The BRYA Director Job Is Sometimes Administrative and Sometimes Very Hands On

Sport Director Description

FOCUS The Sport Director (SD) job is to launch the season for a particular sport and provide guidance to coaches. The Director’s goals are to foster fun, healthy exercise, useful competition, and build a program second to none in the area.

TIME COMMITTMENT The largest time commitment occurs during the administrative window--a week before registration opens until a week after practices start. After teams form the work diminishes. At the end of the season the SD has another spike of activity wrapping up the season and collecting equipment.

The amount of time committed varies by sport, number of kids involved, and how energetic the SD is that particular season.

PREREQUISITES Recommended experience:  Coach or assist in many sports to gain an understanding of BRYA operations.  Coach at least one year within the sport you direct.  Make a two year commitment to the assignment.  Be willing to find your replacement at the end of your tenure.

LEADERSHIP This is a social leadership job. Parents, kids, and coaches will look to you for guidance. The board will work with you to help you achieve your goals and offer great experiences to our members and children.

 Champion your sport. Be the leading advocate for your sport.  Lead by example-- balance fun and competitiveness. Make it “All About the Kids.”  Improve your sport. Keep the best and look for improvements.  Be the primary contact for the sport prior, during, and after the season.  Look for issues between the County, other Associations, schedule conflicts, etc. Rectify problems before they affect the BRYA.  Keep and eye out for interested members and invite them to get more involved.  Remain sensitive and open to surprises. Every year at least one event rocks the boat. Approach it with care and tact… or whack it with a sledge hammer, whichever applies.  Recognize the BRYA has been around a long time. We’ve a marvelous community. Your tenure is short in comparison, not the beginning and hopefully not the end!  Sport Director Description

ACTIONS  Participate in board meetings.  Perform pre-season planning. The more the better.  Understand the costs. Propose a budget for expensive items if asked. Make purchase recommendations to the board. With the board's approval make purchases not covered by the County.  Help at registration—especially during your season.  Get familiar with the on-line registration system. Use the system to organize teams, collect and distribute information.  Coordinate your sport's draft. Most sports conducts drafts that follow county guidelines about picking order, etc. Some younger divisions just get assigned.  Line up coaches before and during registration to alleviate last minute anxiety.  Befriend coaches, mentor when you can, help them improve. Consider your coaches' needs. See that they get certified. Look for ways to improve their confidence, skills, and abilities. Get them equipment in a timely manner.  Collect equipment at the end of the season.  Gather feedback from coaches and parents. Summarize the feedback into statements that direct the board. Consider using a 3 Up/3 Down approach: Identify things we did well and things we need to improve. Suggest to the board ways to lock in the good and improve the shortcomings.  Find your replacement before you retire from your role. Sport Director Description

DRAFT & TEAM ASSIGNMENTS The County’s standing policy is all divisions will have a visible and transparent draft.

This policy is for the Association’s sake as much as the kids. Holding drafts quells cries of “favoritism” and “stacking teams.” When members feel teams are not selected fairly it can cause disunity. Remembr, members are likely to form their opinions of what is fair from what they hear or see without many facts. Holding transparent drafts where coaches see draft candidates before selecting teams it a great way to maintain unity.

However, there are two exceptions to the draft requirement rule.

The first is the youngest divisions (Instructional Divisions). These divisions can be drafted or assigned. The draft may be waived in the youngest divisions because parents’ and kids’ friend requests are a big factor in team formations. Also, children in the youngest ages may not display enough talent in a draft for coaches to distinguish their preferred picks. Often coaches are less experienced and don’t know what to look for at this age. For the youngest divisions, SDs are free to either draft or assign teams based on friend/coach requests and honoring returning players the right to go back to the team they were on last year.

The second exception is when the Association has only enough kids to form one team in a given Division.

Drafts

The Director makes a list of all the children in the division to present to coaches.

Children returning from last year are given the option to return to the same team or go into the draft. Returning players are identified as such on the draft roster and pulled from the draft pool.

Coaches and their assistants are allowed to place their children on a team prior to a draft.

Coaches should be made aware of those parents who offer to sponsor teams. As children are drafted, coaches can purposely distribute children with sponsors to different teams.

Coaches can consider all information—siblings, friend requests, coach requests, school attended, and special notes like “Put me on a team that practices on Tuesdays.” But in the end coaches pick players and weigh factors differently.

Drafts are conducted per the County’s guidelines. Detailed rules stipulate how drafts occur.

After the draft the Director forms the teams on or website.

