By Keith Grabowski
College football players face unprecedented stress each week—academics, personal responsibilities, and the physical demands of the sport all shape their readiness. Using a weekly player well-being check-in, Hope College head coach Peter Stuursma ensures his staff stays connected to each athlete and identifies concerns before they become problems. This simple system provides structure, builds trust, and enhances communication across the roster.
“If we don’t know what our players are carrying with them each day, we can’t help them become the men they are supposed to be.” – Peter Stuursma
1. Start Each Week With a Quick Survey
A short routine creates honest insight.
Every Monday, players complete a brief survey before beginning their lifting session. The questions cover:
- Sleep
- Nutrition
- Physical readiness
- Stress levels
- Overall well-being
The scale is simple. It gives players space to be direct and allows the staff to see how individuals and position groups are doing. This weekly player well-being check-in becomes a consistent tool for measuring how athletes are managing the demands of the season.
2. Treat Low Scores as Conversation Starters
The number matters less than the follow-up.
When a player marks something low, the staff checks in. They ask:
- What changed this week
- Whether classes or exams are creating pressure
- How things are going at home
- Whether anything off the field needs attention
These conversations help players feel supported and teach them to communicate openly and effectively.
3. Look for Patterns Across the Team
Wellness influences preparation.
When results show repeated low energy or increased stress, the staff evaluates:
- Practice volume
- Recovery needs
- Academic load for the week
- Outside factors affecting the players
Using data from the weekly player well-being check-in helps coaches plan effectively and maintain the team’s overall readiness.
4. Teach Players How Their Habits Shape Performance
Awareness leads to better preparation.
As players recognize the connection between their habits and their scores, they begin to understand how sleep, nutrition, and stress management directly impact their development. The check-in becomes part of their growth rather than a box to fill out.
5. Build a Culture of Care and Accountability
Consistent communication strengthens trust.
Stuursma’s weekly system reminds players that their coaches care about who they are and what they are dealing with. Programs that maintain this type of communication build stronger relationships and create a clearer understanding of how to help athletes sustain the demands of the season.
A simple weekly survey becomes a meaningful tool for developing responsible young men and keeping the team connected.
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About Peter Stuursma
Peter Stuursma is the head football coach at Hope College, where he has led the program to a 65-18 record, three MIAA championships, and the first 10-0 regular season in school history. Before returning to his alma mater, he built East Grand Rapids into one of Michigan’s premier high school programs, winning seven state titles and earning a place in the state coaches association Hall of Fame. A 1993 Hope graduate and former team captain, Stuursma continues to blend his background as an educator and coach to develop the whole person within his program.
Related:
Learn About Your Team Through Player Self-Evaluations
More on Coach Peter Stuursma
Podcast transcript
Peter Stuursma (00:00)
we do a tremendous amount of things each and every week. We have a survey that goes out every Monday for our guys to be able to get their lifting program. They have to take a quick survey. How are you eating? How are you sleeping? How are you feeling? What’s your overall stress? And certainly it’s a survey that they can, you know, mark either one, they’re not doing so well or four, excuse me, one, they’re doing great, five, they’re not doing so great. What we’ve learned from that,
It’s another opportunity for us to say, what’s going on? Hey, what’s that class that you’re struggling with? It’s another touch point. our players are very honest with us and upfront I tell our coaches all the time, like we’re coaching way more than just the game. We got to coach these guys up every single day to realize like, hey, life might hit you sometime right between the eyes And what an incredible platform and vehicle we have in football to do that.
John Snell (00:43)
Finally, we head to Hope College where head coach Peter Sturzma and the Flying Dutchman made a statement with a 52 to zero win over rival Kelvin. It was a complete performance in all three phases, physical upfront, sharpen execution, and full of energy from start to finish. Coach, congratulations on a dominant win and being named our head coach of the week. Before we get into specifics,
We give you a chance to give your staff some props, Peter. So feel free to do that before we head into your topic.
Peter Stuursma (01:16)
Thanks a lot, coach. I appreciate it. That’s an easy thing to do to give our coaching staff, our players, the credit, all of the credit, because at the end of day, it takes great dudes.
Great dudes on the field to play and perform, but it takes a great staff to make sure that they’re lined up in the right situations and they’re coached up. And our defense coordinator, Jacob Pardone, played for us here at Hope and ⁓ unbelievable job with our defense, two shutouts in a row. Andrew Hawkins is our offensive coordinator ⁓ and does an unbelievable job with our offense. And they put up 62 and 52 two weeks in a row. ⁓ Our recruiting coordinator ⁓ is Hunter Thompson and coaches our whole line.
team’s coordinators, Jankes Arnold and then of course the other coaches on our staff as you know it takes an army of coaches to do the things that they do day in and day out. Our coaches are incredible coaches. They work.
tirelessly to do the things that we do, but they’re also incredible men to our guys. They’re mentors, they’re role models. They care ⁓ way more about the things outside of football. I always make the joke we talked about earlier, it’s more than football. ⁓ So huge props to our staff, huge props to our players because at end of the day, I’m ⁓ a glorified timeout caller who gets to be around some really, really phenomenal people. ⁓ And last Saturday was an incredible
environment at our place. A night game against arguably one of the best rivalries in all of college sports of Hope Calvin and we were fortunate to play really really hard and you know as a coach when you can maybe just flip that headset up and just watch your players play really really hard with tremendous passion and energy it’s fun. That’s the I think one of the greatest compliments in the world to the young men that we coach.
