As a SeasonPlanner user for a fourth year now, I'd like to share my
impressions of the program as they relate to this thread.
I appreciate each of the points Mauro has made and have suggested
adding statistical capacities myself in years past. I think Ken has it
just right, though, and has explained himself well in his earlier post.
I began using team sites with the SeasonPlanner package and found it
to be perfect for a 8-and-Under baseball team. I have adapted its use
for 12-U league and travelling teams. To accomodate the desire some
have had for statistical information, I have used a statistical
baseball program to generate and track this information, exported it as
an HTML document (this is a standard feature of these programs) and
simply put a link to the page in the Links section of the SeasonPlanner
site.
Personally, I think this is the best solution, as I have used several
different statistical packages depending on what I wanted to track, and
in even these dedicated products I have never found the perfect package
for all teams' needs. By using these at my discretion and then linking
to them, I can generate and manipulate the statistics to my heart's
content while still having the simple and dependable SeasonPlanner
program. If SeasonPlanner ever adds an intrinsic statistical
management capability, I predict that only a narrow subset of users
will find it absolutely perfect for their team needs; for most, it will
be either too much or too little (and take too much time, in direct
proportion to the amount of information tracked). It will also add a
serious layer of difficulty to the program, one that I would not have
welcomed when I was starting out.
My current team site has been visited 2,463 times since it was set up
this season. My parents are no more or less sophisticated than anyone
else's, and two sets of parents do not even own a computer. I spent 15
minutes last Saturday talking one of them (over the phone) through
elementary navigation of the web, as he was at his father's house (my
player's grandfather) and wished to at least show them the site.
Regarding SeasonPlanner, build it and they will come....
As a closing thought, I also coach two teams and put a lot of time into
them. There are plenty of out-of-pocket expenses. For each coaching
parent, this is a labor of love, and it's pretty cheap as hobbies go
(try collecting rare coins...). I have found that the SeasonPlanner
site has been worthwhile in ways I never would have imagined. For
example, many of the players' grandparents who live in other states
follow the game summaries very closely as a way of staying current with
their grandson. The father of one of my players (also, BTW, my best
assistant coach) was transferred to Alaska from Virginia last fall, and
has used the site as his lifeline to his son's passion. The boy's
mother takes the team pictures during the games for the sole purpose of
posting them as attachments to the game and practice articles.
I have been told that the biggest beneficiary of these sites will be
me. As my boys progress either upward or outward, these seasons will
pass into the mist. By having access to the sites as archived
material, I can revisit every day and every event of every
SeasonPlanner season. Whatever effort I put in now is what will be
there for me later. I have looked back a few times with the sites of
the last couple of years, and it has been very rewarding. I can only
imagine what it will be like 10 or 20 years from now.
Brad
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