HomeTeamsONLINE Press Release

Managing a team, sports league or a large athletic program can be a daunting job. More and more coaches, athletic directors and league administrators are looking to online sports software for the extra hands they need to keep the season organized and running efficiently. Finding a service for your sports organization can be tricky since everyone offers similar sounding features - you need to dig into the details to be sure you are getting the right online sports tools for all of your organization's needs.

HomeTeamsONLINE.com prides itself on responding to customer feedback by adding the features and tools that sports managers are asking for. For example, almost every service will provide an online schedule, however, details such as managing scorekeeping input deadlines, automatically identifying and resolving scoring conflicts are features that can really help keep your league running smoothly. Here's an overview of some remarkable team and league management tools provided with HomeTeamsONLINE sports websites, organized by pre-season, regular season, and post-season.

 

PRE-SEASON

Online Registration
Beginning in the pre-season, the Registration feature can be used many different ways to get the season organized and rolling. Because the forms can be fully customized, organizations have the freedom to design their Registration forms for a number of functions other than just the “typical” registration functions.  This feature has been used for  uniform signups, Medical Forms, Event and Newsletter signups, selling program ads – even as an online store for fans to order and purchase products. 

When used for normal Registration, these forms can gather individual Registrant information such as name, contact info, etc which can then be pulled over to a Player Profile with the click of a button or be automatically added – it all depends on your preference settings.  HomeTeamsONLINE’s user-friendly system also organizes and stores Registrant’s info into a Registrant Contact List which can be used to send bulk emails through the Email program that’s included free with all HomeTeamsONLINE memberships.

 

Fundraising
HTO has several easy-to-use fundraising features. You can easily set up donations, a store to sell your merchandise, and sponsor banner ads. The donations tool has easy to use automatic features requested by league and team managers, such as banner ad packages and sponsoring on behalf of a specific player.

 

Scheduling
The Administrator can use HTO's Scheduling Wizard to save time in creating a Schedule. It's amazing, and it's free! You can export your results to a spreadsheet, email it, export to iCal or Google Calendar format, or import directly into a HomeTeamsONLINE Sports HQ!

 

HTO's handy Schedule Import allows a saved Schedule to be “dropped” into an Administrator site quickly and easily. A League Manager could add the Schedule, create Teams, and designate Locations in a matter of minutes using the Schedule Import with single upload of an Excel file.  A Team Coach can quickly import all of the Schedule details and designate Locations.  Both the Manager and Coach can then move on to Importing People to the Roster and finish what once took hours and hours of tedious data entry within a matter of minutes.

 

REGULAR SEASON

League Administrators have access to other useful features to keep the season running smoothly and hassle-free.

 

Free HTOSports Scorekeeper App
Once the schedule is perfected and posted, and the season is underway, HTO's Free Scorekeeper App allows for Teams to update their scores literally from the sidelines to keep even out-of-town fans informed at lightning speed. The scorekeeper app is designed to always sync to your score data "cloud" so that even several people can update scores at the same time.

 

Managing Deadlines
The Manage Deadlines feature allows the League to set a certain number of days that Teams have to post their scores, stats, and information for their games before locking the Teams out of editing the games.

 

Reviewing Scores
The Automatic Score Review can be set so that if teams enter conflicting scores for a game, the second team to enter their score will automatically have the option of sending the opposing team an email explaining the details of the conflicting score without actually saving the scores.  This begins a process that notifies the League Administrator that there is a conflict and creates a Score Conflict tab on the Administrator sites that can used to help resolve the conflict.  The Administrator sites will also display a red Score button and the Visitor’s site will show a (Score Not Finalized) message so that fans will know to come back to check the final score.  At any point during the conflict, either team can simply click a link to fill the scoreboard with the score info the Opponent entered and automatically resolving the issue. The League Administrator has the power to enter whatever scores they’d like recorded and resolve the conflict with the click of a button.

 

Auto-stat Review
Baseball organizations can also take advantage of Auto-Stat Review that once activated; teams have the option to submit Stats for review when saving.  When this option is used, the system will email the opposing webmaster to review the Stats entered. Teams can save Stats and not submit them to the opposing team for review; but, if the League requires this option, the team will not be able to enter stats for any new games until they’ve submitted their previous Stats for review by the opponent.

The Auto-Stat Review also allows for conflict resolution similarly to that of Automatic Score Review.  When a team disputes the Stats that have been entered, they can quickly email the opponent an explanation of why they’re disputing the Stats while the system automatically removes the confirm/dispute buttons until the stats are resubmitted for review.

 

Conflict Resolution
HTO's auto-review systems give teams a chance to resolve conflicts on their own without the direct involvement of the League Administrator, allowing the Administrator to focus on other duties. The free Emailer and Schedule Update Alerts programs give Team Coaches the freedom to quickly contact Players and fans with important updates during the season.

 

Text and Email Alerts
The free Emailer gives Coaches a centralized location in which to store different Contact Lists to quickly notify fans and families of important information such as Newsletter updates, upcoming events, and details specific to the team.  The Schedule Update Alerts allows changes to the Schedule to quickly be emailed to Contact Lists and even be texted to Players and Coaches.

 

POST-SEASON

 

Tournaments

The Tournaments feature can be used to quickly and easily set up a bracket-style tournament. This feature provides a simple way for you to display game details such as dates and location which gives fans and participants an easy-to-read resource to get them where they need to be, when they need to be there.  Because you can create as many brackets as you need, displaying results is a snap.

 

Staying Involved
Post-Season, the Visitor’s site gives fans a place to review and share the season’s most exciting events.  Because the site functions as a running archive for previous seasons, fans can compare how their favorite teams and players performed in the past. You can view stats across many seasons, so you can view a players career stats, or compare a team's record from a previous season.

Even during the off-season, a HomeTeamsONLINE site lets Coaches, Players and fans still feel connected to their favorite teams and stay excited about the season to come – all from a single site that offers League Administrators and Team Coaches the extra helping hands they need, where and when they need them!