Drafts must be completed in a timely fashion so the Jersey order can be submitted. Sport Director Description

WORKING WITH THE BOARD & COUNTY  The Director is appointed by the BRYA board and serves at the pleasure of the board. The Board considers the SD the lead person within the sport.  The board oversees the BRYA's activities and does not micro manage. Typically the board uses an Active Sport Committee approach to manage a given season. This means the Sport Directors and others involved in the season make decisions. Board members who are idle during a season may play little or no role during their “down time.”  The board expects SDs to inform it of financial and planning issues. The board relies on SDs to keep it informed of all items it needs to help you run the sport. This includes budget, coaching issues, disciplinary problems, communications to the county, etc.  The Association Supervisor is the board’s primary liaison with the County. Although the SD seldom communicates directly with the County, you may need to at times. Include the President and Association Supervisor if you have direct communication with the County.  We hope and expect members and coaches to communicate through the SD. However the County maintains an open door policy for all residents. Don’t get flustered if parents appear to work “around” you and talk to the board, County, etc. When this occurs it usually stems from members not knowing how things work, or how best to resolve concerns. Sport Director Description

TASKS ON THE WEB The BRYA’s registration and season management tools are web-based. Registrations, facility schedules, and member contacts are retained on-line. We currently use League Athletics as our season management software provider.

Passwords The website is password protected.

Members without a special password can register and do a all things a typical parent would want. Once a child is assigned to a team, that member can access other for that team.

Coaches can be issued passwords that give them authority over a limited number of features.

Sport Directors, Administrators, and the Treasurer have higher levels of authority. There are some distinctions between what these positions can do. As the board gains experience with the software, features for SDs may be added or restricted.

Tasks listed below are indicated as Administrator, Sport Director (SD), Treasurer to help the SD understand how board members work together. Any board member could perform the tasks listed. Over the course of a season, we hope members help each other accomplish the job. Tasks are described n their chronological order.

Setting Up a New Season

Administrator Make news articles for the Home Page and update the markque.. Update the countdown timer if a significant event is pending. Set up or modify season tab content, sport content, and rearrange Home Page items. Remember—change locations and photos to retain member interest.

Determine block-out dates and add them to the calendar. Assign typical field times or edit facilities as needed.

Develop Registration Programs and modify the birth dates, contact e-mails, and pricing as needed. Modify the desired early, late and close dates, and identify the number of players accepted before closing or wait listing a given division.

Develop Seasons, Divisions, and at least one Team per division. Add addition teams to match what we formed last year.

Launch the registration on the desired dates.

Treasurer The treasurer tracks incoming registrations. Credit card payments are automatically transferred to our bank account.

Sport Directors Sport Director Description

Make various news articles, post photos or other items for the main page in preparation of the season and to increase interest. Create Season content on the Season’s Page; sport specific content on Sport Pages. Add content relevant to members when the first sign up. Anticipate what newly registered parents need to know and put that on the Sport Page. Inform members of dates and set their expectations rather than have them call or e-mail you basic questions.

Reach out to prior year coaches and determine who is returning. Plant the seed early so they volunteer at registration and solicit new coaches. Encourage members to sponsor teams too.

Creating Teams The administrator or sport director creates as many teams as they need. Assign each team to a season, sport, and division.

Assign simple names at this point is helpful. Colorful names and coach’s names can be added later.

Go to Teams—Divisions and Teams to view all teams. Use the pull down box to select the season you want. Click on any Sport or Division name to drill into its set-up. Seasons and Divisions are highlighted gray.

Teams are highlighted white. To the right of the team names are columns showing basic information like if the team is visible to the public, live for scheduling and e-mail & text exchange, etc. Player count and coach counts are also shown. The red X deletes the team. Sport Director Description

Rolling with Registrations

As registrations arrive, periodically review with these things in mind:  How many kids do I have and how many teams will we probably form? If divisions are weak you can send messages to members to encourage more registrations.  Players that request to Play-Up need your attention. The registration system pigeon holes kids by their age. The County allows kids to “Play Up” in many divisions if they are in the upper half of the division’s age. For example, in 9-10 basketball, a player with league age of 9 cannot play up. But a player with league age 10 can either play in 9-10 or request to play- up into 11-12. The website limits parents options. You have to evaluate Play-Up requests.  Scan regularly for coaches and assistants. Get an idea who volunteered and how you’ll form teams. Each team needs a head coach. We usually have to work hard getting parents to volunteer to coach.

To review who wants to play-up and who vounteers, you’ll want to download data.

Playing Up Downloading data is currently the easiest way to see all registration fields. You need to see specific fields to know who requested to play-up and who volunteered. Go to Members—Lookup Members. Sport Director Description

Select REPORT TYPE and select Download Data. Select TYPE Player to limit the list just to kids.

Scroll down. In the Registered in Program box select the Division you want to look at. You can highlight many divisions. But note; any data you download doesn’t carry division or team info at this time. To keep the divisions straight, it is best to select one at a time.

On the right are options. You can use these to filter information. But at this point the kids aren’t on teams, no coaches have been selected, so picking any of these fields can zero out your results. On the far right is a pull down allowing different seasons and teams to be chosen. To minimize confusion, you can select this year’s season or you may get multiple fields from prior team assignments.

