How to Use TeamSnap for Cross Country and Track & Field

The top hacks to maximize TeamSnap for cross country and track & field.

If you’re a coach or team manager, you probably spend a ton of time dealing with organizational tasks like tracking athlete availability, scheduling meets and practices, wrangling volunteers and planning carpools.

We created this guide to help you maximize TeamSnap for your cross country and track & field teams. Here, we list several tips to reduce time and help you be a more organized coach, including:

• Athlete availability
• Volunteer assignments
• Team communication
• Attendance tracking

Getting the Most Out of Your Roster

Did you know you can add custom fields in TeamSnap for anything and everything related to cross country and track & field? Team managers can create custom fields to capture roster information that isn’t already part of the TeamSnap system. Custom fields help coaches track important information about each athlete, greatly reducing the time it takes to set up a lineup.

Here are some of the top custom fields for cross country and track & field:

• Athlete Type: Add a field to track sprinters, mid-distance, long-distance, hurdles, steeple, and more.
• Athlete Events: List everything from the 1500m to the high jump.
• Relay Preference: Track who you’d prefer to run lead, mid and anchor.

Learn how to create custom fields.

Who Can Make the Meet?

One of the most important factors leading up to a meet is knowing who can compete. With Availability, athletes can mark their availability for each meet and practice. If they can’t make it, they can add notes as to why not (Ex: I’m on vacation; My ankle is still sore; I’m sick). Instantly, the coach knows who can make the meet, which makes setting the lineup easier.

Say for example you need two four-person teams for Saturday’s 400m relay:

1. Within the Availability tab, scan for who marked themselves as available.
2. Select runners based on runner type (sprinter, mid-distance, distance), order preference (lead, mid, anchor), and any other custom fields you created to segment athletes.

Learn how to use Availability.

Communication

Communication is important, whether you’re a coach, parent or athlete. You might find yourself constantly emailing or texting groups of people to notify them of last-minute changes. One feature of TeamSnap Messaging is group chat, a feature that allows you to create custom groups of athletes to chat with, which is a great way to immediately contact just those athletes who are competing that day.

Use Messaging to:

• Alert the team where the track is with directions.
• Send a direct message to alert a teammate they left their water bottle behind.
• Notify the team when meet results are available.
• Keep the team posted on which event is up next.
• Notify relay teams it’s time to warm up.
• Coordinate carpools.

Volunteers

At some meets, the home team is responsible not only for competing but also for volunteering. That means it’s your responsibility to find volunteers to set up hurdles, stock the water table, and measure the hammer throw. TeamSnap can simplify this process.

Use TeamSnap’s Assignment feature to:

• Organize carpools.
• Assign who’s bringing what.
• Assign who’s setting the hurdles.
• Assign who’s measuring the hammer throw.

For step-by-step instructions on how to set up assignments, visit our Help Center.

Track Attendance

Say goodbye to spreadsheets, pencils, and clipboards. Use the availability feature to gather and track athlete attendance to practices and meets.

Coaches can mark an athlete’s availability for scheduled meets and practices and view historical data in a tap. For those who like holding a clipboard with paper, you can export availability as a CSV. Learn how to track attendance.

With these hacks, you’ll lead your cross country and track & field teams like a hero. Play on!

Have a cross country or track & field team? Log in or sign up to add your team now.

Note: Features vary by plan. Check out TeamSnap plans and available features.

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Lisa Hope is a product marketing manager with TeamSnap and a marketing professor at the University of Florida.