John Snell (03:02)
Again, congrats. And obviously your staff has done a great job, Peter, since you guys have taken over. ⁓ As you know, part of the show, we asked that our recipients give some form of coaching idea to our listeners. ⁓ You had mentioned, and I think it’s a great topic that, you know, this it’s more than football. ⁓ So how about you share with our listeners your thoughts on that, Peter?
Peter Stuursma (03:25)
Sure.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I do believe it’s more than football. It’s so much more than football. You know, we do a tremendous amount of things each and every week. We have a survey that goes out every Monday for our guys to be able to get their lifting program. They have to take a quick survey. How are you eating? How are you sleeping? How are you feeling? What’s your overall stress? And certainly it’s a survey that they can, you know, mark either one, they’re not doing so well or four, excuse me, one, they’re doing great, five, they’re not doing so great. What we’ve learned from that, it’s another touch point for
us. It’s another opportunity for us to say, what’s going on? Hey, what’s that class that you’re struggling with? It’s another touch point. The second thing I think is our players are very honest with us and upfront and I tell our coaches all the time, like we’re coaching way more than just the game. We got to coach these guys up every single day to realize like, hey, life might hit you sometime right between the eyes and how you handle those things in life is extremely important. And what an incredible platform and vehicle we have in football to do that. ⁓ We had an unfortunate situation happen to us.
John Snell (04:25)
you
Peter Stuursma (04:27)
to us early in the year and I told our guys like hey welcome to life life isn’t going to be fair sometime and I always said we’re built to respond we’re built to respond to things that happen to us that’s what we do in the game of football it’s so much more than just the the X’s and O’s and I think with the landscape of college football right now all across I’m doubling down on what we do what we do here at the division three level but what we do here at our institution ⁓ it’s our job to make sure we ⁓ give our guys the opportunity great dads great husbands get a job in the future right so they can graduate get a degree
Get that job. I’ve said it. I repeat myself sometimes I don’t really worry about repeating myself because it’s what we believe in it’s what we value It’s what we appreciate ⁓ Are the the moms and dads and aunts and uncles and grandparents that show up in August and drop their players off to us I say to our staff all the time It’s no different than when I was a middle school principal for ten and a half years and those parents entrusted us for six hours and 22 minutes a day
Well, these parents and grandparents and aunts are entrusting us with their young men for an entire year. We’re going to see them more over these two semesters than they will see them over this course of these next four years. that’s a hefty responsibility and something we do not take lightly. ⁓ you know, but at the end of the day, we get to use a vehicle in football where toughness is not a swear word, where ⁓ adversity is something we face. We’ve had some loss within our program of our players, whether it be a sibling.
John Snell (05:48)
Thank
Peter Stuursma (05:50)
a dear friend from high school, a grandparent. ⁓ It’s been heavy and I think that’s where the brotherhood of football and that locker room and I say it all the time like if our locker room.
And you take our locker room and the way our players interact with each other, if we could just take that and say, hey world, hey society, that’s how you should act. Boy, what a great world we’d have, wouldn’t we? Because we have so many different walks of life from socioeconomic backgrounds, from sizes, shapes, skin colors, to religious beliefs, to political beliefs, and all these things. And we put it all in a locker room. And we walk out that door and we touch the anchor to go on the field. We want them to be 128 dudes pushing on one goal, one rock. And I think that matters.
John Snell (06:11)
down.
Thank
Peter Stuursma (06:32)
off
on tangents and you might have to hit stop record coach slow down because I believe that it matters what happens in our locker room it matters what happens on the field it matters with that what happens with 125 dudes everything’s not gonna be great but I always say live where your feet are live today we get one crack at the day one crack at today that’s it let’s worry about today you know there’s snow flurries here in Michigan that coming off the the shores of Lake Michigan guess what we can’t control that so let’s enjoy it let’s go out and we’re gonna
We’re going to play our Tuesday song, which is great to be alive and in America. And we’re going to play that song. We’re going to have an up-tempo practice. And if you were to show up and watch our practice, I’d probably bark at you for walking in the green space, because we don’t allow that. We want to go. And I think that’s that energy and that enthusiasm for what we get to do each day is important. And that’s way, way more than football.
John Snell (07:24)
Well, Pete, we appreciate that. And again, the lessons that you’re teaching obviously are reaching them more than in just football. And it’s obviously also translating to success on the field. And we always said it at BW as well, that it’s more than just football. We are teaching them about life. And I always said, Pete, Peter, that good coaches teach their men how to win, but great coaches
teach their men how to live. And that sounds like that’s exactly what you’re doing at Hope. So congrats. Thanks for spending the time with us. Thanks for sharing and we wish you the best obviously for this last week of the regular season and let’s see what happens.
Peter Stuursma (07:59)
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. And I also appreciate what you all do for Division III football. Division III football is really, really important. I’m doubling down on what we do in Division III football with a landscape of college football. Our guys are, this Saturday we’re going to recognize 22 seniors. And there’s a number of them that already have job offers and many more that will come after that. And at the end of the day, that’s pretty, they’re not pretty important. That’s really important to what we do in the world. So again, thank you for what you do for Division III football. I truly appreciate it.
John Snell (08:41)
Thank you, Peter.