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Thank you for volunteering to be a Team Parent for your student’s team! The primary role of a Team Parent is to facilitate communication between the coach and parents of your student’s sports team. The level of involvement of a Team Parent is based on the wishes and needs of each individual coach and the sport your student is participating in.
This document describes many of the typical responsibilities of a Team Parent, and provides suggestions for making your volunteer job run as smoothly as possible. You are not expected to accomplish everything on this list…it is simply a resource in case you have questions. You are always welcomed and encouraged to enlist the help of the other parents on your team, as well! If questions arise during the season, please contact the Overlake Athletic Club (O.A.C.) Team Parent Coordinator Alicia Gold (ahgold@earthlink.net). Please also consider attending monthly O.A.C. meetings! Dates and times are listed in the school calendar and posted in e-bulletin news.
SUGGESTED TEAM PARENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
GETTING STARTED:
__Introduce yourself and talk to the coach about their specific needs and expectations of you as a team parent.
__Attend your team’s sports/parent meeting and introduce yourself as the Team Parent contact.
__Help the coach identify parents on your team willing to help with game operations, as needed for your sport. If training sessions are offered, please remind parents of these opportunities and encourage participation.
__ If necessary, create and keep a calendar of game operation volunteers for the season.
__Maintain a team roster, and keep it current throughout the season. Initially, this will be available from your coach and/or Alicia Gold at ahgold@earthlink.net . Please contact her with changes as they occur. Rosters are used to create participation certificate , and the correct spelling of each player’s name should be confirmed.
__To save paper, you can also consider creating re-usable game rosters with player names and jersey numbers for parents to use at games.
__For team communication and in case of last minute changes to your game and practice schedule, you may also want to compile a contact list consisting of coach, player and family information and distribute it to parents and coaches.
DURING THE SEASON:
__ Please send an email reminder to parents just before “Team Photo Day”, giving them the opportunity to “opt out” of purchasing photos. (All players need to wear their full uniform and be photographed, even if they aren’t purchasing photos. If a family does not want to purchase a team photo, please ask them to send an email to Jacki Reichanadter (jackireich@aol.com), in advance of the team photo day, to let her know they are “opting out”. O.A.C. Team Photo Coordinators Kim Parris and Jacki Reichanadter will make sure these families are not billed for a team photo. Please encourage families who want to “opt out” of team photos to also notify you (the team parent!), as well. Keeping a record of families who don’t want a team photo will help you remember who gets a photo at the end of the season!)
__ IT IS NORMALLY NOT RECOMMENDED OR NECESSARY FOR TEAM PARENTS TO ARRANGE A SNACK SCHEDULE FOR YOUR TEAM, unless specifically requested by the coach. Food allergies/ preferences can make providing an “organized snack” challenging and may even become a liability issue, if a player becomes ill. Please remind parents that athletes should bring water to all practices and games -- and are welcome to bring their own snacks, if they so desire.
__Encourage parents to use the www.goowls.com website, for up-to-the-minute athletic department information.
__ If you or parents on your team have action photos of your team, game highlights, or team accomplishments, please direct them to Steve Meredith at smeredith@overlake.org He is in charge of the website and posts information to share with the school community.
__Help collect orders and distribute Overlake Athletics Club spirit wear, (normally optional, sport specific t-shirts,) if asked. (The current O.A.C. spirit wear contact is Kristy Howell, at kristy_howell@comcast.net.)
__Help recognize Senior Athletes and their parents, if asked by OAC.
__ It is best to avoid getting involved in issues that arise between coaches and players and/or parents. Always refer parents who have concerns about issues like their student’s playing time, team captain selection, playing position, uniform preferences, back to the coach and athletic director.
__Consider planning a spirit event for your team! “Spirit Events” encourage awareness, participation and support from the greater Overlake community and are usually organized for important games, matches or meets. Spirit events can be as simple as asking fans to wear school colors and making signs for your team, or can include activities such as chartering buses to away games, inviting the pep band to perform, and/or providing pizza & water bottles, face painting, and ice cream treats for student fans. Sometimes teams ask to partner with the ASB (contact: Ryan Burke rburke@overlake.org) and /or Overlake Athletics Club (contacts: Sharon Wolda wwolda@comcast.net and Kristy Howell kristy_howell@comcast.net) for these events.
