The Ultimate Guide to Team Mom Duties: Tips and Tricks for Success

What are the duties of a team mom? That’s a great question! The Team Mom or Team Parent is a key part of any successful sports team. The duties can include organizing team snack sign-ups for a team of 5-year-old T-ball players. It can also include booking a block of hotel rooms for a 14-year-old travel soccer team. It takes a village to run any youth sports organization and the team mom is usually the heartbeat of the village. In this post I’m sharing all the tips for team mom duties I’ve learned over years of having kids in youth sports and being a team mom!

Here is everything you need to know to check all the duties on your list of Team Mom Duties!

A mom loads a sports bag and cooler into the trunk of an SUV.

Duties of a Team Mom

The duties of the team mom will vary depending on the sport, the age of the kids, and the intensity/ expectations of the league. For some, it might be as easy as making post-game snack sign up for the season. For other leagues, duties might involve coordinating fundraising efforts, booking hotel accommodations for travel tournaments, or assisting with the administrative duties of registering for tournaments.

A league coordinator or head coach should communicate the expectations and responsibilities for the team mom before the season starts. For some older/ more involved teams, it may be helpful to split the role or delegate duties among parents on the team. Some of these duties on a team mom checklist might include:

  • Communication with team parents about practices, games, or special team events.
  • Fundraising/ Managing donations and team finances
  • Finding a Team sponsor
  • Distributing or managing team uniforms and equipment
  • Signing up to bring snacks/ drinks to games (SignUp Genius is the easiest way to do this!)
  • Organizing forms or orders for team picture day
  • Organize Team Banner/ Fan shirts
  • Planning Team Party (these cute goodie bags will be a hit!)
  • Organize a Coaches Gift
  • Manage concession stand volunteers
  • Delegate a team parent to keep stats
  • Delegate a team parent to handle the GameChanger Live Feed
  • Assisting with administrative duties related to tournament applications and hotel blocks

Beginning of the Season Meeting

This is a great way to get everyone on the same page from the beginning. Coaches can clearly communicate their hopes and expectations to parents and players. As the team mom, you should take the opportunity to do the same! Take advantage of having everyone together to get all the information you need from players and parents (see the list below). Also, have a sign-up list for any duties that you plan to delegate during the season.

Getting Organized

It’s difficult to complete all the duties of the team parent if you are not organized! (More on Sports Mom Organization here) At the beginning of the season it’s a good idea to compile a list of team members and all important information. It can be overwhelming in the beginning, but I promise you will need to reference the information through out the season and its much easier to get it upfront:

  • Player’s name (or the name they go by)
  • Parent’s name and contact information, also player email and cell phone number for older players
  • Uniform number and uniform size
  • Allergies (for team snack and parties)
  • Birth certificate or other personal information such as height, weight, etc if required for your sport

Create a folder in your email or google drive for this team/ season. I always start out thinking, ” this won’t be that much! I don’t need a whole dedicated folder!” It always does!

Communication is Key

Of all the duties of the Team Mom, communication between the parents and coaches may be the most important. If kids carpool or have a grandparent or sitter with them at practice, parents will not be be available to get important information from the coach after practice.

At the beginning of the season decide what is the easiest way for you to communicate with your team. This will likely be through:

  • Team Text Thread
  • Email
  • Sports App such as Playmetrics, Remind or TeamSnap which both have free options and upgraded features available for purchase. I was resistant to have a million sports apps at first, but now find it easier. This allows to have all information about the practice/ game time, location (with address for GPS use), uniform information, etc all in one place. It may take some time on the front end to set up but will save you a lot of e-mail/ texts in the future when people have questions. As the parent of a team member and user of several of these apps it is so nice that they will auto update to my google calendar.

Some Team Moms like to send a detailed communication at the beginning of the season with all the information. Other team moms prefer to send weekly or bi weekly communications with updates on practice and game info and other league information.

Set the Tone for your team

At the team meeting, set expectations for attendance, sportsmanship, and conduct during the season. Hearing this from the head coach as well as team mom is a great way to reinforce the values and goals of your team for the season. At practices and games, the team and other families will be looking to you in terms for spectator conduct.

You are the team mom, but not the only mom (or parent) that can help!

Especially when there is a lot of travel, fundraising, or big team events to plan, it’s just not realistic for one person to shoulder the burden for all of the duties associated with being the team mom.

Many hands make light work in most of life. This is especially true when it comes to team parent duties. Most parents are working, managing their home, and making sure their own child gets to games and practices with everything they need. This spring, I am splitting the team mom duties with a few other moms on our baseball team. At the beginning of the season, we met to review and delegate all the jobs and tasks. This is working well for us so far this season!

The Mom in Team Mom

As with most things in life (especially with youth sports). There will be some growing pains and things to work through. Some common pain points with youth sports can include kids getting along, each player’s playing time, or a difference in player vs. coach expectations. As the team mom, players and parents may come to you as a source of support and advice. Others may come to you if they forget to bring an item or need something in a pinch I usually keep my Sports Mom Bag with me with some basic first aid supplies, snacks, hair ties, and other game day necessities.

Navigating these conversations can be difficult. Hopefully, if clear expectations have been set at a pre-season meeting, conflict will be minimal. If someone does come to you with a concern, it is important to keep in mind the perspective of all parties. Many times players, families, coaches, or other support staff simply need a sounding board or mediator.

As kids get older and they are apart of travel teams everything (including Team mom/ Team manager responsibilities) gets more time consuming and intense. For Travel teams you will likely need to :

  • Partner with the league/ coaches to enter and pay for tournaments.
  • Partner with the league/ coaches to make travel arrangements for out of town games/ tournaments
  • Manage a team bank account to pay for entry fees, referee fees, and uniforms or team equipment.

Thank you for all the Team Moms!

Being a team mom can be a big job. Sadly it’s a job that will never get much recognition or reward (unless you shop for your own Sports Mom Gift). However, most youth sports season would never happen within a team mom and you are making a big impact in the lives of your kids and community!

Just in case no one says it to you all season. THANK YOU! Thank you for your time. Thank you for the energy you put into this volunteer job. Thank you for making youth sports in your community a possibility and enriching the lives of kids in your area!

A Mom models a denim jacket with sports patches.

Now you’re ready for a great season supporting your child as the team mom! If you really get into it check out these fun Mom Letterman Jackets to seal the deal for a fun season!

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