3 Team Management Halloween Horror Stories

For coaches, nothing’s more frightening than miscommunication. Both on the field of play and off, everyone needs to know where to be, what to bring and when to be there.

So, in honor of Halloween, we thought we’d share some horrifying tales of miscommunication. Read on, if you dare.

The Curse of the Confused Volunteers

It begins like any other day. Your team has a game in a few hours, so you wake up early to make sure you have everything you need. Clipboard? Check. Whistle? Check. You even thought to ask parents to bring snacks for today’s game ahead of time. With a smile on your face, you head out the door.

But when the game begins, you notice that your players are sluggish. In fact, they look almost like zombies out there. During halftime, you ask them what’s wrong. And that’s when they tell you the terrible truth.

They’re tired because they don’t have any snacks. Your team parents forgot to bring them! (Gasp!)

This horrifying story could’ve been avoided entirely, if only someone were using TeamSnap Assignments. With Assignments, you can create volunteer tasks for everyone on your team (such as “Don’t forget the snacks!”), then assign them to specific parents, players or volunteers. Plus, you can send a reminder email before the game, just to make sure you don’t have any zombies out there.

The Game That Never Happened

It’s a dark and stormy night. Good thing your soccer team is playing a tournament at an indoor facility. You arrive hoping to see some of your players, yet there are none to be found. I’m early, you think to yourself. They’ll be here soon.

But an hour later, only three members of your team have arrived. With so few players, you have no choice but to forfeit the entire tournament. Dun dun dun!

If only your team had set their Availability with TeamSnap. All they had to do was reply “Yes,” “No” or “Maybe” to a simple email. You would’ve received a complete list of who was (and, more importantly, wasn’t) coming to the game.

The Tale of the Endless Text Message

It begins as a harmless joke. A parent shares a goofy cat meme via a team group text message.

But then more people join the conversation. They post cat memes of their own. Then they comment on them and post more memes and comment more, all within the same group text message. Soon you have a hundred unread texts, with more coming in every second. Cue the screeching violins!

TeamSnap’s communication features can help. When you send an alert to your team (which you can do from our free mobile app, by the way), everyone receives an instant push notification. And if you feel you’re receiving too many notifications from your team, you can easily limit them in your settings.

From everyone here at TeamSnap, here’s wishing you a safe and happy Halloween! If you want to avoid experiencing these horror stories firsthand, start your free 21-day trial of TeamSnap today!

Kyle Massa is the content manager at TeamSnap. Outside of work, you can find him writing, reading and playing guitar for his cats.