How do you get out of being youth sports manager

[alaskanseminole]

without screwing over the team and/or your child?

After coaching for 14 seasons at the rec level, I ignorantly volunteered to manage my son’s U11 soccer team thinking it'd be SO MUCH easier. Good frack'n grief, what an overwhelming job and now I feel like I'm stuck with it and have ZERO desire of doing it again this year.

I posted the responsibilities in our GroupMe chat, hoping to find a volunteer. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s involved:

Responsibilities:

• Communicate team schedules, practice times, and locations to players and parents, and share other key information as directed by Premier leadership.
• Roster teams in GotSport for games, which includes printing and bringing match cards to games, and submitting them to WDDOA afterwards.
• Maintain player cards and register the team for tournaments.
• Registration for tournaments
• Coordinate travel plans for tournaments, including calculating coach perdiem, collecting fees, etc.

Requirements:

• Strong communication skills
• Availability to manage team-related tasks
• Completion of manager training via GotSport (Safe Sport Course, Heads Up Course, Background Check)

It may not seem like a lot, but it's like a full-time job, constant parent interaction, coordination, communication and spoon feeding (people are LAZY). I always help break down goals, cones, set up the bench, trace camera, etc., which has nothing to do with a manager role, just trying to help as a parent. I get ZERO help, parents just sit and watch while I struggle to set up a canopy by myself. I've been asking since May for a replacement and it's frack'n crickets. Do I just quit and say heck with it?

 

[millah_22]

pay a ref to sell a punch to the face

 

[BubsFinn]

One "accidental" pic sent to the right person and you're out.

 

[alaskanseminole]

pay a ref to sell a punch to the face

 

[thewop]

You have to make it seem easy and like not much work so some poor sap says "ok I'll do it" and they're in too deep before they know it, like you did.

Your post is WAY too honest if you really want out of it.

 

[THE_DEVIL]

Sleep with all the kids moms

 

[millah_22]

Pre game, slip a ref a cool hundy. (Used to be $50 but Bidenflation.) Tell him (or her depending on how much you really want out of it.) to make a few bad calls in the 2nd half. Go out there and argue with the ref, once he red cards you, give him a soft punch to the jaw. They won’t care if it looks soft or fake. Then have the ref act like it was the hardest punch in the world. Really sell it.

Now you’re free.

 

[alaskanseminole]

You have to make it seem easy and like not much work so some poor sap says "ok I'll do it" and they're in too deep before they know it, like you did.

Your post is WAY too honest if you really want out of it.

I agree. That one's on my wife. She said NO ONE is going to step up, so put that post out there as a passive aggressive way to show parents all you do and maybe they'll step up, search for their own answers (because I make everything very accessible) and then start helping at practices and game day. She says I do more than the actual coach (and he's paid).

 

[alaskanseminole]

Sleep with all the kids moms

 

[Tenacious E]

without screwing over the team and/or your child?

After coaching for 14 seasons at the rec level, I ignorantly volunteered to manage my son’s U11 soccer team thinking it'd be SO MUCH easier. Good frack'n grief, what an overwhelming job and now I feel like I'm stuck with it and have ZERO desire of doing it again this year.

I posted the responsibilities in our GroupMe chat, hoping to find a volunteer. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s involved:

Responsibilities:

• Communicate team schedules, practice times, and locations to players and parents, and share other key information as directed by Premier leadership.
• Roster teams in GotSport for games, which includes printing and bringing match cards to games, and submitting them to WDDOA afterwards.
• Maintain player cards and register the team for tournaments.
• Registration for tournaments
• Coordinate travel plans for tournaments, including calculating coach perdiem, collecting fees, etc.

Requirements:

• Strong communication skills
• Availability to manage team-related tasks
• Completion of manager training via GotSport (Safe Sport Course, Heads Up Course, Background Check)

It may not seem like a lot, but it's like a full-time job, constant parent interaction, coordination, communication and spoon feeding (people are LAZY). I always help break down goals, cones, set up the bench, trace camera, etc., which has nothing to do with a manager role, just trying to help as a parent. I get ZERO help, parents just sit and watch while I struggle to set up a canopy by myself. I've been asking since May for a replacement and it's frack'n crickets. Do I just quit and say heck with it?

I guess I would say if you do not want to do it, and your son has other options, take the another option. Or, the same kids might be able to form a team under the umbrella of an organization which has other teams. With that being said, you never get these years back and I wish I could go back and time and be involved with my kids' sports all over again.

