GUEST POST: Karen Komisar, Howard Huskies Team Manager Coordinator
If you had asked me two years ago, how a youth hockey club could improve its tournament registration process that typically involves 100+ teams, 300+ coaches and managers, and 1,500+ players, I wouldn’t have known where to start. Luckily for me the answer came in the form of a new hockey tournament registration tool, soon to revolutionize the way our youth program managed its tournaments. And for the first time, allow one to manage hockey tournaments from home.
Listen closely fellow tournament coordinators—StatMonsters.com is about to become your new best friend.
Prior to StatMonsters, several of us in the Howard Huskies organization spent countless hours coordinating and managing registrations. Through snail mail, we waited for payments from team managers and coaches. As unforeseen circumstances tend to occur, we emailed individual team managers notifying them of venue and schedule changes. We sent player and team compliance updates. And we notified them of any other last-minute issues to ensure our tournaments ran smoothly.
In short, a lot of managing hours and resources were needed.
Streamlining tournaments through technology and innovation
From the start, StatMonsters.com eliminated all of my data entry. With the cloud-based tool, team managers inputted their team(s) registrations. We received payments online and I expedited tournament approvals from a single dashboard.
During this year’s tournament, StatMonsters’s Inter Rink Communications (IRC) allowed for real-time messaging between marshals at each of our five venues from one central dashboard. This handy tool cut down on game-time confusion and eliminated player/team non-compliances.
Players’ parents, friends, and family also accessed game results and standings in real time with just one marshal at each of our venues. I know that the fans enjoyed having this kind of immediate access from their feedback. And because StatMonsters.com received 12,553 visitors and 65,893 page views over the course of our 3-day tournament.
In addition to being a tournament coordinator, I have a full-time job outside of hockey. My favorite aspect of the tool is that I can manage the entire tournament registration process and a large, multi-venue, 3-day event from my mobile device, anywhere. With StatMonsters.com, so can you.