__It is important to get pre-authorization from OAC if you are requesting financial support for your spirit event. Expenses incurred without pre-authorization will be the responsibility of the person who incurred them. The OAC has a small budget for spirit events, which is allocated by sport (not by individual teams, as not all teams hold a spirit event during the season). An O.A.C. Reimbursement Form, along with receipts and pre-authorization details (name and amount authorized by OAC rep.) needs to be filled out and placed in the “Booster Club/OAC” mailbox located in the Administration Office. The form is available on the web at: http://owlnet.overlake.org/Athletics/OAC/OAC%20Reimbursement%20Form.pdf and is also listed under Parent Forms on the left hand bar of the Overlake Athletic Department website.
“END OF SEASON” TEAM PARENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
__If asked, help with uniform collection at the end of the season. BEFORE THE END OF THE SEASON, Let the players and parents know how UNIFORMS will be collected. It is helpful to let families know what items are theirs to keep (e.g. t-shirt, socks, perhaps shorts…) and what specific items are being collected.(e.g. jerseys, perhaps shorts, warm-up suits, and practice jerseys) Use your list of each team member and their jersey number to follow up with players whose uniforms are missing. They should be returned clean and in good condition. Some coaches find it helpful to collect uniforms immediately following the last game, and then have someone launder the uniforms on behalf of the team. Other coaches ask players to bring their clean uniforms to the end-of-the-season party. If you are asked to assist your team’s coach with this task, PLEASE BE SURE TO Write the team name, jersey #, players name and what has and has not been returned on a list and put it with the uniforms. Also, give a copy of this list to the coach for them to follow up on missing uniform pieces. All uniforms collected from your team should be returned together in a bag or box clearly marked with the team name and given to the coach. If the coach is not normally on campus, you can drop the bag or box off at the Administration (front) Office. Please let the coach and/or John Wiley know where the uniforms have been dropped off. Ultimately, it is the coach’s responsibility for uniform return, but your assistance with this task is greatly appreciated.
__Reserve and confirm a date for your team’s end-of-the-season party. Margaret Lynch in the front office can help with this: mlynch@overlake.org. It is usually best to schedule your party during the practice time immediately following your last game. Because many students participate in sports in the following season, it becomes difficult to find a time to gather your team after the new season begins. Please also notify Team Parent Coordinator, Alicia Gold, of the date/place of your team’s party. (ahgold@earthlink.net) .
__ Send a party reminder over email, to families on your team, with details.
__Confirm with the coach that they have received participation certificates. (Middle school and JV teams only, Varsity Teams receive letters at the Varsity Event instead of participation certificates at the end of their seasons.) They should find the certificates in the coaches’ office at the gym toward the end of their season. Contact Alicia Gold at ahgold@earthlink.net at least one week before your scheduled party if the coach has not received the team’s certificates.
__Check with the coach to make sure they have received team photos and help them distribute the team photos at the party, to all who didn’t opt out. (Please remember that not all families order photos and the coach may need help making sure photos get to only those that did!)
__Thank coaches for their efforts at the party, with gift certificates and cards from the team. Guidelines for appropriate gift amounts are as follows: Varsity Head Coach $100, Varsity Assistant Coach $75, Junior Varsity Coach $75, Middle School Coach $50. These amounts are in proportion to the time commitment of coaches at the various levels, and are meant to be a token of appreciation. Please try to stay in these guidelines.
__Ideally, the Team Parent will be responsible for coordinating reimbursement and student account billing for all team expenses. Please remind those parents making purchases on behalf of the team to keep their receipts for party supplies, refreshments, and coaches’ gifts expenses, and to provide you with a completed reimbursement form (Reimbursement form is found on the left hand bar of the www.goowls.com website under “Parent Resources” or at (http://owlnet.overlake.org/Athletics/OAC/OAC%20Reimbursement%20Form.pdf) with their receipt stapled to it. Expenses are normally divided equally between families of all players listed on the team roster, so please confirm with the coach that your team’s roster is accurate and current. Please add up the total cost of all expenses and divide by the number of players on your team to get the amount to be billed to each student account. Attach a cover sheet with a roster to all the reimbursement forms/receipts from parents, and note the amount each player should be billed next to each player’s name on the roster, along with the total amount each player is to be billed. Please include a summary with details of the amount each player is being billed (e.g. Each player should be billed $20.50 for coaches’ gifts $11.00, pizza $5.00, cake $3.00, water bottles $1.50) somewhere on the roster. Your completed expense packet can be delivered to the “Booster Club/O.A.C.” mailbox in the front office. The O.A.C. treasurer will process your team’s reimbursement request and forward in on to the accounting office. Each parent who made a purchase on behalf of your team will receive reimbursement in the manner they requested on the “reimbursement form”, either via mail or to be picked up in the front office.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR VOLUNTEERING TO SERVE AS A TEAM PARENT! |