 

[QChawks]

Do I just quit and say heck with it?

Yes, although I would throw in a white lie about work being busier or something...

both my boys play club soccer and our U12 is ran like a well oiled machine because one of the mom's is outstanding

on the older U14 team they lost they manager a few years when a kid transferred out and the coach took over, it's been a mess

 

[Whiskeydeltadeltatango]

"Hello Soccer family, it has been my great pleasure to serve the soccer community of ( insert whatever town the snot lickers live in) for the last 14 years and it is with bittersweet joy that I relinquish the reins to whoever will bring our club into the next chapter. I have done everything that I can do for providing the outline of the job discription abd will glaldy help in the transition of responsibilities, it should be noted though that I am unable to stay on in any long term capacity. Someone will need to step up or our team will not have a coordination, it's been an amazing torch to carry an I know the next person will do so greatly.







Thank you,


Alaska





Ps vote Trump, if your dumb enough to vote for a shadow government your kid has zero chance of actually learning the offside trap and it's best if we just have this conversation now.

 

[alaskanseminole]

Yes, although I would throw in a white lie about work being busier or something...

Actually, it's going to be true this fall. My tech-writer just quit, so I'm a team of one now. Fortunately, I have Ask AT&T (proprietary ChatGPT) which is helping tremendously, but I'm about to PM a SCIF build downtown. I can do HBOT, but I can't manage a team AND HBOT. PRIORTIES, MAN!

both my boys play club soccer and our U12 is ran like a well oiled machine because one of the mom's is outstanding.

That's probably part of my issue, I'm "extra" when it comes to this stuff. Hell, when I post the game day event in GroupMe, I include every minute detail, including a photo of the match-day uniform kit (and parents will still ask, "what color jersey?" directly under the event where I post the photo of the jersey.

 

[TennNole17]

Move in the middle of the night.

 

[ButtersHawk]

I think the quickest way is to be physically abusive to the kids. Push em over, run them up hills for no reason, curse at them nonstop. Go full Randy Marsh on them. Banging all the moms or finding a ref to bribe would take too much time.

 

[bhawk24bob]

"I took a promotion that requires me to travel 50% of the time"

 

[Pinehawk]

Yeah, I did the team manager thing for several years, and it does suck.
Chasing down paperwork, going to the tournaments early (sometimes the night before) to turn in all the paperwork, handling everything that comes up. Doing it for free is a mistake.
It should be a position that gets chosen/selected at the beginning of each season, during the parent meeting.
If it looks like you'll have to do it again, see if you can at least get a discount on Club fees, or some other benefit. But, you've got to rotate the responsibility.

 

[alaskanseminole]

Yeah, I did the team manager thing for several years, and it does suck.
Chasing down paperwork, going to the tournaments early (sometimes the night before) to turn in all the paperwork, handling everything that comes up. Doing it for free is a mistake.
It should be a position that gets chosen/selected at the beginning of each season, during the parent meeting.
If it looks like you'll have to do it again, see if you can at least get a discount on Club fees, or some other benefit. But, you've got to rotate the responsibility.

 

[alaskanseminole]

Yeah, I did the team manager thing for several years, and it does suck.
Chasing down paperwork, going to the tournaments early (sometimes the night before) to turn in all the paperwork, handling everything that comes up. Doing it for free is a mistake.
It should be a position that gets chosen/selected at the beginning of each season, during the parent meeting.
If it looks like you'll have to do it again, see if you can at least get a discount on Club fees, or some other benefit. But, you've got to rotate the responsibility.

The problem is, I fear if I quit the job won't get done and the team will suffer. I agree the club should discount the fees for volunteer managers, we do ALL the admin work.

 

[Pinehawk]

Scariest thing was checking in the team, and seeing if they were going to accept all the birth certificates, player waivers, etc.
Or, if I'd have to tell some family they drove to Overland Park for nothing.

 

[Pinehawk]

The problem is, I fear if I quit the job won't get done and the team will suffer. I agree the club should discount the fees for volunteer managers, we do ALL the admin work.

Yeah, and that's why I limped to the finish, exhausted. And, was ready to be done.
Now, you and I can just try to save others from the same fate.

 

[alaskanseminole]

Scariest thing was checking in the team, and seeing if they were going to accept all the birth certificates, player waivers, etc.
Or, if I'd have to tell some family they drove to Overland Park for nothing.

I rostered the team for a match last fall and missed a guest player the coach messaged me about. Got to the field with the match card and a dilemma. Drive home and reprint the roster so the kid can play, thus missing the entire first half for my OWN child, or allow a kid to sit on the bench and not play.

