Scheduling is a crucial component of any athletic league. Unfortunately, off the shelf software solutions cannot support the complex and varying needs of most travel leagues. TeamsCompete specializes in scheduling travel leagues and has developed technology to manage many different scheduling styles. Our unique and comprehensive scheduling capabilities create schedules that meet the needs of your league.
SUPPORTED SCHEDULING STYLES
TeamsCompete’s scheduling technology supports a wide spectrum of scheduling types, from Club to Club Scheduling to Team to Team Scheduling. Each of these scheduling types leverage the scheduling features and tools in our Scheduling System.
TEAM TO TEAM
This is the most common method of scheduling. One team (or a group of linked teams) travels to play an opponent. It is team, player, and coach-centric scheduling.
HYBRID TEAM TO TEAM/CLUB TO CLUB SCHEDULES
Club to Club scheduling is difficult in leagues that are highly segmented by age group, skill level, and gender. Our Hybrid Club to Club Schedules address this problem by creating play dates between two clubs based on the divisions the programs have in common. This scheduling approach combines Club to Club tactics with Team to Team Scheduling.
CLUB TO CLUB
Club to Club Scheduling is common in youth football leagues. In this model, all teams in one program travel together to play teams in an opponent program. It is club-centric scheduling.
LINK RELATED TEAMS
In many leagues, there are a subset of teams that share coaches, players, or siblings. Often these teams present scheduling problems for scheduling travel leagues.
Unlike off-the-shelf scheduling software, TeamsCompete enables teams from the same program to be linked together to reduce scheduling conflicts. We refer to this as “Team Blocking”. Our technology works to ensure that teams play together on the same field where possible to reduce team conflicts.
TeamsCompete’s system accommodates two types of blocking: Multi-Age Division and Single Age Division Blocking.
MULTI-AGE DIVISION BLOCKING
Finding qualified and experienced coaches for youth sport teams is difficult. Frequently coaches work with more than one team. The TeamsCompete system arranges the schedule to accommodate these coaches.
Multi-Age Blocking solves this problem by allowing organizations to link related teams together.
SINGLE AGE DIVISION BLOCKING
Many youth sport organizations struggle with player registration. Too often teams are caught in the middle between having too many players and not enough players to form an additional team.
Single Age Division Blocking solves this problem by reducing time conflicts and allowing programs to share players between thinly rostered teams.
DIVISIONAL PLAY
Age-Group based play is the hallmark of youth leagues. Setting the structure to provide competitive games and reasonable travel times has consumed countless hours of board meetings.
Utilizing our sophisticated software, TeamsCompete works with our clients to create the divisional structures that foster the competition they desire. Divisions can be built around any categorization whether age group, gender, geographic region, etc. Further, divisional structures can be unique to each season.
SUBDIVISIONS
TeamsCompete supports the sub-dividing of any type of grouping. Subdivisions can be set up to play only teams in their subdivision or play teams from other subdivisions.
CROSSOVER GAMES
TeamsCompete permits teams in one subdivision to “crossover” and play a team in another subdivision. These “crossover” games might be restricted to subdivisions set one level above or one level below a team’s subdivision level. Our software can apply different criteria to allow teams to cross only under circumstances important to the group – such as distance or competition level.
OBSCURING SUBDIVISIONS
Leagues may not want to make their sub-divisional assignments public. TeamsCompete’s system can obscure this information so a published schedule displays “Boys 12U” and not “Boys 12U Strongest”.
DIVISION ONLY DATES
Leagues may require some divisions to play on Saturday and others on Sunday. TeamsCompete’s system can flag these divisions and assign games to the appropriate date.
CONTROL WHO TEAMS CAN PLAY
TeamsCompete’s Scheduling software contains a robust set of rules that control which teams in your travel league can play each other. Controls can be customized for each division when scheduling travel leagues. Here are some examples of season contraints that are available.
LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TIMES A TEAM CAN PLAY DIFFERENT OPPONENTS FROM THE SAME CLUB
Does your travel league have a member organization that submits a large number of teams into each division? Are other “towns” or “clubs” unhappy when they are scheduled to play them 3, 4 or 5 times? Leagues can limit the number of teams from one club that that any one team must play.
LIMIT THE NUMBER OF
ORGANIZATIONS THAT A TEAM CAN PLAY MULTIPLE TEAMS
This works in conjunction with the criteria above. If leagues limit a team to play no more than two teams from the same organization, you can further limit how many programs (“clubs”) this applies to. For example, your league may set this limit to two clubs- which means that any given team in the division may have a schedule where they play two different teams from two separate clubs.
SET DRIVE TIME LIMITS
For some travel leagues, limiting the driving time for teams is important. Perhaps teams at the extremities of the league geography are too far apart to travel to each other for games. Perhaps the league wants younger teams to travel within a smaller radius than older teams. TeamsCompete can apply separate drive time limits for each division and optimize use of any league or “meet-in-the-middle” fields.
PLAYING TEAMS MORE THAN ONCE
TeamsCompete allows leagues to prevent a team from playing an opponent more than once.
PLAYING TEAMS FROM THE SAME ORGANIZATION
TeamsCompete allows leagues to specify whether a team can play another team from their own organization.
REQUIRE A DIVISION TO USE LEAGUE FIELD SPACE
Some leagues have their own field space for the season. Divisions can be required to use League Field Space for their games.
DO NOT PLAY LISTS
In rare instances, leagues may decide that certain clubs should not play each other. This may be due to competitive imbalances or bad blood. Our system can manage these subtle challenges.
SEASON DATE MANAGEMENT
Travel Leagues often make accommodations to member clubs to encourage league participation. Perhaps specific age groups do not play on certain dates or boys will only play in the afternoon. Some travel leagues allow individual teams to black out certain season dates. All of these accommodations make scheduling more complex. Having flexible and robust rule sets is critical when scheduling travel leagues.
BLACK OUT DATES
League may allow various levels of black-outs. Member clubs can black out home play on specific dates – maybe due to graduation or a parade. Divisions can black out certain dates – maybe for a league-wide tournament. Individual teams can black out play on specific dates.
SUNSET AWARENESS
TeamsCompete Scheduling Engine knows the local league sunset time for each season date and manages the end time of the last game based on each field’s lighting capabilities.
AGE GROUPS SPECIFIC PLAY DATES
Leagues may have game dates where only a specific division plays a game. For example, U15 may play on Thursdays or U8 teams may have an abbreviated season.
PLAYING SURFACE MANAGEMENT
TeamsCompete knows that playing surfaces are a critical element of a season schedule. TeamsCompete organizes playing surfaces into complexes and identifies who “controls” the rights to play on that surface on a particular date and time. Teams Compete will build a customized schedule around all these factors.
ORGANIZATION PLAYING SURFACES
Member organizations have facility rights for home games. Some clubs have multiple sites. Clubs can assign specific teams or divisions to play home games at specific fields.
FIELD SIZE
Leagues can specify the field size that every team plays on. We track whether fields are lined for the appropriate sport, gender and age.
LEAGUE PLAYING SURFACES
Some leagues have their own field space and utilize it in various ways. League fields may be used in playoff games as a neutral site, as meet-in-the-middle fields for teams across great distances or for festival days.
FIELD SURFACE PREFERENCE
Weather plays a big factor in youth sports. Leagues may have access to both grass and turf surfaces and can specify their preference during any given week of the season.