Click Find Them Sport Director Description

The next screen allows you to filter the data. We have a number of pre-defined downloads. Select Sport Director. Then click Save and Download.

The system generates a Comma Separated Variable file, or CSV file that most spreadsheets will open automatically. In your spreadsheet, change the type of file and save to your hard drive with an appropriate name.

Now you can begin looking for the information. Find the column Playing_Up. Sort the column. If it is checked, that parent requested to play up. Look at the birthday. If the child is in fact in the older half of their age group, you can grant the request. For now, highlight any record that requests to

transfer up.

It is important to take time about one a week each week of registrations to scan for kids that request to play up. When you move kids you create room in the younger division and you take away spots in the older division. If you wait too late to move kids, you may find we’ve passed team formation deadlines or other divisions are full.

Now find the Volunteer column. Scan down the list, or if the list is large, sort. This shows you who volunteered to coach or assist. Highlight any volunteer.

You can see if anyone volunteered to sponsor the team too. This comes in handy later when teams are formed. Sport Director Description

Transferring Kids to Play Up Back to the website.

There are often many ways to look at, or edit data. You can drill into a players registration from many starting places. Perhaps the easiest is to go to Members—Registration System.

A window shows registration programs.

Scroll down to find the one you’re working with and click LIST.

A list of kids in this Registration Program appears.

You can now mark each player in this Division that you want to move up.

Check the little box to the left of players you want to transfer.

Choose Transfer Checked in the pull down box. Another drop down box appears. Pick the division you want to transfer them into and click GO. Sport Director Description

Assigning Coaches’ Kids (& Returning Players) We have a guideline for selecting coaches. Look that over to understand when we assign a “returning coach” versus giving a team to a new coach.

It is a good idea to contact all those coaches that selected “Coach” or “Assist” before assuming they will follow through. As you talk to them you may find they have preferred practice nights, or they want a specific assistant coach.

Now you can assign coaches to teams. One way to assign teams is to drill through the Teams— Assign Roster. That works fine. A quicker way is to go to Members-- Registration System. Click Assign. A list of all kids in the division appears on the screen. Use the drop down list to select the season.

Open the Division you want to assign these registrations to.

Select the Season you want from the pull down so you put the kids on this year’s teams.

A list of available teams appears.

Drag and drop the coaches’ kids to the respective teams.

You can change the name of the team or other attributes by clicking on the team.

Once you have coaches and their assistants assigned, you can pre-assign returning kids to their respective teams. Sport Director Description

Disbanding Teams Some divisions will not get enough registrations, or possibily enough coaches, to form. It is important to keep parents informed if it looks like you have a problem with a given division. If you don’t have enough players or coaches, communicate with parents so they can help you solicit others, or consider they alternative options.

We have a Decision Tree guide you can refer to. That helps you get an idea how to juggle the factors and choose to keep a division open or close and disband those players. The Decision Tree helps us avoid stranding kids with no options. We disband teams to funnel kids to our other teams to help them form, and to inform parents they should transfer to another Association if we don’t offer a sport they like.

When you decide to disband a Division, send a note to parents and ask them to compete the Drop and Transfer Form. This gains us the information we need to either create a refund or transfer the child.

Go to Members—Registration System. Follow the same approach you used to move a player up. Select the division and LIST. Check the small box left of all names that need to be refunded or transferred. Then use the drop down box and select Transfer Checked. Select the appropriate season’s Refunds and Trasnfer’s Division (2011 Spring Refunds and Transfers for example.) Then hit go.

As parents respond to you or through the form, you’ll know what they want to do. Now go back to the earlier screen showing all Registration Programs. Highlight the appropriate Refunds and Transfers and LIST.

Drill into Tools—Online Forms. Select Refund and Transfer Form and LIST.

This shows all the children that requested a refund or a transfer. If you are going to make a transfer, you can add a note to the table. Keep the table as a historic reference for other administrators— don’t delete rows after you’ve done your work. This form is a convenient log of special requests. Sport Director Description

Return to the Refunds and Transfers Division and transfer the kids per their requests.

If a parent requested a REFUND check the WAIT LIST box and leave the registration right were it is. The Treasurer will periodically look at the Refund and Transfers Form to see who made special requests. She will go to the Registration Refunds and Transfers Program and look for items marked WAIT LIST to begin the refund process.

For each registration you change—either transfer or refund, click the little edit icon to the left of the name. Go to the Administrators notes near the bottom of the form and enter the actions taken. Hit submit and the record is updated. Sport Director Description

Assigning Teams

At some point in the process you have enough information to assign teams. This usually occurs after the Early Bird Fees period but usually before registration closes. If the division requires a draft, that information drives team selections. In many cases you’ll form Disvisions of one team, so you won’t need to draft.

Go to Members—Registration System.

Highlight a division and click Assign.

Follow the steps laid out about assigning coaches’ kids.

Drag and drop kids to teams.

Rename teams by clicking on the team if you like. Sport Director Description