Team Management

[SydNap 25]

My adult league team has been struggling with a variety of issues. Namely our "captain" hasn't made a skate in about 3 months, we've been skating with 6-7 skaters (ugh!), and communication has been poor. This week our captain sent us an email and wants to "bow out" and not play anymore. The best part is, tonight we had our round 1 playoff game and our goalie didn't show up (assuming either he didn't know about the game time or just didn't care). I am assuming management duties in the fall (otherwise the team breaks up and we scatter to too-deep teams), and I want to know how I can:

1. Have some sort of team page where we can have a roster, schedule, and some sort of "check-in" to show who's going to show up for the next game. I will have the ability to find a few subs when I know we're short (less than 10), but right now we have this sort of crappy "reply all" thing going on, and I get about 40 emails with random conversations about whether people can show up. This needs to be simplified.

2. Ideally, I would like to be able to send an email to each rostered player about 2 days before the game and then have them simply click "yes" or "no" for if they'll be able to make the game. If this was on a website everyone could see who else was going (we have several duos that drive together, and right now last minute cancellations are rampant).

3. If I can have a few stats/pictures on the website that would be great, but not totally necessary.

4. I wouldn't even bother given this mess, with the exception we have a good group of 7-8 players that have been together a long time and always pay their dues and are cordial.

Ideas? (thanks in advance)

[goaliemanshark 6]

Evite.com

Sportsvite.com

Or what I do. Facebook group/events or a text message. I usually make the game event 3 days before game time and send a text to everyone the day of.

[Chadd 916]

Our league uses pointstreak, it's a great system. I'm not sure what they would charge for a single team to use the system, but I would strongly recommend checking with them. Because our league uses it, the games are already scheduled, but we can add our own events as well. Players check in or out, can leave notes for each other, add contact info or send email.

EDIT:

This site looks like a similar option and if you add a few bucks a head, it should cover the cost for the season.

http://www.teamsnap.com/sports/ice_hockey_team_websites.php

[tareatingrat 4]

At the pickup games I go to, the guys who run it use TeamSnap. Don't know much about how it works for an admin, but I like it because I get reminders, can sync it with my phone calendar, and there's an App.

[wrangler 157]

For basketball, we set up a yahoo group. For a given day/game, we simply have a poll with choices of in or out, so we know who's coming. In the group message section, we can post info or discussion. The price is right.

Every time a poll is initiated, everyone immediately gets an email with a hyperlink to the poll. The poll can be set up so that anyone who votes in it can see it from the beginning.

[Davetronz 109]

The easiest and simplest way that I found to do the whole roster/sub confirmation thing is to send a mass text message to everyone on the team on the morning of the game or the night before. I list the game time, location, and opponent, and I ask the guys to reply YES or NO to secure their roster spot. There is no maybe, possibly, perhaps, if I feel like it, etc. If someone hasn't responded 4 hours before game time I send them one singled out personal text message. If there's no reply, they're considered not playing and I message a sub if necessary.

I tried using FB, team management sites, e-mail, etc, but no one wanted to take the effort to log on, use it, click links, etc. The text message is fast, everyone usually has their phones, and all they have to say is YES or NO.

[t6lock 24]

one of my teams uses http://doodle.com/ for scheduling events and check ins

my other team captain sends texts to everyone a day before the game. in this era, its probably safe to assume everyone has a cell phone

[Puck Norris 0]

www.myteamhq.com -easy hands off website that will automatically email members at predetermined times to remind them of a game and get their response yes/no/maybe to attendence.

[BenderHockey 127]

I second teamsnap. It works amazing. You can keep track of rosters, who has paid, stats, invites to games, etc. Great website.

[SirJW 207]

Honestly those are all good sites but you have to get everyone on the team to buy into it.

I find an email chain is the best option. You will get the same players who respond all the time and the others who sometimes or never respond. I try to keep emails to a minimum. Weekly roll calls with game times, updates about suspensions and such and the next season. I have a facebook page but hardly anyone goes to it unless new pics are posted.

