We are a busy society these days! This has added pressures to event coordinators, and families alike to coordinate schedules for an entire weekend. The absolute best practice. Get any criteria for your team to us upfront. Seems to be a trend where folks wait until schedule is released to then come back and request changes. This is NOT appropriate or fair to those who have managed scheduling the right way. Any change after the schedule is published UNFAIRLY causes others to accept changes to accommodate your failure to plan. There are obvious exceptions, where our scheduling team made a clerical error. Maybe we book you against the same opponent twice, sometimes, we leave you off the schedule, other times we placed you in the wrong division. Clearly we must address these issues.

Appropriate requests:

  1. Our earliest game should be 11am. We are driving in from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, or Illinois on game day to avoid the added room night.
  2. Our latest possible game should end by 8pm. We are driving four hours home to Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, or Illinois following this final game.
  3. I coach two teams; don’t schedule team A and B at the same time.
  4. Don’t match team A and B, our other club team.

What is a not appropriate criterion?

  1. Any requests you have AFTER the schedule is posted, unless it is to correct a clerical error.
  2. Need to start afternoon because my best player can’t get to the game until then.
  3. My dog has a Vet appointment from 2-3 on game day.
  4. We have dinner reservations at the time you scheduled my second game.
  5. We need the latest or earliest start possible.

Some things are not possible.

  1. If you request morning games, and others have requested afternoon.
  2. When you request evening games, but the event ends in the afternoon.
  3. You want to play between one and three, games are 70 minutes blocks, tipping at 12:30, 1:40, and 2:50.

I had daughters of my own that played years of youth basketball. NEVER, did we go back and ask someone to change a schedule to accommodate our team. We made arrangement to be there at the schedules time.