This past season we decided to start a group chat with our players to communicate to them any important information about games, deadlines, practice times etc. through an app called Group Me. Then we started a group chat with just their parents that we could communicate game times, gym locations, team events and status updates on our national rankings! The parents really enjoyed getting these updates from our staff and truly bought into our culture and made sure that every game there was at least one designated parent that would update the group line on play by play of each game. You could literally see the dialogue of our parents go from "How is my baby doing" to "Are WE winning" and really caring about our team sustaining our national ranking throughout the season. This app helped us communicate with three different groups about important information and keep the focus on our TEAM first and off of the individual. Our parents even coordinated who would bring half time sandwiches, fruit and Gatorades to the team. They decorated our entire banquet and even sponsored drinks and cake for the event. This was a great use of technology and any parent or family member that wanted in on the app we just added their number so they could get updates.
The app has a calendar that you can add events to and each person can RSVP. They do not need to download the app in order to receive alerts. If they do download the app, they have the option to like messages and pictures. Its a controlled way to communicate with each other and even offers options to do conference calls. We do one conference call at the beginning of each season to go over the checklist that each player needs to have before move in. Parents are encouraged to listen in so they can get the information first hand. This was a great way to avoid having the same conversation multiple times and also helped iron out any wrinkles in the communication chain!
