Communication with parents

[bmakj]

DD1s field hockey club uses teamsnap, seems to work OK, if people update availibility. like how I can link it to my calendar in google. also has billing.

DD2s last softball team uses GC, game schedules, availability. for some reason though, used a weekly email, but from the GC app, for weekly practice schedule (but not in the schedule function in GC), but overall, it seemed to work.

schools/classes have used remind the past, was not fond of it really.

 

[dbronstein]

I must be really lucky with my teams. I use email and it works fine. I send texts for anything urgent like rainouts or field changes. I tried using one of the apps a few years ago and it was too much work to get everyone to use it.

 

[Dandan111]

Our coach uses e-mail and app . I asked for his number once. Never got it. Sort of strange. I asked another parent and they said he prefers e-mail. At least we’re not sending letters through the post office I guess!

 

[Shiloh]

Use team snap for our travel rec team. Works well, also message through that as well. Dd's main travel team used team snap for schedules/availability and group me for texting, only a single chat there. If we can't make something or late we mark in team snap but I make sure to text her coach on side to explain/let him know what's going on.

When I coached rec this year I used team snap, so frustrating as I had several parents that just did not get with it and I know they have smart phones. I better stop before I rant too much because they really made me hate coaching this spring because of this.

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During the season kickoff parent meeting, manager of DS’s baseball team went through how to download the communications and scheduling app. Had screen shots and a live demo on how to sign in and use the chat feature. Said he would only be communicating with everyone through that.

It worked. Everyone signed up and used it all season.

 

[KrisHur]

Why talk at all? DD's former team's HC would be very nasty and/or ignore/skirt your questions if you tried to communicate with her, wanted ALL communication to go through the kids whom she could (and did) easily bully. Just write checks, drive them to practice/games and shut up. Seems to work for her - only a quarter of the team quit after the season.

 

[Strike2]

I don't know why one couldn't use email/text. Groupme is fine. Whatever you do, say as little as possible.

 

[_MIA_]

Whatever method you use, just make the message is clear and timely and sent whether you think it needs to be sent or not. DD’s MS team uses a comm. app but the coach is loathe to use it for some reason. He told the kids a few times to just text their parents about something ( game delayed, stopping to eat, etc) Problem is my 11 YO doesn’t have a cellphone yet…She will get one in due time (she is saving her allowance now) but I shouldn’t have to get her one because her coach…(fill in the blank)

 

[_MIA_]

The other thing I love is when coaches just assume you are a helicopter parent and are always going to be 2” away from your kid at a team event and just communicate things to the parents that are there…If you want me there say so..

 

[Westwind]

I went through all this bs as a head coach last year.

I wanted to use GroupMe because the messages are kept forever unlike texts and most players and parents were already using it for their hs teams.

I also wanted to use it because there is an Android in every group. They do not work well with group texts. At all.

So… GroupMe. One parent, a dentist, a pitchers daddy and general pain in the rear, wouldn’t install it. His dd had never been on a school team because….. he is a pain in the rear. I had two older assistant coaches that would have preferred Morse Code but understood that that isn’t as widely used anymore but thought texts would work with their smart phones. Which they would, except…. Android. And they pretty much refused to use GroupMe.

Coaches have enough to worry about without having to herd cats for every update. But there are also enough easy solutions. They do need to use them.

 

[quincy]

There does have to be multiple levels of communications based on the time factor and importace of the information.

Really annoying showing up at a game with 3 players then being told it was canceled hours ago.

OP Team is a little under the age where I want them communicating directly with DD Without DW or me seeing it.