Youth Sports’ Administrative Tips for COVID Uncertainty
As youth sports organizations anticipate starting the 2021 spring/summer seasons, club administrators and directors are facing unseen before questions and confusion stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. All told, this coming season's numerous challenges makes any sort of planning a moving target.
That said, there are a few steps youth sports’ administrators and directors can take to put their organization's members at ease amidst the uncertainty. See below for some of Focus On The Field’s best practices to provide club stability and administrative ease for administrators and directors, no matter the scenario:
Registration Payment Options - The uncertainty of a spring season means parents are increasingly hesitant to make sizable financial commitments to sports organizations. Given that an accurate participant headcount is necessary to plan for the season, we recommend charging a bare minimum fee for registration to cover the incurred administrative costs by the club. If financially viable - instituting a $1, “save your spot” feature to your registration can be a great way to ease the apprehensions of tentative parents. Moreover, this process lends itself to easy facilitation of future payments with participant payment information already saved into your registration software. From here your organization will need to decide and communicate the anticipated date in which participants will be charged the first payment.
Determining Participant Fees/Refund Schedule - Determine your organization's participant fee and payment structure for multiple start dates throughout the anticipated season. For instance, if the season were to be required to start two months late, decide on a prorated fee to reflect the shortened season. Inversely to anticipate any sudden cancellations in the season, determine dates throughout the anticipated season to serve as benchmarks for corresponding participant refund amounts. For example, if the season makes it through a month before being forced to shut down, participants would be refunded a certain percentage of the total fee.
Uniforms - To ease the financial burdens of an abbreviated season consider modifying participants’ uniform requirements for the upcoming season. We recommend alternatives such as allowing the use of previous years’ uniforms or offering the option of cheap pinnies as game uniforms.
Communicate! - Regardless of the information available, it is better to over communicate the status of your organization/club’s season rather than leaving participants to speculate. Even if it's simply reiterating that the current status remains unchanged, the sentiment of keeping participants ‘in the loop’ will help ease concerns of parents and save you from answering numerous inbound emails.
COVID-19 Safety Procedures - One thing you can be certain of is that your organization will be required to establish COVID safety procedures for the upcoming season. We recommend proactively composing a COVID-19 safety plan to reflect current CDC, state, and local county/city requirements. Moreover, consider incorporating additional screening procedures and protocols, such as TeamSnap’s Health Check.
Creative Practice Options - Many clubs are faced with field availability constraints due to altered fall sports, closed fields/facilities, as well as numerous other factors. Begin formulating creative practice options to accommodate field constraints which can include shortened field practice plans, virtual/in-person hybrid training formats, etc.
Given the unique perspective Focus On The Field has working with sports organizations across the nation, we found the above recommendations to be the most simple and easy to implement.