Team Manager Guide

Team Manager Role

Thank you for accepting the role as Team Manager (TM) for Highland Park Soccer Academy.  We welcome you as an important member of our team.  As TM for your team, you will bridge the gap between coaches and parents to help create and maintain positive morale within the team by being a culture keeper.  You will communicate with the coach and parents to maximize the kids’ enjoyment in their HPSA experience.  As TM for HPSA, you will help not only maintain positive morale with your team, but also within the club overall as you work to improve chemistry between all parents, players, and coaches.

HPSA Registrar Role

HPSA employs a Registrar who is responsible for many of the responsibilities of coaches and team managers within a typical soccer club.  Those duties include:

• Collecting dues and forms,
• Submitting league and tournament registrations and paperwork, and
• Meeting league deadlines.

HPSA Team Manager Responsibilities

At HPSA, a TMs’ primary responsibilities include the following:

• Organizing team bonding activities,
• Gauging parent morale,
• Communicating team-specific information to parents.  HPSA communicates club information to parents.
• Facilitating new players at open practices,
• Performing game-day duties, including taking the team roster and referee fees to each game, entering the final score according to the directions outlined on the roster.  You will be paid in full for the season’s ref fees by HPSA before each season begins.
• (K-2nd grade only) Coordinating parent chaperones to attend practices to manage ill or injured children, monitor kids going to/from the bathroom and remain at the field until all children are picked up from practice.

Team Manager Responsibilities

Each team should have at least one team manager.  When an age group has more than one team, a team manager is needed for each division.

Training

HPSA operates under the rules and guidelines set by US Youth Soccer (USYS).  In accordance with USYS, HPSA Team Managers must complete an online background check and SafeSport training through our regional USYS organization, North Texas Soccer Association.  Trainings must be completed annually, and HPSA will contact Team Managers with details and instructions during the month of July each year.

Background Check

SafeSport

Team Bonding

Team Managers are tasked with promoting a positive environment within the team, which begins when teams are established in late July each year.  At the beginning and end of each fall and spring season, Team Managers arrange a team bonding event, which can be as elaborate as planning a swim party at the UP pool or as simple as gathering for ice cream after practice.  The event details are at the discretion of the TM and parents.  Team bonding events are not only important for players to feel comfortable with one another and enjoy playing as a team, but is also vitally important in setting the tone for a great season for the parents as well.

Game-Day Responsibilities

Game-day duties include taking the team roster and referee fees to each game, entering the final score according to the directions outlined on the roster.  You will be paid in full for the season’s ref fees by HPSA before each season begins.

Game-day duties were covered in a team manager meeting, which can be watched here:

What do Team Managers do at a game?
from the online meeting held September 13, 2024

Match Cards for Academy Ages

Coaches and team managers receive the upcoming weekend’s game cards on Mondays to help with proactive game-day planning.

Attendance.  By the end of practice on Mondays, team managers are responsible for contacting parents to mark attendance for the upcoming games so coaches can contact additional players to fill empty positions when necessary.  Once team managers have complete attendance information, they are responsible for sending an attendance update to coaches for this reason.  Coaches and team managers can determine the best way for this information to be communicated.

League Requests – Game Change Requests.  League administrators and schedulers require notification of bye week requests and coach conflicts prior to when they begin scheduling.  After scheduling is complete, leagues provide a small window of time when they accept change requests for games, which is when the schedule is initially released.   Change requests made during an ongoing season result in forfeiture.

 League Requests – New Player Registration.  League administrators have a defined process for registering players, which includes having signed forms, a birth certificate, a headshot, and international clearance documentation for those to who do not have a US birth certificate.   HPSA submits players to leagues to be registered only after it has collected each and every one of these forms and documents as well as the player’s annual dues payment or a payment plan.  It takes 5 business days to register a new player in a league, longer when international clearance is involved.

 League Requests – Roster Modifications.  Leagues have a minimum lead-time requirement for moving already-registered players to another team, which is why HPSA requires coaches to submit these requests by the end of practice on Wednesdays.  For Academy-aged teams, HPSA will only honor these requests when made by coaches, not team managers.  These Academy-aged team requests must be made to Mindy Hefty by team coaches.

League Communication.  Communications from leagues sent to coaches and team managers are informational only to let you know what is happening.  If information you receive leads to questions, contact an HPSA Administrator.  Only HPSA Administrators may contact the league.  Coaches and Team Managers are never, under any circumstance, allowed to communicate with league officials.

HPSA Administrators want HPSA Coaches to be able to focus entirely on training players, rather than reacting to fallout caused when players are not on game cards due to poor communication.  This requires HPSA Coaching and HPSA Administration to be in sync and work as a team.  Negativity will not be tolerated, nor will going around the process to contact leagues yourselves.  These jeopardize the future of HPSA not only because they are contagious internally and externally, but because they make it difficult for league administrators and schedulers to work with our club.  The number of clubs and teams applying to and registering players in leagues grows every year.  Clubs are turned away when they have demonstrated patterns that lead to schedule delays, game forfeitures and hostility.

Parent Communications

Communicating team-specific information to parents is a crucial role of the Team Manager.  Once teams are established, Team Managers should coordinate with the coach to have a parent meeting where coaches discuss what to expect for the upcoming year in terms of practices, game schedules as well as commitment.   During each season, the TMs help the coach communicate the requirement that players attend all practices and games, and make sure families understand the importance of promptly communicating illnesses or requesting an excused absence from practice or game.

Team Managers monitor and communicate team-specific information by using the HPSA app.  More information about the app is located here.

Recruiting

Parents make some of the best recruiters. The number one focus when recruiting is to attract parents and players to the club, not the coach.  When inviting prospects to an open practice, please inform the parent to complete the online registration form, which is available on our homepage.  Coaches decide if a player will be selected to play on the team.