TeamSnap Blog

If you’re one of our early club, league and association customers — or just plain observant — you may have noticed that we’re no longer using “TeamLink” to describe our solution for multi-team organizations.

Where did TeamLink go? In a nutshell, we’ve outgrown the name.

Our earliest product for multi-team organizations offered a simple method of linking teams together for basic management and communication. At the time, we didn’t put a lot of thought into the “TeamLink” name. It was merely a descriptive placeholder.

(Under this naming method, Amazon would have been called BookOrderWebsite and Facebook would have been called TimelineGripe.)

Two years later, TeamSnap now offers an entire suite of features for clubs and leagues, including communication, roster management, scheduling, registration and public web sites. We’re doing much more than just linking teams.

TeamSnap’s team capabilities aren’t bolted on top of a club site framework or back-end league administration software. They aren’t an afterthought, but the base for everything else. Sure, we provide great organizational tools for those who run clubs and leagues, but those tools are directly integrated with our best-of-class team features that delight players, parents, coaches and team managers.

Our new league and club capabilities retain TeamSnap’s trademark usability and clean design, so club and league administrators can enjoy the same kind of user experience that makes TeamSnap so popular with teams.

Whether you’re managing one team, or administering an organization of 1,000 teams, there’s a single name that describes the best solution — TeamSnap.

Now ready for the big time.

Flying home from Spring Training a few weeks ago, our flight was packed with 7- and 8- year-old boys. Had they gone to see their beloved San Francisco Giants or Oakland A’s play up-close and get autographs? No. They were returning from a four-day baseball tournament where they played against other 7- and 8-year-olds from up and down the West Coast and neighboring states.

Bad enough that they had missed two days of school to play baseball against other kids their own age—I have to think there are plenty of other teams at their age-level within a short drive of their Bay Area town—but I couldn’t stop cringing as I listened to the coaches and parents talk about those other second- and third-graders:

“Did you see that first baseman? He SUCKED!”

“Man, that team from Orange County was awful! They should go back to rec ball.”

“Who cares about the math test you missed on Friday? This is what life is about!”

“I didn’t see one kid on that team from San Jose that I thought would make it to the major leagues.”

“I cannot wait to kick butt at the tournament next month!”

Really? They were talking about kids one or two years into playing baseball! In Little League, they haven’t even begun pitching—it’s still coach-pitch at that age. Even my 15-year-old son shook his head in disbelief at the comments that were coming out of these parents’ mouths. Making judgments about a child’s long-term athletic prospects even before he’s hit his first growth spurt? Wow.

As I got off the plane, I started to think about what messages these kids were receiving from this experience:

• Message #1: Baseball is clearly more important than school;
• Message #2: They are much more skilled than the average 7- or 8-year-olds in their area, so they must spend a lot of money and time to travel in order to compete against like-skilled kids;
• Message #3: At 7 or 8 years of age, it’s already apparent who’s got what it takes to make it in the MLB 10 or 12 years hence; and
• Message #4: Harsh criticism of other children, which some people would say borders on bullying, is perfectly acceptable

Do kids of this age really need to be missing several days of school and traveling to multiple states for multiple tournaments every month? I don’t think so. The rise of travel teams and the lure of a college scholarship has turned our nation’s focus away from academics and toward sports, even though a significantly greater number of kids will go to college on academic scholarships rather than athletic ones.

At 7 and 8 years old, the skill level from player to player really doesn’t vary all that much. Sure, every once in a while you have a recognizable star, but he’s one in a thousand. Most of these kids on ‘travel teams’ are just average ability for their age group, but they—and their parents—are being told otherwise. They are in for a huge letdown in a few years—after puberty—when athletic ability will really become apparent. Or not. There is no way that anyone can tell at this tender age which kids will make it in the MLB, and no one is going to convince me otherwise. It takes a lot more than being the biggest kid in third grade, I can tell you that.

And let’s not forget the cost of all this travel. Aren’t we in a recession? Traveling to 8 states in 8 months for 8 different tournaments doesn’t sound like a necessary expense to me. But tournament directors and travel team coaches love to feed off of parental insecurities and our sports-obsessed culture to put cash in their own pocket.

Simply put, I think 7, 8 — even 9, 10 and 11 — is too young to travel these distances for sports. It’s just not developmentally appropriate—and it sends all the wrong messages to these young kids about why they should play sports. Kids at this age should be playing for the FUN of it, not the BUSINESS of it.

I wonder how many of these young players, who today are put on a pedestal by their travel team coaches, will be watching those other kids who “sucked” play on a major league team?

