[Junior Soccer Coach Mr. Noguchi] Knowing the latest schedule at a glance! Sharing match schedules with 40 parents of players

We interviewed Mr. Noguchi, the coach for the junior soccer team “Hanno Bruder,” for his thoughts on using TimeTree to share schedules for the soccer team.

An essential tool for quickly sharing match schedules with others

Please tell us a little more about Hanno Bruder.

Hanno Bruder is a junior soccer team founded 43 years ago whose players range from children in elementary school to those in junior high school. I am coaching the 28-member elementary to the third-grade team.

How did you discover TimeTree?

Initially, I received many requests from the parents of my players to let them know the match schedule as early as possible. I tried to send them the schedule by email 1 to 2 months before the match, but because there are often changes to the schedule, not to mention that it can get lost among other emails, I had a hard time ensuring that everyone is keeping up with the latest information. I wanted to find an easier way to share our match schedule and finally found TimeTree for this purpose.

Were there any decisive factors that made you use TimeTree?

TimeTree is perfect as it has a monthly screen that is easier to view than on other apps, as well as a “new changes” alert that allows users to be aware of recent updates and keep themselves up to date easily.

Did you encounter any difficulties introducing it?

I wanted to share TimeTree’s calendar with the fathers and mothers of my players but I was initially worried if it would work because of the large number of people involved. I had a chance to gather everyone at a parents’ meeting, at which I explained my idea while showing them the screen of TimeTree using a projector. So, I feel that it might be a good idea to start using it first and get everyone familiar with the app, before setting the rules while we continue to use it. Currently, there are around 40 people participating in this.

Using the comment box to check on the team’s pre-match preparations. No important information will be missed.

What kind of schedules do you share using TimeTree?

I share our calendar for daily training, matches such as practice games and league matches, as well as our camp schedules. The different categories are tagged with different colors when I enter the information. I always make it a point to also enter the start time of each event into the schedule title, such as “Training 9:00〜” as doing so will allow information to be immediately conveyed when someone takes a look at the monthly schedule.

You seem to be also using the comment feature of the calendar a lot.

That is a really convenient feature. For our matches, we travel in individual cars to the match venue, and 5 to 6 cars are needed for all 28 of us. The players’ parents always help by lending us their cars, and until now, we have had to keep track of this information by telling others that “◯◯ and ◯◯ have offered their cars for this match, but we still need a few more cars,” which is very difficult to do. Using the comment box of the match schedule in TimeTree makes this information available to everyone. We can simply leave comments such as “we need another 3 cars,” or “◯◯ will be lending us his car and we need another 2 more cars” at any time.

Do you also post a lot of images?

Before matches, I will take a photo of the match schedule and share it with everyone else. Sometimes I ask the parents of the players to referee a match, and they can simply take a look at the photos to check which matches they will be refereeing, or what time their own children will be playing in a match. After matches, we also post group photos. Some parents who are unable to come to the match venue would look at the group photos with us holding trophies and be delighted that their children won the match.

In what other ways are you using TimeTree for your purposes?

We have set some rules for our profile settings. In the “name” field, the user will enter his or her child’s name, and in the “about me” field, they will enter their relationship such as “father” or “mother.” Doing so allows other people to know, for instance, “this is the father of ◯◯,” and so on.

A perfect tool that is as easy as “taking a look to know the latest schedule.”

What was the best thing about introducing the use of TimeTree?

All parents are very excited about their children’s activities. So the best thing about TimeTree is that it was the perfect solution for them to know the schedule as soon as possible and keep themselves up to date. Everyone tells me that if they know the schedule one to two months ahead of time, they will be able to make adjustments to their work so that they can attend the match, but doing that through email is a challenge. The reason TimeTree has worked so well for us is that it is as easy as “taking a look to know the latest schedule.”

Also, our transportation preparations before and after matches have become much easier than before. If I keep sending emails saying that “we do not have enough cars,” the sender will feel bad for sending the same email repeatedly, and the recipients will also feel unnecessary pressure for not being able to lend their cars. Unlike email and chat services, TimeTree is a common place where everyone checks for information, and writing it there eliminates these issues. It feels a little like we are all looking at a bulletin board together and chatting with one another to figure things out.

Thank you very much!