Help - my son's soccer team parent chat is broken and needs fixing

[holliscx]

My son plays on two soccer teams: his school plus a club team in our neighborhood. He's in sixth grade and both teams practice twice a week with games on Saturdays. The club team is straightforward: it's about 10 kids, they send an email what time the game is, everyone usually shows up, and they play an intra-club league game. If the team is shorthanded a couple players will move from the opposing team so the kids can play.

The school team has a whatsapp group and the athletic director posts the details for each game along with the full roster of players on the team. He asks the parents before every game to cut/paste the list and reply to the group chat with a yes or no whether their child can or cannot play. So everyone in the group receives a trickle of replies throughout the day by a parent of each child one by one. What's more the soccer season runs through the end of May.

I emailed the AD and said this is ridiculous asking wouldn't something like this suffice:

Hello parents, the game is this Saturday at 9:30 am, please let Coach Valentin know if your child cannot play. Below is a link to the field.

He said he totally agrees and wishes that we didn't need to use whatsapp groups. His son also plays at a club and there's no whatsapp group functioning like the school's. But he said the school is not a club and families travel. Also there are kids like our sons who have conflicts e.g. club games. The school needs to know by Wednesday each week if they have enough players to play on Saturday in order to inform the league. If the school doesn't have enough players then they can be fined by the league.

So, I'm asking if there's an app or a better way to do this? Currently the AD repeats this exercise for every team. When my daughter was in pre-K 4 there was a parent whatsapp group and one of the mothers proposed lunch at a Korean restaurant. There were 425 messages and 11 official date and time confirmations for a parent lunch that never changed. Nobody has time for this; there has to be an alternative that would eliminate this BS. I'd love to hear suggestions so I can propose something to the AD.

[marley]

Here is a novel suggestion - I bet every kid has their own phone - let them figure it out and then what ever happens - happens. I bet the parents are 95% of the problem e.g. - scheduling kids for multiple commitments that overlap.

[holliscx]

Starting point:

Bobby -
Billy -
Mark -
Chester -
Sam -
Nicolai -
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy -
Chris -
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

.

Bobby -
Billy -
Mark -
Chester -
Sam -
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy -
Chris -
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

.

Bobby -
Billy -
Mark -
Chester - No
Sam -
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy -
Chris -
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

.

Bobby -
Billy -
Mark -
Chester - No
Sam -
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy - Yes
Chris -
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

.

Bobby -
Billy -
Mark -
Chester - No
Sam -
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy - Yes
Chris - YES
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

.

Bobby -
Billy - Yes
Mark -
Chester - No
Sam -
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter -
Ezekiel -
Amy - Yes
Chris - YES
Jared -
Trophim -
Ricky -
Trey -

14 replies later we end up with:

Bobby - Yes
Billy - Yes
Mark - YES
Chester - No
Sam - yes
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter - No
Ezekiel - Yes
Amy - Yes
Chris - YES
Jared - YES
Trophim - Yes
Ricky - Yes
Trey - No

.

Even starting with this is an improvement although I want to lose this altogether and move on to something better

Bobby - Yes
Billy - Yes
Mark - Yes
Chester - Yes
Sam - Yes
Nicolai - Yes
Hunter - Yes
Ezekiel - Yes
Amy - Yes
Chris - Yes
Jared - Yes
Trophim - Yes
Ricky - Yes
Trey - Yes

^ at least you're eliminating what should be the majority (yes) from having to reply, only the exceptions who can't make the game need reply

@marley my son just turned 11 no plans to get a phone anytime soon although some but no where near the majority do have phones already

[robin3mj]

That sounds miserable.
I’m coaching kindergarten twins team and it’s a few emails a week. Snack signup is a shared Google Excel file.

This does speak to a problem that got worse over the last year with remote school and all. Teachers expect parents to be checking emails all day long. Live updates on Zoom difficulties, rescheduling kids classes on the fly, immediate requests for school supplies, etc.
Last week I opened my Gmail account to a six email back and forth between my wife and one of the teachers regarding the backup water bottle my daughter did or did not bring to class.

[holliscx]

Last week I opened my Gmail account to a six email back and forth between my wife and one of the teachers regarding the backup water bottle my daughter did or did not bring to class.

Oof.

The athletic director said he would take any of my suggestions to IT and look at having them implemented.

What about a link where everyone updates the status of their child. The AD or coach sends the game info with a link to rsvp which you click and can see (or not) everyone’s status but at least the AD goes one place to see how the team stands. He sends one message. Communication wise that is clean - now where that can exist and for multiple teams I don’t know but that doesn’t sound too hard to pull off from an IT standpoint? But ADs aren't really online but more on field or on court so I don't know if he has a home on the web but again shouldn't be too difficult. I wonder if there isn't poll functionality within whatsapp or something.

What bothers me is my wife just shrugs and would go on doing this for the rest of her life. Why do I care? The AD has told me he hates this and he's the sender, my wife admits it's ridiculous, and I know if I ask every parent individually each will say, yeah, it's unnecessary, but why am I taking the step to put my foot down and say enough is enough. I can't believe we've stooped to this? You shouldn't reach a point where everyone wants to mute a group chat - either have them be effective and necessary or do away with them altogether

[robin3mj]

Check out SportsConnect or LeagueApps. They may be too pricey or complicated but one of them is what the neighboring town (McLean) used for rec and travel soccer when my older one played in that town. I recall it having a simple yes/no attendance feature for games and practices.

[holliscx]

Check out SportsConnect or LeagueApps. They may be too pricey or complicated but one of them is what the neighboring town (McLean) used for rec and travel soccer when my older one played in that town. I recall it having a simple yes/no attendance feature for games and practices.

I just spoke to my brother in Calgary. He said all teams use the TeamSnap app which handles attendance:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/teamsnap/id393048976

My friend in Charlottesville said they have a Google sheet with all the games and players in rows vs column. Parents fill it in every week but that sounds old school compared to the app above.

[defspace]

whatsapp/email message with a Google sheet link. Players as records, dates as fields. Additional teams as workbook tabs.
"Please follow this link to and enter yes/no on your own child by Wednesday."

Breaking the old habit might be the hardest part of implementation.

Edit: I'm old school.

[JoB]

daughter's team uses TeamSnap. works just fine if you have a smartphone or computer.

I just spoke to my brother in Calgary. He said all teams use the TeamSnap app which handles attendance:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/teamsnap/id393048976

My friend in Charlottesville said they have a Google sheet with all the games and players in rows vs column. Parents fill it in every week but that sounds old school compared to the app above.

[dashDustin]

The thought of this stresses me out. Whatsapp, in general, stresses me out. Add in kids and extracurricular activities, and...oof.

[rwsaunders]

I used this free team management website for the 22 seasons that I coached soccer. The site allows you to schedule practices, matches, directions to fields, rosters, contact information, messaging and the all important match highlights…highly recommended.

https://www.leaguelineup.com/sports/soccer/

[swt]

Is there a reason they can't just use a regular google calendar event? Invite all the parents and ask them to say y/n.

[sk_tle]

Is there a reason they can't just use a regular google calendar event? Invite all the parents and ask them to say y/n.

Yes. Spain. Every single whatsapp group I know here work the way Duncan described.

They just love to (dis)organize things the most fucked up way they can't. I think it comes from having way too many people working as functionaries in this country (they have more than France and Germany united) and creating dumb and heavy work and procedures for the sake of employing way too much people at that.