What do you think I did?

 

[Pinehawk]

I rostered the team for a match last fall and missed a guest player the coach messaged me about. Got to the field with the match card and a dilemma. Drive home and reprint the roster so the kid can play, thus missing the entire first half for my OWN child, or allow a kid to sit on the bench and not play.

What do you think I did?

You drove home.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

Fake a non-fatal serious illness. Here’s why…

1) Someone will feel so bad that they will take the job.
2) The team will have a rallying point. Your strength on the sidelines will be an inspiration.
3) The team will probably wear the color of whatever ribbon it is that people wear for your “disease”, raising awareness which leads to…
4) Someone will do a fundraiser for the cause, so your selfish action will actually end up benefiting many people who actually have it.

 

[Hawki97]

One of the worst experiences of my life was coaching / managing youth sports. It's one of the (many) situations and reasons why I despise adults in general.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

without screwing over the team and/or your child?

After coaching for 14 seasons at the rec level, I ignorantly volunteered to manage my son’s U11 soccer team thinking it'd be SO MUCH easier. Good frack'n grief, what an overwhelming job and now I feel like I'm stuck with it and have ZERO desire of doing it again this year.

I posted the responsibilities in our GroupMe chat, hoping to find a volunteer. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s involved:

Responsibilities:

• Communicate team schedules, practice times, and locations to players and parents, and share other key information as directed by Premier leadership.
• Roster teams in GotSport for games, which includes printing and bringing match cards to games, and submitting them to WDDOA afterwards.
• Maintain player cards and register the team for tournaments.
• Registration for tournaments
• Coordinate travel plans for tournaments, including calculating coach perdiem, collecting fees, etc.

Requirements:

• Strong communication skills
• Availability to manage team-related tasks
• Completion of manager training via GotSport (Safe Sport Course, Heads Up Course, Background Check)

It may not seem like a lot, but it's like a full-time job, constant parent interaction, coordination, communication and spoon feeding (people are LAZY). I always help break down goals, cones, set up the bench, trace camera, etc., which has nothing to do with a manager role, just trying to help as a parent. I get ZERO help, parents just sit and watch while I struggle to set up a canopy by myself. I've been asking since May for a replacement and it's frack'n crickets. Do I just quit and say heck with it?

I'm not sure you can. You just volunteered for a job that few people want to do. So you either screw over the team or you suck it up and do it.

I made this mistake early on. My brother signed up for a YMCA league and I had an interest in soccer so I put my name down saying I would be an assistant coach. I made it clear I was 16 years old. They made me head coach. Half of the teams had no coaches initially.

What sucked was I spent a lot of time trying to teach the kids the offside rule only to find out when the games came that the kids they got to be refs (who I went to school with) didn't understand the offside rule.

 

[artradley]

I ran a North Jersey wrestling team, and the entire league (50 towns, 2500 wrestlers) from 2003 to 2013. I created a website and an online system that creates the leagues schedule each year and generates matchups for all 2500 kids each week; pairing them with opponents of similar size, age, and skill level.

Guess who still maintains the site in 2024, even after moving out of state?

Short answer - you are never getting out of it. Enjoy.

 

[artradley]

I rostered the team for a match last fall and missed a guest player the coach messaged me about. Got to the field with the match card and a dilemma. Drive home and reprint the roster so the kid can play, thus missing the entire first half for my OWN child, or allow a kid to sit on the bench and not play.

What do you think I did?

Banged the kids’ mom?

 

[SeaPA]

Show up at the first practice guzzling Jack Daniels straight from the bottle.

 

[alaskanseminole]

One of the worst experiences of my life was coaching / managing youth sports. It's one of the (many) situations and reasons why I despise adults in general.

I loved coaching at the rec level. I hate managing at the club/travel level. I'd rather coach...less work. Show up, train, go home and let the "volunteer" do all the hard stuff.

 

[HawkMachine]

Do I just quit and say heck with it?

You CAN quit but no way you can.

If it's something you signed up for, you're stuck with it for a year unless you find a replacement.

Make it a one and done.

 

[Hawki97]

I loved coaching at the rec level. I hate managing at the club/travel level. I'd rather coach...less work. Show up, train, go home and let the "volunteer" do all the hard stuff.

You need that psycho stay at home mom to do all the administrative minutiae. Problem is - that brings with it a whole 'nother set of issues.

 

[alaskanseminole]

You need that psycho stay at home mom to do all the administrative minutiae. Problem is - that brings with it a whole 'nother set of issues.

