Tips for coaches and parent volunteers

Sports seasons are long and you shouldn't have to do everything by yourself. Recruit some parents and friends to help. Two important volunteer positions are team manager and assistant coach. The team manager can e-mail schedule changes to the team, collect fees and handle other day-to-day tasks. Assistant coaches are especially helpful if you have a big team, and they can cover practice days when you're not able to be there.

To help with putting a practice plan together, use a weekly calendar like the Post-it® Notes Weekly Planner. It includes in three different colors, so you can use one color for practice days, another for game days, and another for team meeting days or special events like tournaments. Four boxes under each day on the planner can be filled with specific instructions for the day, like practice location, warm-up instructions, plays to practice, player positions or name of the onsite coach.

Send reminders home to parents with Post-it® Reminder Tags. Write a quick note like "New practice time tomorrow" or "Bring birth certificate copy for tournament" on the tag, and then loop it around the handles of your players' backpacks, or even around their wrists.

You can label equipment with Post-it® Reminder Tags, too. Soccer headgear, baseball or softball gloves, and other items can easily be tagged so when gear gets thrown together, players remember what items are theirs.

Using a visual tool, like a Post-it® Dry Erase Surface, can be a big help during games and in practices. Draw a basic baseball diamond or soccer field on the surface, and then use Post-it® Flags in different colors to represent players. As you talk about your game strategy with players, this will help them visualize where they need to be during different plays.

Put these simple tips and ideas to work, and then you can focus on doing what you really want to do-teaching kids how to play the game.