Here's a few tips for team managers and coaches, not about baseball but about running your team.

Managing and Communicating with your Team

Most people communicate with team members with email mailouts on a weekly basis that includes when practice is, where the team is playing and when and some managers go the extra yard and put out weekly newsletters and game reports, which are all great.

If you want to go the extra mile, or are into technology, there is a free team management site called Teamer. You basically need all the parents to set up an account and join your team. Once that's done you can communicate with free emails and SMSs to tell them what's going on. They can also respond by SMS to indicate whether they can play or not. It also has a space for team blogs and pictures, so check it out if you are into that sort of thing.

Parental Assistance at the Game

All the coaches are near and dear to the club. They have volunteered a significant amount of time to teach the boys and girls all about baseball and try to help them get better. There is only one of them generally, so they do need some help. The areas where they need help the most are:

• Assistant Coach - Helps the coach with training and warmups at practice and before the game, no babeball experience necessary.
• Team Manager - Coordinates all the emails and communications to and from the club (invaluable).
• Scorers - Most teams will need one but better two scorers. It's not just keeping track of the score but recording stats in a scoring pad. For the technology hounds, there is an iPhone app that can do this as well!
• Umpire - For most higher age group teams (> U7) the home team must supply a plate umpire and a field umpire. Courses are provided but are not mandatory however, it's a good idea to read the rules, which can be found here.