Software to manage the team. [Archive]

tall_chris

09-29-2004, 12:53 PM

Coaches,

I am a coach in Texas and am writing an application to handle the management of the team. There are a few programs out there to handle rosters and stats, I didnt find them user friendly. So I decided to create my own.

I was wondering... If you had a program that did Stats, Roster, Lineup, Play creation, forms, email, attendance, injury tracking, schedules, calendars, reminders, and a checkbook... What would you add to it to make it more useful to yourself or your team. All the stats and such would be able to be exported to HTML so you can post it or just print the reports out.

Just trying to get some feedback.

Thanks
Chris

CTLaxer

09-29-2004, 06:19 PM

first thing i'd do is make it for mens AND women's lacrosse(i do both at my program)

make each game seperate so that lineups and rosters for individual games can be looked back at. a practice schedule time sheet.

This is just me being lazy, and hopefully i can word it right but...a section within each game section to list plays(just the name of the play) and then a check box or something to show if it resulted in a goal, a turn over, or nothing. something like that so you can go over which plays are working, how often, and when.

those come to mind right off the top of my head....keep us up to date on this project as i've been dying for some kind of software to use and all the existing stuff is either pure crap or so old that it doesn't work on newer OS's/systems. Also, being able to use a PDA to enter data or being able to export information to a PDA(palm) would be very nice

Stans

09-29-2004, 07:55 PM

A good idea would be to view some pre-existing applications. Most of the sites you'll find via Google will be from retailers. There are three manufacturers that offer direct sales...PlayMax, which can be had via shareware...ezstat.cc, which, for a fee, offers a good format BUT doesn't provide clears & rides info....and, imho, the best of the bunch, Lacrosse_software (for a fee).

One area that none of them address is unforced errors. It's a foregone conclusion that on any given day a player(s) will act boneheaded and demonstrate the "pull-your-head-out-play". Invariably, there will always be the "practice" all-americans will fold on gameday...

Good luck w/ your project!

tall_chris

09-30-2004, 07:10 AM

These are all great ideas! I like the idea about printing out a play list and being able to check off the results. You can even take it a step further and compare game/plays so you know what playes work with what teams.

I thought about the PDA, that may come in the future. There is just alot of flakiness to making applications for the palm. Either they are huge or the vast variety of palm OS makes it hard to work with.

My program does have a spot for Unforced Errors. We started tracking that this year. It is amazing how you have some players try to do the "OLE" crap swinging their stick over their head and such to avoid a triple team.

If you guys want, shoot me an private message with your email and I will keep you up to date on things. Plus I will need some testers :)

Petem0ss

09-30-2004, 09:28 AM

tall_chris, we (manually) track turnovers & takeaways & have found both to be very useful. Another thing we track unofficially is hockey assists (the pass that leads to an assist); we have quite a few stat people.

Good luck with the project, let us know how it works out!

spenny

10-04-2004, 12:47 PM

if it would run on a Mac, that would be awesome, too

AHSlaxer3

10-10-2004, 02:44 PM

that sounds like a really good idea actually. i'm just starting to coach middle school kids (i'm fresh out of high school) and i'm running a defense, so the takeaway feature would be especially helpful. an application for a pda would be extremely useful if you could get it running right.

waxon

04-19-2005, 10:09 PM

Sorry to resurect this, but how did the program turn out.

CTLaxer

04-19-2005, 10:34 PM

it didn't, the guy disappeared

tall_chris

07-23-2005, 11:03 PM

Sorry all.. I am back...

Had some work issues come up that took most of my time.

Program is coming along. Had some idea changes...

Here is another question.

Instead of having a program that you enter in everything at home, how about a program that resides on a laptop or tablet pc and is extremely easy to enter stats during a game. The problem with laptops is they are hard to navigate on the screen with such a fast paced sport. So I was thinking a nice screen to easilly click the butons to add/remove stats from a player during the game. Along with real-time reporting and summarizing.

Your thoughts? Now I personally think this would kick butt on a tablet PC where the score keeper could just use the pen and touch the player for shots, etc...

It would have the same functionality of the original program. But be modified so it would eliminate the double entry on the score keepers side.

it didn't, the guy disappeared

CTLaxer

07-24-2005, 03:03 PM

That would be perfect as I just donated a laptop to my organization.

Ways around the entry problem is just have different categories like shots, gb's, etc that you can just enter a number into and it'll add one of said category to one of said numbers' statistics. make sense? That way minimal mouse usage is required and you'd have a few categories that could easily be navigated by simply pressing TAB

tall_chris

07-24-2005, 07:08 PM

I was thinking of some type of small keyboard attached so you can apply the goals/shots/assists to the specific players.

Something like this picture.

The software is no problem to do. The problem is finding the easiest solution to solve most peoples needs.