Emily Cohen is a freelance writer living in Berkeley, California. An avid tennis player and swimmer, Emily has a son who plays high school baseball and a daughter who plays Class I soccer and middle school volleyball. She has been a team manager for a number of her children’s sports teams. You can find Emily’s bi-weekly blog about team management and youth sports parenting here at blog.teamsnap.com. Follow her on Twitter at @emilygcohen or email her at emily@emily-writes.com

Webster defines simulation as “the act or process of pretending; feigning.”

For those not familiar with how the term applies to soccer, it can best be characterized as attempting to fool the referee into calling a foul in your team’s favor.  Commonly called flopping or diving, it can occur anywhere on the field, but is usually attempted inside the 18 yard box outside the opponent’s goal because a foul called inside this area is awarded a penalty-kick (essentially a free goal).

There has been a lot of controversy over the last couple weeks in English football as Manchester United star Ashley Young earned a penalty kick two successive weekends and was clearly shown on instant replay to be diving both times.  This has generated a lot of discussion on message boards and blogs across the Internet and lead to him being left out of the line-up last weekend.  It got me to thinking – always dangerous – about whether this should be considered cheating.  If so, should it be punishable by the governing body after the fact, i.e. even if the referee doesn’t spot it during the match, similar to the way the NFL hands out fines or suspensions for vicious hits.

Photograph by Alasdair Middleton (Creative Commons License)

Referees already have the ability to penalize divers by issuing them a yellow card, but unless the player in question is known as a “flopper”, and the referee is keeping a close eye on them, this infringement is rarely called.  I have seen countless penalty-kicks awarded, but only a handful of yellows given for simulation – the technical term for the act.  So, the risk-reward proposition would seem to favor attempting the dive.

Simulation is certainly not unique to the sport of soccer.  How often have you seen a receiver in American football jump up after clearly being tackled/touched down and attempt to gain more yardage?  Haven’t you seen an outfielder lift his glove after a “catch” that was short-hopped, showing the ball and implying he caught it cleanly?  A hockey player grab his face after being cross-checked in the chest?  A basketball player lifting both hands claiming no foul, as the other player scrapes himself off the floor?  “Play Acting” can be found in all sports by athletes trying to gain an advantage over their opponent.

But is all “play acting” created equally?  My son plays club soccer and his coach teaches the boys that every throw-in is theirs.  Meaning, if the ball goes out of play, grab it quickly and throw it in.  Let the referee call the play back if he did not actually grant them possession.  If done confidently, a referee may second guess himself and allow the play to stand.  This is also simulation, certainly to a lesser degree, but it could still lead directly to scoring – possibly unfairly.  His coach refers to this as “Gamesmanship” and regularly provides the team with guidance on how he’d like it executed.

So then, is gamesmanship cheating?  Is flopping just gamesmanship?  Does too much gamesmanship ruin the game?  Is there a grey area between clearly wrong, and by the book, that it’s OK to operate in?

In my opinion there is certainly room for some gamesmanship, i.e. the rushed throw in, the fielded short-hop, the run after being tackled, but feigning violence and inviting severe punishment against an opponent is where I draw the line.  Using simulation to earn penalty-kicks (points), or with the intent to get someone ejected (faking violent injury) – especially in the youth game – is too much and has no place in any sport.  It is teaching our children that winning is more important than having integrity and respecting the spirit of the game being played.  Let’s all take a deep, relaxing breath and enjoy watching our athletes compete for the sake of the competition.  Remind them to play hard, play fair, and enjoy their sports experience.

Let us know what you think — I’d love to hear your views and stories.

I started playing organized sports at the ripe old age of 5. I played tennis, basketball and soccer, so two of the three called for a referee. I continued to play all the way through college, and in the years since, have been a parent watching my kids play, as well as being a coach. I’ve seen the game from every point of view…except from the eyes of a ref. So here I try to elicit some compassion for probably the hardest position of all…the one with the black and white striped shirt and the whistle.

Have you ever heard someone exclaim, “We lost that game because the referee was awful!”? If you have anything to do with organized sports, I bet you’ve heard something close, and maybe have said it yourself. In rare cases, it may be true. But for the most part, when you accumulate the time, innings, plays, etc., over the course of a game, the referee is not the reason why you lost. And when the inevitable bad call is delivered? What can I say…refs are human too.

We don’t make every shot we attempt, or score every goal we try for, how can they be expected to make every call correctly?

I’ll admit, when I was a kid, I was a hot head. I look back and shudder at what a brat I could be, and how unsportsmanlike I handled myself at times. I was very competitive. Seeing red competitive. Now I am of the camp that competition is good, but I also believe in good sportsmanship. I wish I could go back and grab ahold of my younger self (and some teammates) and deliver a message. Since that isn’t possible, I hope maybe I can change a few attitudes here.

First and foremost, I believe the tone has to be set by the coaches and the parents at the beginning of every season. As a parent and/or coach, it is important to set the expectations for the players, as well as for yourselves. For example…”When the referee makes a call that you do not agree with, you do not argue, but get ready for the next play.” Let the players know that if there is a situation, you as the coach will handle it appropriately, and then do so.

