enhance leadership, communication, and performance enhancement skills, so that staff may also teach and integrate this knowledge into their daily work with players.
• Develop strong relationships with Major and Minor League players and conduct ongoing one v. one mental performance sessions that achieve organizationally established performance goals.
• Integrate personality and cognitive assessments to better understand and impact players and assist PD staff in leveraging such information. This would include tailoring mental performance interventions that best fit our players with different personality and learning profiles.
• Work collaboratively with coaches to implement mental performance exercises as part of physical training and baseball activities.
• Oversee and conduct group presentations throughout the season on critical content in the mental performance area.
• Attend spring training and additional off-season programs throughout the year and off-season.
• Make regular visits to Red Sox affiliates as well as joining the Major League team to oversee staff education and programming implementation.
• Meet with Behavioral Health Director on a weekly basis and provide updates on players, mental performance staff, and programmatic issues.
• Communicate regularly with Director, Player Development and other Development domain leadership and personnel on issues related to player performance.

COMPETENCIES

• Able to build trusting, professional, and confidential alliances with players and staff from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.
• Proficient in teaching mindfulness, character development, injury recovery, and sleep hygiene.
• Strong presentation skills to share programming with groups of players or staff.
• Driven to utilize data and able to present objective information to players, coaches, and front-office staff.
• Strong command of best-in-class sport psychology programming and deployment to bridge the gap between training and on-field outcomes.
• Highly skilled communicator and presenter who possess the ability to understand and interact with Red Sox Player Development initiatives including priority tasks such as player plans, goal setting and execution, and Strength and Conditioning programming as well as hitting, pitching, fielding, and base-running metrics.

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s level degree or higher in Sport Psychology or related field required.
• Bilingual in Spanish/English is preferred.
• Coaching or clinical experience in an elite or professional sport environment is preferred.




In addition to the above requirements, all roles within Baseball Operations are expected to effectively demonstrate our universal competencies related to problem solving, teamwork, clarity of communication, and time management, along with embodying our culture of honesty, humility, relentlessness, and commitment to DEIB.