Building a Youth Football Team Web Site

BySteve Parker

Ok, so I am a web geek, not only do I coach youth football, but I have been  working in the Web / Internet industry since 1994.  When I started coaching youth football again in 2006, I decided to develop a team web site and email communication strategy, since the Internet was entering more and more homes.   I still use my original 2006 Team web site and email strategy today, but I am looking to upgrade.

I created my first team website  with a HTML editor, MS Frontpage.  The site is very simple.  A HTML editor is almost as simple as using MS Word to develop and update your website.  I also integrated a private Yahoo Group which acts as our email communication tool, calendar, picture gallery and private file area.  What’s nice about the Yahoo Group is that it stores all email communication with the team in a Blog / Forum like feature, and  you can email practice, game, snack reminders from the Calendar to the entire team.  I have found that email is the key communication tool with my teams.  Many parents just do not have time to visit a website, but email works great because it is proactive vs reactive.  If you don’t need a fancy front end to your team site, a simple and FREE Yahoo Group will work just fine.

Last year, we started taking more video and pictures and the Yahoo Group picture gallery was getting full, so I opened a Pro Flikr account so I could post as much media content as we needed.  You can tag the media public or private depending on what you need.  The Flikr account has really worked out great.

As you can see, all of my web features are not really integrated into one site.  I have integrated them by developing a HTML website.  I would like to find one solution for a TEAM web site that intregates all my current features into one stand alone solution.

Web Features that I am looking for in a Team Web Site Builder

  1. eMail – Listserve type feature (Historical record)
  2. Calendar – eMail reminders
  3. Picture / Video  – Upload & Storage
  4. Roster / Stats Features
  5. Customizable Page Templates
  6. Domain Name Use / Upgrade
  7. Public / Private Membership
  8. Polls
  9. Fundraising Capabilities
  10. Private File Storage (Playbooks)
  11. Chat / Personal Messaging
  12. Blog / Forum / Bulletin Board

My youth football league went to an integrated league solution two years ago.  It has a team feature set.  So I decided to start my quest for a team website with them, League Athletics.  Here’s a list of other team web site builders:

  1. http://www.ellistonsport.com
  2. http://www.hometeamsonline.com/
  3. http://www.eteamz.com
  4. http://www.teampages.com
  5. http://www.mysportsite.com/
  6. http://www.teamsnap.com/
  7. http://www.teamlobby.com/
  8. http://www.teamopolis.com/
  9. http://www.teamsporttech.com
  10. http://www.seasonplanner.com/league/
  11. http://www.teamzonesports.com/
  12. http://www.vicid.com/
  13. http://www.hitssports.com
  14. http://getmyteamsite.com
  15. http://www.leaguerepublic.com/
  16. http://www.rosterbot.com/
  17. http://www.rosterspots.com/
  18. http://www.fullsquad.com
  19. http://www.myteamcaptain.com/
  20. http://www.tcteams.com

Over the next several months, I will review these sites and post my reviews.  If you have a team builder site that you like, please reply to this post and I will add it to my list.

I did a quick initial review of the above sites today.  I like the following after my initial look.

  1. http://www.teampages.com
  2. http://www.teamsnap.com/
  3. http://www.teamopolis.com/
  4. http://www.teamzonesports.com/

Read the post replies for my initial comments.

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!

Coach Parker is one of the original developers of youth football’s modern Beast Offense formation variations and has coached over 30 tackle football seasons since 1994 — with 90% of that experience in Texas, the heart of youth football. With a nearly 70% win rate, 90% playoff appearance rate, and 50% championship game appearance rate, his results speak for themselves. He’s the author of the Power Wing Beast Offense, Pirate 6‑2 Defense, Gun‑T Multi Wing, and other top-selling playbooks trusted by coaches nationwide. A Texas native and nationally recognized blogger at CoachParker.org, he’s been a leading voice in youth football since 2008. For more about Coach Parker visit - https://coachparker.org/about-coach-parker-2/

Similar Posts

24 Comments

  1. League Athletics

    Well, I signed up for the free trial and it dumped me to a $575 payment page. I can’t find where I can start the trial website. I did receive an email with the trial link. But for $575, I think there are cheaper solutions. On to the next site.

    Reply

  2. Elliston Sport

    Registration was easy enough. Nothing about a payment yet. Says an email is on the way to our new site. Cost is $86 according to website.

    The layout of the website looks nice, but its not very user friendly.

    Reply

  4. TeamPages

    My initial opinion of TeamPages is that it has potential. I like it. It has most of the features I am looking for in a quick and easy free site. Plus the upgrade is $54 a year or $11 per month. The no ad option is $66 a year or $13 a month. Not bad really. The site is very user friendly.

    Reply

  5. ETEAMZ

    I have a few friends using eTeamz. My initial opinion is that it is very powerful if you want to spend a lot of time learning how to set it up. It was not as user friendly as some other site builders. I will come back to eteamz, but not a starting choice.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.