Those of you who coach know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to control the parents. They get overenthusiastic because they love their kids, and want them to do well, and hopefully win. I really do get that. I also feel that asking the parents at the beginning of the season to keep the sidelines supportive of the players, and to let the coaches — and the coaches alone — coach, has a positive effect all around. It keeps tension and awkwardness at a minimum, and helps take pressure off of the players. I’ve seen many children of overbearing parents looking over their shoulders the entire game to see how their parents react. They are so worked up that they are too distracted to really play their game. I know it can be more work for the coach, but if you adopt a “zero tolerance” policy on your sidelines, I feel like it benefits everyone.

Many of us are competitive, and in the heat of the battle it’s hard to bite your tongue. I’ve been there. I don’t think it’s realistic to not show emotion. I think any levelheaded adult knows what is OK and what is too far. You’ve heard the expression “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” right? If you think about it, you can probably pull to mind one or two examples of poorly behaved parent/child combinations. And if you can’t, then maybe the culprit is you? Think about that. Kids hear what we say. They see what we do. We have the choice to behave respectably and be role models. Even in our best efforts we inevitably embarrass our children, but when we behave badly we impact their life.

Let’s be honest here. How many times have you or someone else blown up at a referee and really seen something good come of it? l have seen thousands of sporting events, and seldom does tearing into the ref get him or her on your side. There is the occasion where the energy can swing things in your direction, but I believe this can be accomplished in other ways. Namely, hard work.

So what age does this effect? All ages. The earlier you can teach respect, and appropriate responses, the better. Just like eating habits. If a kid grows up having proper information, then they know nothing else and have no bad habits to unlearn. Does this mean that a kid in middle school can’t relearn? No. And here I use myself as an example.

When I was younger I had quite a temper. One day I was having a particularly bad day on the tennis courts, and wasn’t using the best judgment with my language or my racquet. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my parents happened to be playing on a nearby court. They heard me and marched over and took my racquet away and did not let me play for a week. This was torture for a kid like me. But you know what? I learned. And my behavior improved.

So teaching a child the right way from the beginning is always easier. However, we don’t always have the answers in front of us, and as a parent or a coach, sometimes you are just winging it and getting by the best way you can. This is why I feel that if bad behavior is just not tolerated, and that policy is stated at the beginning, then strides can be made in the right direction.

Do refs make the perfect calls all the time? No way! But just as no player is perfect, neither are the refs. There are some great ones, and some terrible ones. At the end of the day we have to believe that they are trying their best.

Deb Zacher is a freelance writer, fitness instructor, triathlete, and soccer Mom to her 2 girls.  Deb also assists her husband with coaching duties.  She is passionate about fitness and health and helping make a difference in people’s lives.  She has played tennis, soccer, basketball, volleyball, and other sports along the way to help with her insight into team sports.  She enjoys finding humor in just about anything, and likes to make others smile, so she will be trying to add comical points of view any time she possibly can!

If you’ve ever written to TeamSnap support with a question or suggestion, you already know that you get back a message from a real person — Traci, Jenn, Roxann, Melanie or Beth from the support desk, or from someone on the development or management team. Everyone who works on TeamSnap support also uses TeamSnap for their own teams — so when you get a note back from Jenn or Melanie or Wade or CEO Dave you’re talking to a soccer mom or hockey dad who’s walked (or skated, cycled, pitched or dribbled) in your shoes.

Today we want to introduce you to Jenn Southan, who was the second addition to our support team, and who recently got a note from a customer asking if she was the “real” Jenn. (She was.)

Like everyone on our support desk, Jenn was an enthusiastic TeamSnap customer before she joined the company. (Also, the support desk isn’t an actual desk, since our support team is distributed all over the United States in order to provide support across multiple time zones.)

Jenn hails from Maryland, where she lives with her husband Glen and two enthusiastic soccer-playing kids. When not helping TeamSnap customers, she spends her weekends driving the roads of suburban Maryland and Virginia and camped out on soccer fields.

In her own words:

I grew up playing all kinds of sports, although my dad would never let me play soccer because we didn’t have girls’ teams and he thought I would get hurt. After years of play and two shoulder surgeries, I now just live vicariously through my kids. And they both play soccer.

Jenn has a degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and worked as a consultant for eight years before taking time off to raise her kids full time while volunteering. She enjoys working at TeamSnap because it lets her combine her technical skills with her love of sports and helping people. When not cheering on her kids’ soccer teams, she’s a huge fan of the Baltimore Ravens and DC United.

We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know “the real” Jenn Southan. We’re thrilled to have her on our team helping customers get the most from TeamSnap.