[tareatingrat 4]

Honestly, if you're running the team, I wouldn't give people the option of "buying in" to it.

You do what works best for you, and if they don't like it, hand over the keys and tell them to run it.

Running a team is a thankless enough job without people complaining about having to log-in, or check their phone/email.

[hunt3rsean 44]

We have been playing as a team for the last 4-5 years minus some random roster changes here and there. So everyone is pretty on point with our "roll call" system by now.

But our "team manager" will send out a mass email to the team the day before stating there is a game the next day, what time it's at, and asks only for replies from those who will not show. There may also be a snack list on this email, but I cannot confirm nor deny this fact.

We also have a team facebook page but no one really uses it outside of major team events or for random laughs.

The email blast works for us because everyone is pretty consistant on showing vs no showing. We can count on maybe one or two guys to never reply to the email whether they will show up or not. Otherwise, everyone is really good about replying if they can't make the game.

The mass text option is also a good idea. You could just create a group contact and send out a mass text.

[pittu 15]

I am kind of in the same position. Sort of taking over for last years "manager" who wants to step back or at least split the duties. Unfortunately, alot of our guys are often unannounced no-shows at game time, which is a PITA. To be fair alot of our players work on the North Slope oil fields so they are often gone for 2 weeks at a time...Fortunatly there are usually teams playing before us that we can steal guys from to field say 9 skaters.

I do wish the same core group showed up every game. It is hard to develop any consistency when you never know if you'll have a ringer or a novice on your other wing....

I does however keep things interesting. We can alternatively get pummelled by a lower level team or crush the league leader depending on which subs we happen to be able to put on the ice on a given night. It sure makes it hard for other teams to get a read on us, LOL...

On topic, there is NO WAY the boys would be willing to go look up a website to check in and let us know if they are going to show. Usually, we get a head count after each game on who will show up the next week. Then we try to contact enough subs to field at least a full line with three or four guys on the bench

[number21 3]

I suggested my team use the free version of pointstreak. It has worked out well enough. Except no stats - my solutuion is to just make a spread sheet and export it as a jpg and manually update it and upload it.

It can send auto emails as game reminders which is nice. Where people can say if they are in or out for the week. The captain still has to get after the guys who don't log in or reply to the emails and chase down goalies from time to time.

[Zombies #77 10]

I keep this facebook page for reminders, updates, info, and to send group messages:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Zombie-Hockey/101440159934301

I use this site for stats and full schedule:

http://zombiehockey.weebly.com/index.html

Usually if someone isn't going to make it, I'll get a text or FB message.

[vince57 4]

With managing a uk u10s team i found a txt system works well, set a group on your phone with your team in, send one std txt to the group and watch the confirms or excuses come back, found this good as at anytime a quick run through the phones msg inbox told me who was in or out.

My recreational team utilised a team exclusive web forum to alert people to fixtures with links alerting people to new info dropped on facebook.

the league team i just signed for seems to use facebook events as a check in system,

all pretty good until you get the ones that say yes but dont show.

[IPv6Freely 2096]

Sounds like a good situation. Having him leave so somebody who actually cares can run the team is probably a good thing. I wish I could take over our team. Our captain is there for almost every game, but he doesnt seem to have much interest in actually running the team. I bought us jerseys and socks last season because he didn't care. The whole "any color but white" thing was good enough for him.

Implementing a yes/no system would be super easy, and something I may do if I ever get to run a team. Just send a YES link and a NO link via email with a unique key thats tied to each email address in your team list. One click and they're done. If I got 10 responses each week I'd be happy, because any more than 10 players and we're set. We'd probably get 1-2 every week that didn't RSVP.

I'm also sick of playing with 6-7 players. It's NOT fun.

