“Adult soccer is the highlight of my week” says Amy Lang.

“I’m the manager for my team and I just adore spending the time together. My gal pals and I all get to play our favorite game, soccer. And we get to talk about our week, so I don’t feel like such a hermit. “

 

The goal of this

Ultimate Guide to Adult Soccer Team Management

blog post, is to create an easy to share, free list of resources so that any adult soccer payer can give themselves and their teams the best chances of success on the turf.

 

Best Team Communications Apps –

Best Uniforms Website For Soccer Teams –

And, Awards & Social Media.

If you do choose to be the team leader then you are electing to contribute 10X more effort with very little in return. So for the first paragraph of this blog article, I would like to personally thank all those adult team managers who donate their time, talent, and treasure to the beautiful game. Without your commitment and the support you give to this sport, it would never grow in our community or our country. You are the reason the United States of America is getting the name for the country with the fastest growth in the sport of soccer.

And let’s all tip our hat and give acknowledgment for the growth of our sport in this country is at least somewhat if not mostly because of women’s national team. Adult soccer team managers from around the US we tip our hats to the beautiful women that represent our country so well on the global scale.

 

BEST TEAM APPS for Adult Soccer Teams:

The band app –  band.us/en

1. If you’re looking for easy-to-use and free this app fits the bill. There is a community board to post the most important information right upfront. A photo album to share team pictures. Group and individual messages and in the ‘Attachments’ section you can organize Attendance, Sign-Ups, Polls, and Bill Split. With 50 million downloads this app doesn’t spend any money on marketing. It was so popular in Korea that in 2014 the number of users surpassed that of Facebook.

Group Me App – Groupme.com/en-US/

2. Group me is also free to use and it could be a little bit more intuitive but that’s because it has fewer capabilities. If you need more than an actual group text on your smartphone and nothing more then Group Me is for you.  Owned by Microsoft and has 10M downloads.

Slack App – Slack.com

3. Any team that has a manager who works in digital would likely prefer the group communications tool that he or she uses at work. Largely accepted as the most common project management communications tool for corporate America. Slack lets you create group communications that let you customize your notifications. 10M Downloads with a 3.8 star review status. Owned by Salesforce currently trading at $220/ share under the moniker CRM on the NYSE.

Team Snap – TeamSnap.com

4. The Soccer Mom’s favorite. Team Snap is free for up to 15 users. In addition to the same functionality as the Band app, Team Snap has a live chat function. At $99/ year per team, your users increase to 40 and are given 2G of storage. You get to customize your reminders, your statistics and are given access to premium support.

The Koach App – KoachHub.com

5. The Koach App is like carrying around 3 or 4 coaches in your pocket. It is geared towards professional clubs that have high expectations to deliver a premium experience. For example, the Individual Action Plan for each player will guide them towards video training sessions recorded by Premier League coaches so that they can conduct self-guided learning at their own pace. The cost per player can actually be tailored to your team’s needs, and if you stop using it in the off-season your statistics are maintained in the system for the next time you log in to un-pause your membership. If you use personal activity trackers like Apex, Catapult, or Playmaker the API captures all of your data automatically. As a premium team app in this category, it claims to eliminate the need for multiple apps.

 

Uniforms

We’ve got some domestic and international options here and obviously, the big difference between these two is the extra two weeks you will need to account for in the shipping.

 

Cheepest Tees. –  CheepestTees.com

1. With a 4.8 star rating, Shipping in 1 – 3 days, free shipping on orders over $69 and free returns this has got to be the most convenient time-saving option for anyone in the United States. Get an instant quote for adding a logo. Family-owned and operated out of Burlingame, CA.

Rush Order Tees  –  RushOrderTees.com

2. Rush Order Tees has a quick custom design tool to give your team a sharp impressive unified look. Scale up your design to put the player’s last name on the back of their uniforms and you can be sure that every single person on that team is never throwing away their tee shirt investment.

