Using FaceBook to Manage my Team's Parents

"I have been coaching youth soccer for eight years (which exactly coincides with how long my kids have been playing). It's a great experience in a really fun youth league that promotes fun, fair, and positive soccer. There are several challenges that go along with coaching a youth sports team but none are more significant than keeping the team on schedule. A couple of years ago I switched from just calling the team and their parents to using FaceBook and Twitter updates and not surprisingly, it was very effective. Now it's pretty common for the kids and the parents to have FaceBook accounts and there are ever-increasing ways for us to communicate.

The big shift happened as our homeowner association's exclusive agreement with the cable company (which shall remain nameless) expired giving us the opportunity to research Internet service providers in my area in order to select one that would actually work more often than not (I constantly had to reset my old cable modem). As soon as I was able, I setup my home network to use AT&T as well as took advantage of their mobile package to allow me to virtually always be connected. This made it even easier for me to send updates to the team to make sure they always show up on time for practices and games. It's really convenient and I highly recommend this to other coaches that are struggling with reaching parents via their home or mobile phones."