[Chadd 916]

Honestly, if you're running the team, I wouldn't give people the option of "buying in" to it.

You do what works best for you, and if they don't like it, hand over the keys and tell them to run it.

Running a team is a thankless enough job without people complaining about having to log-in, or check their phone/email.

We have one or two guys that forget to use the system from time to time, but a text or a call to find out if one guy is playing is much easier than trying to manage a dozen guys that way. Once I find out, I just check him in or out for the next game. You can do the same if you get a head count after a game, check in or out the guys as they have indicated and then let the system run for the other guys. We also use it to reinforce beer duties and schedule team parties and things like that as well.

[hunt3rsean 44]

Sounds like a good situation. Having him leave so somebody who actually cares can run the team is probably a good thing. I wish I could take over our team. Our captain is there for almost every game, but he doesnt seem to have much interest in actually running the team. I bought us jerseys and socks last season because he didn't care. The whole "any color but white" thing was good enough for him.

Implementing a yes/no system would be super easy, and something I may do if I ever get to run a team. Just send a YES link and a NO link via email with a unique key thats tied to each email address in your team list. One click and they're done. If I got 10 responses each week I'd be happy, because any more than 10 players and we're set. We'd probably get 1-2 every week that didn't RSVP.

I'm also sick of playing with 6-7 players. It's NOT fun.

This just happened two us two games in a row. The 1st time was because half the team was at a rollerhockey tournament and the other half of our team didn't know if we'd have enough people. The normal email blast didn't happen and we ended up with only 5 guys for the 1st period....then had 6 for the 2nd and 3rd. Was pretty brutal after playing rollerhockey all weekend then playing a short bench the same day as my last rollerhockey game. But, that's just how it goes sometimes.

[LoneStar77 25]

Our league uses Pointstreak, but my team uses e-mail & a GoogleDoc spreadsheet instead (I joined after this was an established practice, not sure why we don't convert to Pointstreak it seems just as easy as I used it with a former squad). The guy that e-mails/shares out the spreadsheet tries to make sure it doesn't require a login to access & edit your playing status, but every once in a while it will prompt for that...of course having a GoogleDocs account is free as far as I know (I already had one from work as our department uses it from time to time).

[Chadd 916]

Our league uses Pointstreak, but my team uses e-mail & a GoogleDoc spreadsheet instead (I joined after this was an established practice, not sure why we don't convert to Pointstreak it seems just as easy as I used it with a former squad). The guy that e-mails/shares out the spreadsheet tries to make sure it doesn't require a login to access & edit your playing status, but every once in a while it will prompt for that...of course having a GoogleDocs account is free as far as I know (I already had one from work as our department uses it from time to time).

Once people have their own system, they don't like to change over. That's sad because the pointstreak system is really convenient.

[SydNap 25]

Hi All, I ended up going with a TeamSnap site. I'll check in after a season or two to let ya'll know how it went..

[LoneStar77 25]

Once people have their own system, they don't like to change over. That's sad because the pointstreak system is really convenient.

I agree. The new league coordinator seems to be putting more of an emphasis on Pointstreak so it appears we might be strongly encouraged to switch over - there's been some talk about formalizing sub players where needed (as opposed to the we'll let it slide this time that seems to be the norm now) & sticking to official rosters so I imagine the referees & scorekeepers may be encouraged to enforce the only players in the Pointstreak system can play in games. This would more than likely get us to switch over, we'll see...

[tareatingrat 4]

Hi All, I ended up going with a TeamSnap site. I'll check in after a season or two to let ya'll know how it went..

Good luck.

Just remember, and feel free to give reminders, that you're playing with adults. If they don't like using a website, well, I don't like working, but I do it, because it needs to be done.

[Chadd 916]

Good luck.

Just remember, and feel free to give reminders, that you're playing with adults. If they don't like using a website, well, I don't like working, but I do it, because it needs to be done.

One minute of their time saves ten minutes (or more) of yours.