Prices range from $33 for ordering one shirt at a time to $11.15 per shirt when you buy 20. Run by Printfly they employ over 250 people and made 22.9M last year.

All American Sports  –  ShopAllAmericanSports.com

3. If you’re looking for a local option then look no further than Peter Fowler at All American Sports. Located at 3690 N Academy Blvd, Colorado Springs, this company has been in business in Colorado Springs for the last 30 years. They’ve got tees listed on their website for $3.40 and can custom print any design. A loyal sponsor of The Colorado Inferno the staff at The SoccerHaus highly recommend doing business with All American Sports.

Ali Express. –  AliExpress.com

4. If you type in “Men’s Trendy Tee Shirts” or “Women’s Trendy Tee Shirts” some pretty interesting prints will come up for one to five dollars. Since adult soccer is pretty relaxed about the need to have numbers or names on your uniforms you can usually get away with a team uniform like this and it’s always nice to be able to use the shirt outside of the playing field. Like it’s actually a shirt I would wear in the off-season.

Shipping can be two to for weeks but give it six weeks to be sure. AliExpress is owned by a multinational Chinese company the Alibaba Group that specializes in e-commerce. It is traded under the BABA symbol on the NYSE and currently selling for $122. This author puts a strong buy recommendation on this one.

Soccer.com – Soccer.com

5. Soccer.com will let you create a team portal so that each person can log in and customize their own order so that they can buy the team-approved uniform. Most of the soccer clubs I know use this option because they get a kickback from Soccer.com as an affiliate. It takes some time to set up and it comes with a premium price tag but you can be sure that everyone on the team will be looking like professional footballers out there on the field.

Awards and Social Media

Having an MVP award is a nice motivating reward to any team environment. This piece of recognition ignites the competitive spirit and at the adult level, it is best done with monetary compensation. Obviously, the MVP is the most VALUABLE player and since everyone on the team gets to vote equally the pot of money that is designated to the MVP is well deserved, it is given graciously and fairly and this little secret rule helps adult teams to have the best talent year after year. Usually, $1 per player is enough to squeeze extra performance out of each player on the squad. This MVP award can prevent the break up of a team which is the worst possible thing that can happen. Without a carrot like this teams can fall into a downward spiral of mediocrity and losing, and no one wants to play on a losing team.

Most leagues have a tournament system and an award. The SoccerHaus in Colorado Springs gives each member of the winning team a championship tee shirt and their photo is taken and placed in a public place for all to see for ages to come.

Social media is pretty hit or miss for adult soccer teams. Half the people aren’t on Facebook and Facebook is really the only place to create a public group where banter can be posted and shared. When it comes down to it the time and effort it takes to maintain a social media presence is best managed by the fans of professional soccer teams like Centennial 38. Professional fan clubs like this are the types of fans who don’t play the game anymore so their outlet for the sport is through their typing fingers instead of their feet.

 

In Summary

The benchmark for team management in any sport is always set by the highest level of professionals. Technology has recently reduced the barrier to entry on many soccer team operations so that any adult team can access them for little to no cost. Video Analysis, game statistics, text reminders, nutritional information, tracking workouts, and inviting new people to join your team are all now free with these open-source tech tools and free apps. And as long as it is free, if it’s good enough for the pros then it’s good enough for your adult team. Check out the adult leagues at The SoccerHaus in Colorado Springs. With 4 men’s leagues, 5 Co-Ed Leagues, and 2 Women’s Leagues. The SoccerHuas has over 100 adult soccer teams playing all week long.

This article was written by SoccerHaus Marketing Director, Anthony Prichard. Anthony grew up playing soccer in Portland, OR. (Soccer town USA) and migrated to Colorado to fulfill a college scholarship kicking the football for Adams State where he won All American Status three years in a row and was in the 2002 NFL draft. Currently, Anthony manages and maintains the digital footprint for The SoccerHuas, Upper 90 Tavern, and The Colorado Inferno.