A Parent’s Checklist for Preseason

Summer is coming to an end, which can only mean one thing: school and sports are picking back up again. Whether this is an exciting time of year for you and your family or a stressful one, the reality is the first day back is quickly approaching. 

In order to help out the household decision makers, aka the parents, here’s a checklist designed by TeamSnap to help you be as prepared as possible for preseason. 

Double-check the start date

Depending on where you live and what teams and sports your child participates in, the start date can be different. Double-check your calendar to be 100% certain when pre-season begins. Once you have the date circled, update all of your calendars (cough cough your TeamSnap one too!)

Back-to-sport gear haul

Similar to back-to-school, preseason means a whole new season of gear, equipment, and more. If your child has moved up a couple sizes, make sure you have all of the proper fitting gear and equipment ready to go come preseason. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, see if there are any in-team gear exchanges or local gear-swapping centers in your location. 

Preseason transportation

Preseason may fall early in the morning, right in the middle of the day, or in the evening. Whenever your child’s preseason is, be sure to solidify plans for transportation. You will want to schedule this ahead of time and can even communicate within the TeamSnap app to assign various parents to carpool duty and more. 

Do a practice day 

We like to call this a preseason dress rehearsal. If your child is joining a new team, therefore also attending their first preseason with this team, do everyone a favor and run through a practice day. Try to wake up like it’s preseason, follow the route to the field, and pick up your child from the location. This allows everyone to feel good and know what the travel time is like, what the facilities are like, and how hard waking up early is!

If you haven’t heard from the coach…reach out!

Most coaches check-in with their teams ahead of preseason. If for some odd reason you haven’t heard from your child’s coach, send a message! You can email, send a quick note in the TeamSnap messaging center or call the coach up. It’s important you feel confident in your ability to communicate with the coach, so break the ice earlier rather than later. 

Talk to your child about the season 

Before the chaos of the season takes over, check in with your child ahead of time. Ask questions like “are you looking forward to preseason?” “What do you want to accomplish this season?” “What are you most excited about this season?” It’s a good idea to get the pulse of how your child is feeling about preseason and the season ahead. Once you get a gauge, talk it through and map out a plan that will make both you and your child successful and happy this season.

Double-check your contact lists

You can find team member, parents, parent manager, coach and admin staff contact information within the TeamSnap app. If for some reason one of your contacts isn’t updated or missing, find a way to get that information up to speed before preseason. This will not only help the season run smoother, but give you peace of mind knowing who’s who and who to contact if the orange slices duty isn’t filled one weekend!

We hope that these points and reminders can help you have a wonderful preseason. When it’s the first day of preseason be sure to reach out if this checklist helped you! 

Still want to learn more about TeamSnap and how it can help you organize your teams and perhaps multiple children’s’ schedules? Check this demo out today.