What do Team Managers do, exactly?

[Mystery Train]

Another note: if you are the TA/manager for a coach who is a poor communicator or the least bit disorganized, your job will be 3-4x harder. I was the manager for 3 different coaches and each was a totally different experience. What makes it even harder is if the club has poor communication lines too, which ours did. Confusion about dates, practice locations, schedules, requirements...sometimes I thought I was the only one trying to keep it together. On the other hand, a really involved coach who communicates directly with the parents makes the job way easier. With our last coach, all I had to do was show up at the field with the cards on game day. He did almost everything else. And I definitely second the recommendation to have a separate treasurer.

 

[Dargle]

Some of the best team managers I have dealt with as a referee were the ones that also had a coaches license. I think it is a good idea to have the team manager go through a coaching clinic and get their coaches card. That way they can cover for the coach if they are running late or get kicked out of a game.

CSL permits a team manager to be the emergency coach with an F license, which is completely online. I think Cal South did as well at State Cup. So, it's really not difficult to acquire it.

 

[MWN]

Think of the team manager as the Staff Sergeant and the parents the Privates with a few Corporals thrown in. The Team Manager leads this rag-tag group of complainers and chauffeurs into battle. As noted, the team manager is basically the right-hand person for the coach, hopefully, freeing the coach up to coach the players. The team manager does the paperwork, communicates the necessary details, and makes sure the various Cal South / League / Club documents are at hand on game day.

A few mistakes I have seen some team managers make is ...

1. Lack the backbone needed to control the troops. The SCDSL will have the parents sit on one side and the coach/players on the other. The team manager needs to sit with their parents. Maybe a lollipop will work, but when Loudmouth Parent 1 and Idiot Parent No. 2 start getting out of hand, the Team Manager must be the one to pull these two jokers aside and enforce the rules of the League/Club/Team. He/She also needs to communicate with the opposing team manager if things are getting out of hand over their or parents begin editorializing. I've seen many team managers that have all the organizational skills, but lack the backbone to confront their own parents and/or talk to the opposing team manager. Its the team managers job to to that (especially in the SCDSL, see, http://www.scdslsoccer.com/_files/2016gamedayinstructions.pdf)

2. Print the schedule out on some nicely formatted sheet and deliver it to the parents before the season. BIG MISTAKE, because schedules always change ... field number changed, game time, etc.

3. Take on too much basic stuff. At a certain point, if a grown-ass parent cannot figure out how to look up a schedule online and devine appropriate driving directions on their own ... club soccer isn't for them.

Communication is the key. If you decide to be a team manager skip the emails and text and use Remind (its probably on everybody's smartphone anyway). Make the coach send his/her own damn messages through remind so nothing gets lost in translation.

 

[Overlap]

Some of the best team managers I have dealt with as a referee were the ones that also had a coaches license. I think it is a good idea to have the team manager go through a coaching clinic and get their coaches card. That way they can cover for the coach if they are running late or get kicked out of a game.

Right!..my DD's coach got tossed in a big game, I was the only one with my coaching card, wild game. I jumped in to finish it, the girls won and I can now say I'm the only undefeated coach in the club. Woohoo!

 

[Sheriff Joe]

In my manager days, I got to the field once without my book of player and game documents. Luckily, it was a home gme, so I was bable to get back and forth in time.

Not so lucky was the manager of a team my son was coaching. She got to Temecula without her book, and didn't make the round trip in time for the game, so it was ruled a forfeit, and then a friendly.

Were you drunk when you posted this? Grampa.

 

[Lambchop]

Think of the team manager as the Staff Sergeant and the parents the Privates with a few Corporals thrown in. The Team Manager leads this rag-tag group of complainers and chauffeurs into battle. As noted, the team manager is basically the right-hand person for the coach, hopefully, freeing the coach up to coach the players. The team manager does the paperwork, communicates the necessary details, and makes sure the various Cal South / League / Club documents are at hand on game day.

A few mistakes I have seen some team managers make is ...

1. Lack the backbone needed to control the troops. The SCDSL will have the parents sit on one side and the coach/players on the other. The team manager needs to sit with their parents. Maybe a lollipop will work, but when Loudmouth Parent 1 and Idiot Parent No. 2 start getting out of hand, the Team Manager must be the one to pull these two jokers aside and enforce the rules of the League/Club/Team. He/She also needs to communicate with the opposing team manager if things are getting out of hand over their or parents begin editorializing. I've seen many team managers that have all the organizational skills, but lack the backbone to confront their own parents and/or talk to the opposing team manager. Its the team managers job to to that (especially in the SCDSL, see, http://www.scdslsoccer.com/_files/2016gamedayinstructions.pdf)

2. Print the schedule out on some nicely formatted sheet and deliver it to the parents before the season. BIG MISTAKE, because schedules always change ... field number changed, game time, etc.



3. Take on too much basic stuff. At a certain point, if a grown-ass parent cannot figure out how to look up a schedule online and devine appropriate driving directions on their own ... club soccer isn't for them.

Communication is the key. If you decide to be a team manager skip the emails and text and use Remind (its probably on everybody's smartphone anyway). Make the coach send his/her own damn messages through remind so nothing gets lost in translation.

Everybody needs to remember the team manager is an unpaid, volunteer position. If you don't like the way something is being done, you volunteer to take over or be the next years team manager.

 

[espola]

Were you drunk when you posted this? Grampa.

q.e.d.