A laptop with a mouse attached clicking on big buttons to apply stats would be better than small buttons.

A touch pad would be better.

My goal is something that you can easily enter stats in during a game. Thus enabling real time reporting. However now you can simply look at the score book and see everything...

Ugh

mdawg12087

07-29-2005, 11:09 PM

i think its a good idea, but it would be hard for any reg people doing scores(usually girlst that are "managers") to get used to a touch pad, rather tahn a pen and paper, then putting it into the computer later.

Hookem

07-30-2005, 10:06 AM

im making one of these at the moment also

EDIT|
here it is
http://12.220.163.4/manage/players.php

test it out :p

Lax_coach

08-02-2005, 08:37 AM

The best one i have seen for FREE!!! is the sideline organizer by sideline sports. You can download their free sideline organizer (you can buy more advanced versions) which has a play animator- very intuitive, easy to use.

Check it out for yourself at:
http://www.sidelinesports.com/lacrosse/products.htm

I have an apple i use for my lacrosse team, so i can not use on this laptop, but i animate plays on my home PC and it works really well.

LC

CTLaxer

08-02-2005, 12:11 PM

do you have the registration information for it? I'm not a big fan of giving out my information, and they require a TON of information to get the registration. TIA

CoachK

08-02-2005, 12:38 PM

Well CT... False information will work. As a matter of fact, I live on 4 Metoknow Street.

CTLaxer

08-02-2005, 12:57 PM

yeah, they got some fun info from me. still no registration information though...

fitzy_nb_11

09-12-2005, 04:52 PM

Is the program done yet?

AZReDWiNG

09-12-2005, 08:45 PM

MSExcel > *

tall_chris

07-31-2006, 10:45 AM

Hello all,

My apologies. I had some surgery and was out of the swing of things for a while.

I am still working on the program. I decided to re-do some of the items to make it more user friendly and more functional. I anticipate having something by around Thanksgiving. I hope earlier, any free time after normal work is being spent on this.

I now have a nice play creation portion of the program that lets you create plays all by drag and drop. So drag, type some text, print, shoot, score, win the game.

A question for you. Most teams have a team website, would it be valuable for you to easily create a web page of stats, game information, roster all with a click of a button?

If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or questions. Feel free to email me.

Thanks!

hulllaxplayer

07-31-2006, 11:00 AM

Yes, that would be perfect to have.

Coach H

08-01-2006, 08:23 AM

This would be/is a value to us. We currently do this now. Unfortunately, I am not the web guy so I don't know how much effort is put into making this happen.

Keep us posted! Thanks!

tall_chris

08-01-2006, 08:49 AM

Yeah its not hard to make the web page. Most of the time is the manual entry of the stats into a table or something similar. This will automatically generate the page for you (customizable of course) and all you need to do is copy and past it into whatever page you want it and you are good to go.

tall_chris

08-08-2006, 10:21 AM

Well I am making great progress so far. I have the play creation section done. Create a play, add steps to it, and draw out the diagram and narration for each step. Hit save. Print, Shoot, score, win the game. Even a section to keep track of how successful a play is versus whatever team. Who knows, maybe one play works with one team but not another.

Thanks to everyone giving suggestions. Keep them coming.

Now one thing I am doing is making it so you can have both men’s and women’s teams available. However my knowledge of the women’s game is very limited. I need to know what stats to keep for the women’s game? I understand the penalties are different (yellow and red card) is that all there is? Positions? Number of people on the field? (for the play creation portion) etc. I am sure I can find a field diagram somewhere for the background of the plays.

Rather than waste space, you can just PM me any tips you have to the questions above. Thanks again for your time!

Chris

CTLaxer

08-08-2006, 03:34 PM

Chris, I responded to your PM a while ago...

Anyways, to answer your questions about the women's game. The field is different, a quick search here on the forums will provide you with a diagram. There are basically 3 types of penalties in the womens game as far as stats are concerned. A generic foul which occurs quite frequently, a yellow card, and a red card (2 yellow cards to the same player results in an automatic red). A red card results in an ejection for the remainder of the game for the playing receiving it.

There are 12 players on a field at any given time. 1 goalie, 4 attack, 3 midfield, 4 defense. There are actually individual names for all 11 field positions, but they're going the way of the dodo and using generic attack, middy, defense is more than sufficient.

Stats are basically the same. Instead of faceoffs, women have draws. Teams win Draw Controls if they gain posession from the draw. Individual players receive DC's (not necessarily the player actually taking the draw), unlike in men's lacrosse where the faceoff guy gets the win regardless of who picks up the ball from his team. The women have what are called free position shots. These are basically like shots from the foul line in basketball. You should have a section noting each time one is taken, how many a goalie stops, how many players score from, etc.

