As much as I love summer, there is something about getting ready for a new school year that is so exciting, if also a bit daunting. Of course, I no longer have the challenge of preseason training or tryouts, or the mad scramble of the first day of school with long hallways lined with doors that follow a room numbering scheme I cannot decipher. I do, however, have the mom’s version of that back-to-school fever. It is Friday night the week before school begins and I am sitting with my iPad, a pad of paper, and a pencil trying to map out the fall schedule and decide which last-minute registrations I should tackle, and how this whole semester is actually going to work “on the ground” as opposed to in my head.
I am feeling a bit more nervous this fall since I volunteered to coach soccer for my son, age 7, and manage my daughter’s travel soccer team, age 11. This generally means having ice packs, bandaids, water, and snacks on hand at all games. Not rocket science, but harder to do than you might think. It also requires a lot of communication about game and practice locations, weather delays and cancellations, and other logistical information. Normally this can be tedious work. But I am really excited this year to use TeamSnap to simplify all communications.
TeamSnap is a league and team management system with a devoted following of 8 million users. TeamSnap members can easily share information about game locations, game scores, player stats, and photos of players. There is a team website and a mobile application, it is beautifully designed and provides information that is easy to read. I have added the roster for my daughter’s team and it is already so much better than using email. I created a profile for each player and sent an invite, but then the parents can, and have, edited the family profile, changing out emails and adding other parents as they wish. I also can see who is coming to practice, which is nice. As the season progresses this will make it much easier to know whether we have enough players to field a team for games on the long weekends when so many people are away. I also like that parents can post photos of their kids to share on the website. It even allows you to manage the snack schedule. I am excited to try the Live feature that allows you to put in a timer for each half of the soccer game so everyone knows how much time is left in the game. It also will show the score, updating live, so parents who are not at the game can track what is happening remotely. I think it is going to be a great season.
