Game Days

Your game days are the reason kids, parents, and coaches participate in youth sports. You put all the work into planning, marketing, registration, player evaluations, team formation, orientation, coaches meetings, and scheduling. Now it is finally time to play some games. There are a lot of moving parts on game days, here are several strategies to help manage your game days.

1. Playing Area Walkthroughs: Safety is your number one priority when it comes to games and should be engrained in your Supervision, Risk Management Plans, and Policies. Before any parents, coaches, or players arrive at the field it is important that any risks are identified and rectified before the games start. When you or your staff arrive always survey the fields or other playing areas for potholes, rocks, debris, wet areas or any objects that could injure someone. Layout your play areas in a way where there are buffers from any objects such as fences, walls, poles, etc. For indoor sports sweep the court continuously throughout the day to make sure it’s free of wet spots and debris.
   
   
2. Set Up and Break Down: Schedule your staff and volunteers with enough time to set up and break down your fields without impacting the timing of the games. Have a plan in place so you are always ready well before teams start to arrive.
   
   
3. Equipment: Along the same lines of your risk management assessments, when the players do arrive make sure they have proper equipment, attire, and footwear. All this should be outlined in your policies and procedures on what they can and cannot wear during a game. Check equipment prior to every game, no exceptions. The last thing you ever want to do is make a child sit out due to improper equipment but if it is for the safety of themselves and the rest of the players you have no choice. Once the game begins make sure equipment is monitored throughout.
   
   
4. Sportsmanship: After safety, your next priority is sportsmanship. The tone and vibe of each and every game should be positivity and fun. All teams and players should respect each other, respect the game, and shake hands after, win or lose. If things start to get over competitive or hostile, put a stop to it immediately before it escalates.
   
   
5. Spectator Area: Always have a designated area for spectators, usually on a sideline or bleacher area. Try not to have spectators in the end zones, behind baskets, behind goals, etc. as it is a distraction to the players and could impede on the game. If you keep them contained to a specific area it will be easier to manage them, enforce rules, and address them if needed or if they get unruly.
   
   
6. Bench Area: Similar to your spectators, have a designated bench area and scorekeeping area. This should be on the opposite side of the field or court from parents and spectators, if possible. The last thing you want during a game are parents coming to the scorekeeper or team bench. It is a distraction and unnecessary. Any issues can be handled at a break or after the game, away from the kids.
   
   
7. Signage: Put signage around your playing area for things like keeping spectators out of certain areas, reinforcing expectations, and code of conduct. Proper signage will help you manage your playing areas when you cannot always have a staff or volunteer there. It will also keep the spectator expectations front and center throughout the course of the day.
   
   
8. Pre Game Meetings: Have a pregame meeting with your referee crews, staff, and any volunteers working that day. You will need to review anything important to look out for and go over anything that came up the week prior. This will help with your consistency from week to week and if you told any parents or coaches you are addressing an issue it will ensure that it actually happens. It is important that everyone involved in your game days are on the same page week in and week out.
   
   
9. Warm Up Space: Generally there may not be much time in between games for teams to warm up. If there is not warm up time built into your schedules, try to find a space where teams can warm up prior to the game so you don’t end up having games constantly run behind because teams are taking up time to warm up. You can also use this as an opportunity to check players in prior to them getting on the field, saving you time to start the game.
   
   
10. Game Timing: Always try to stay on schedule as best as possible. If you are constantly starting games late, it will make your league feel unstructured and unorganized. You can add rules such as time limits and no overtimes to make sure you have more control to stay on track. When something happens to have games run behind do what you can to catch up with things like eliminating warm ups, speeding up games stoppages, etc.
    
    
11. Constantly Evaluate Referees: Whether you have in house referees, an outside referee association, or just volunteers officiating your games it is important that you are constantly evaluating and making improvements with referees. Remove any referees that are not following your guidance or come unprepared, they will cause more harm than good. If you have the ability, have the same referees officiate each week so they know your rules, they know the kids, the coaches get to know them and they know what to expect. Do your best to make your referee crews the best they can be.
    
    
12. Game Resources: Make sure you have all the resources necessary for your staff, referees, and volunteers on site to run the games. Scoresheets, schedules, rosters, rules, communication logs, etc. at every scorer’s table. Keep everything organized in binders so everyone knows where to find things when they need it. Especially if you are not always on site, make it as easy as possible for your crews to run these games, and have the resources available to get things right then something comes up.
    
    
13. Score Tables: Keep your score tables organized with any needed resources mentioned above such as scoresheets, rules, rosters, and equipment for your staff and volunteers. Score tables should be next to team benches in order to be able to monitor coaches and participants as well as track substitutions and playing time. Do not allow parents or any spectators in this area during games as it could cause a distraction.
    
    
14. Supervision: You will not only have to monitor everything that happens on the fields or courts, but look out for things going on around the play area with parents and other spectators. If you see an issue address it immediately so it does not escalate. Monitor your game play, player safety, equipment, hydration, field conditions, weather, and any overzealous coaches and parents. Make sure to act and rectify any situations immediately to prevent further incident.
    
    
15. Protocols and Procedures: Have procedures in place to report anything that came up on each and every field. As a league administrator, you cannot see every minute of every game so you are relying on those involved in the games to report any issues or incidents. Evaluate each game day and look for ways to improve each week as the season goes on.
    
    

Coordinating your game days can be a tall task, but if you put the time and effort needed up front to manage your games they will be safe, structured, organized, and always a success each and every time.