Here are 2 examples of stats for the women's game that I compile in a season as well as in an individual game:
Individual game: http://www.intruder5.com/lax/girlstats/2006/RMLvsCHAPPLAYOFF.htm
Season stat: http://www.intruder5.com/lax/girlstats/2006/totals.htm

Any other questions feel free to ask here or via PM

TheKOB

08-09-2006, 08:28 AM

Chris; I like what you're doing. One way to look into the stats recorded for the Girl's game would just be to check out one of their scorebook's blank pages. Maybe someone could make you a copy. Best of luck, sounds like it'll be a good thing to have when complete.

CTLaxer

09-05-2006, 01:55 PM

Here is an NCAA stat sheet used for taking stats during a game: http://www.intruder5.com/lax/girlstats/stats_recording_sheet.pdf

Also, any updates as to how things are going?

BuckWyld

09-07-2006, 03:46 PM

Chris, I have done some of this stuff for my teams website using php and mySql (I also know C++), but the scope is smaller. I am primarily working on email distribution solutions, team info, schedule/game results, rosters, contact info, dues tracking, and some stats. What I have that is pretty strong is the database schema, the back end ie the database selects, organising the data into structures and that sort of thing. I have not gotten very far in the data entry portion because my html is weak and I stink at making things look nice, so it is frustrating.

What are you using for development? Maybe we could help eachother out here and there. PM me if you want.

BuckWyld

09-07-2006, 03:51 PM

oh and where are you planning to go with it? Do you want to sell it eventually? Keep it for personal use only or maybe freeware? Ideally I wanted to make my website stuff open source freeware, possibly accepting donations that would go to support my team, but I am not sure if I will ever get the time to make it that tight and user friendly.

coaches gal

09-17-2006, 09:25 PM

I also would be interesting in the software... I just ordered some software and am trying to figure it all out.

The thing I'm noticing that's missing [or I can't figure it out], is being able to transfer players [and their stats] from one team to another... i.e. We have a varsity team, junior varsity team and a freshman team. I'd like to be able to move the player AND their information to another team [say the kid moves from jv to varsity in the middle of a season]... OR be able to distinguish the 3 levels w/in the same team.

CTLaxer

09-17-2006, 09:44 PM

coaches gal: what software are you currently using?

coaches gal

09-21-2006, 05:11 PM

I'm using 'Lacrosse Coach' by All-Stats... was one of the cheaper, but useable program's out there...

tall_chris

09-22-2006, 07:24 AM

Sorry about the delay. Ive been busy. Program is coming along well. I should have something shortly to test out.

Yes you will have the ability to transfer players and their stat history.

Whew, hope everyone is having a great fall ball so far.

coaches gal

10-11-2006, 10:21 PM

Does anyone else use the All-Stats software, or know anyone who does? I'm having trouble importing and I don't want to type 60 players' information!!

coaches gal

11-27-2006, 07:38 PM

Another suggestion for the new software: have face off's, take-away's and turn-over's available in bulk team stats... we don't keep those stats by player [the books we use only have a place for bulk stats for those anyway]...

this software I'm using only tracks those by player - I don't want to include those on the player info because we've had 2 kids already ask us to send their stats to colleges they are interested in.

Looking forward to trying some new software, I find more and more bugs as I go along :)

Also - for those of you keeping individual stats for take-away's, turns, face-offs and errors, how are you keeping up with it!? Our stat gal is furiously writing while I tell her what happened... we're only allowed so many ppl at the table. Do you have another parent helping? I was going to suggest to coach that he make the kids who miss practice attend the games for the other level and keep those 'extra' stats [i.e. jv kids keeps stats at varsity game and vice versa]...

Washingtonian

12-21-2006, 08:24 PM

Great point on the all-Stats software. One thing I love about it is that my statistician can use a pen and my TabletPC to enter game stats real-time.

jackstraw169

01-01-2007, 05:40 PM

has anyone recieved any program verification from sideline sports...if so can they share?

_SLY_

02-04-2007, 09:35 PM

bump??

i'm very interested

tall_chris

02-05-2007, 07:14 AM

Thanks for the bump. It is still in progress. No large companies working on this. Just me.

Sorry for the delay everyone. Had some snags come up that got resolved. Plus two knee surgeries and my normal work being a complete bear.

Hang in there.

willbail

05-16-2007, 02:03 PM

Any updates?

lsm8fogo

05-16-2007, 09:24 PM

I've been working on a live-action stats program (just a concept for my coach since he doesn't want to pay the money for a commercially available program). It runs off Java, but can track assists, ground balls, goals, won face offs, penalties, goal percentage, all for both the game and the season. I also have it set up to save and open a file. If anyone knows Java and would be interested in critiquing my work, please let me know, I'm interested to know what others think of my work.