Client Case Study: How the Central Marin Lacrosse Club uses Focus on the Field to get more kids out playing

By Connor Buestad

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Nick Bailey has had the pleasure of seeing the game he loves grow steadily over the years. He remembers being a teenager when lacrosse wasn’t offered at many high schools and club teams were rare in many areas around him, causing players and families to face long commutes and high fees to play the game that sparked their interest. 

“To be honest, it wasn’t always easy to find enough local lacrosse games to play in when I was growing up in the East Bay,” explains Bailey, now the president of Central Marin Lacrosse. “Now that I have my own kids that are into lacrosse, it’s a big goal of mine to be a part of promoting the growth of the sport. I want to see as many kids as possible out on the field, enjoying the sport like I did as a kid. It’s important to me.”

Central Marin Lacrosse operates out of San Rafael and is in its 13th year of existence. Bailey has been involved with the club for eight years, and for the past four years, he has served as the club president. He runs a club that serves roughly 175 families and has girls and boys teams ranging from Under-8’s to Under-14’s. All this, while maintaining a successful career in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, coaching on the field and being a parent to his children who also play for the club. 

“It’s a lot,” says Bailey with a smile. “I love it of course, but it’s been a big time commitment and sometimes it becomes difficult to get to everything when managing all the different teams. The uniforms, the emails, the money side of things, it just adds up quickly.”

In recent years, Bailey slowly came to realize that Central Marin might need some help with managing the growing administrative duties on their plate. The five people in total helping to manage the club, all parents and coaches in their own right, were starting to get stretched a bit too thin. That’s where Focus on the Field came in.

“I remember talking to Tyler (Kreitz) and just explaining what our issues were with the club. He knew exactly where I was coming from and quickly became a thought partner and a problem solver. Basically, if we wanted to keep growing in size, we needed some extra administrative help, and Tyler had great ideas on how he could help us,” said Bailey. 

When you have a club growing in size every year and a group of committed, yet busy parents, there eventually becomes a ceiling on how many teams you can have and still run smoothly. For Central Marin Lacrosse, adding a new team with 15 players really excited Bailey, but at the same time he feared how much time it would take to get those players registered, get their uniforms ordered, properly communicate with the families on a weekly basis, etcetera. 

Fortunately, Kreitz and his team at Focus on the Field confidently stepped in and quickly relieved some of the burden of Central Marin’s growing pains. Suddenly, Bailey had an extra set of hands at his disposal, when he needed it most. He also had an experienced thought partner who he could call or text during the week if any problems were on the horizon. 

“That’s probably what I’ve enjoyed most about working with Focus on the Field,” says Bailey. “I can lean on their experience they have in working with sports teams. They might remind me of when is the best time to order this, or bring up a good time to notify families on that. It’s easy to work together on tasks with them.”

When Bailey got involved with the club lacrosse scene in the Bay Area as a father, his goal was simple: get out on the field with kids and teach them the game of lacrosse. Spending a summer evening out on the lacrosse field with a fun/energetic group of kids was a perfect end to a long day of work in the office. No work emails, no texts, no errands to run. Just the game of lacrosse. Of course, reality would hit later that night, when Bailey was back on his computer, looking at a spreadsheet and sending out overdue emails about an upcoming game or practice. That reality is what made coaching lacrosse seem less like a passion and more like a second job. 

“Overall, it’s really simple,” says Bailey. “The kids and families we have at Central Marin Lacrosse are the best, but sometimes the admin side of things add up. Focus on the Field stepped up and has alleviated a lot of that. I’m spending more time coaching now and my kids are spending more time playing. That’s what matters most.”