We have a b#$@! of a mom on the team who wants to complain about EVERYTHING and give her "opinion" constantly, but was literally the first to say "not it" at the pre-season parent meeting. Very few people exist I want to strangle, yet she keeps sifting towards the top. And you're welcome for the no pics.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Learning to say “no” and stick to it is an underrated skill.

If it’s keeping your boy on the team then that’s a tough decision, but if he’s on the team regardless I would say, I have served my time and we need someone else to step up next season. Ultimately it’s on the coach to find someone so give plenty of notice (one season) and stick to it.

 

[BioHawk]

without screwing over the team and/or your child?

After coaching for 14 seasons at the rec level, I ignorantly volunteered to manage my son’s U11 soccer team thinking it'd be SO MUCH easier. Good frack'n grief, what an overwhelming job and now I feel like I'm stuck with it and have ZERO desire of doing it again this year.

I posted the responsibilities in our GroupMe chat, hoping to find a volunteer. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s involved:

Responsibilities:

• Communicate team schedules, practice times, and locations to players and parents, and share other key information as directed by Premier leadership.
• Roster teams in GotSport for games, which includes printing and bringing match cards to games, and submitting them to WDDOA afterwards.
• Maintain player cards and register the team for tournaments.
• Registration for tournaments
• Coordinate travel plans for tournaments, including calculating coach perdiem, collecting fees, etc.

Requirements:

• Strong communication skills
• Availability to manage team-related tasks
• Completion of manager training via GotSport (Safe Sport Course, Heads Up Course, Background Check)

It may not seem like a lot, but it's like a full-time job, constant parent interaction, coordination, communication and spoon feeding (people are LAZY). I always help break down goals, cones, set up the bench, trace camera, etc., which has nothing to do with a manager role, just trying to help as a parent. I get ZERO help, parents just sit and watch while I struggle to set up a canopy by myself. I've been asking since May for a replacement and it's frack'n crickets. Do I just quit and say heck with it?

The way you get out of it is when they call up to ask you to coach you say, "No". That said, is this coaching position paid? Because that looks a lot like a coaching position that should be paid. If it's a paid position, suck it up and do the best you can and remember to say "no" next season. If it is not paid, you just need to do the minimum while not doing enough to screw over a bunch of kids who just want to play soccer. If the league wants good coaches, well, you get what you pay for.

 

[Hawki97]

We have a b#$@! of a mom on the team who wants to complain about EVERYTHING and give her "opinion" constantly, but was literally the first to say "not it" at the pre-season parent meeting. Very few people exist I want to strangle, yet she keeps sifting towards the top. And you're welcome for the no pics.

I know this type. Very well. I phucking hate them. Like, real hate.

 

[kn288]

Let everyone know you are going to step down after the fall season. Also let them know you would be more than willing to help train the new manager if anyone is interested. Guide the new manager on what works and what doesn't. If nobody steps up, you can still walk away guilt free. You gave plenty of notice.

 

[luvmyhawks]

I agree. That one's on my wife. She said NO ONE is going to step up, so put that post out there as a passive aggressive way to show parents all you do and maybe they'll step up, search for their own answers (because I make everything very accessible) and then start helping at practices and game day. She says I do more than the actual coach (and he's paid).

And your wife would be correct. My oldest has been on a couple different high level clubs. Parents never did any of this. Find a new, not lazy cheap ass club.

 

[BioHawk]

We have a b#$@! of a mom on the team who wants to complain about EVERYTHING and give her "opinion" constantly, but was literally the first to say "not it" at the pre-season parent meeting. Very few people exist I want to strangle, yet she keeps sifting towards the top. And you're welcome for the no pics.

Ugh, the way I deal with these people is to understand that they need me far more than I need them. I've told them that I'm making the decisions and their input is not needed. If they want to do things differently they are welcome to coach. It helps that I'm on very good terms with the board and since I run an organized practice and kids learn with me coaching the board really likes me coaching so they tell those people to GFT as well. Honestly, it was only an issue once. I think it's because most parents actually really appreciate people stepping up to coach, particularly since it is not a paid position (heck, I pay money for my kids to play) so that does take a lot of the anger out of them before it starts.

 

[OILCHECKER]

Why not change from having a mgr. to having a board or team. That way responsibilties get split up so no single person is overwhelmed. It also helps when someone is ready to move on, you are only replacing one part of the leadership vs. essentially starting over when you have a one man team and he decides to call it quits