This Week’s Playbook. Happy New Year week, program directors. While you're catching your breath between seasons (or deep in planning mode for spring), we've got nine ways to tighten up the systems that tend to unravel when things get busy. This week: the scheduling puzzle that burns out your best people, the officiating crisis that cancels your Saturdays, and how to build a movement culture that doesn't disappear when families leave the parking lot. Plus quick hits on budgeting, fundraising, communication, and coach support. Here's what's on deck:

“Kids learn quickly when the environment is steady. They shut down when the environment is reactive.

Directors who teach this mindset create families who travel better, stay calmer, and support the program with more patience and understanding”

— Chad Henry, Signature Locker | Read more →

You've got coaches. You've got facilities. You've got families ready to show up. And somehow, getting all three in the same place at the same time feels like solving a puzzle that rearranges itself every week. Coach A can do Tuesdays but not Thursdays. The gym is open Saturday mornings but that's when half your volunteers have kid duty. Then someone's work schedule changes and the whole thing unravels. The downstream effects are predictable: inconsistent practices, parent complaints, and your most reliable coaches quietly burning out because they're always the ones covering gaps. This isn't an unavoidable part of the job. It's a systems problem. Define your constraints before you recruit. Build depth so no one is irreplaceable. And create protocols for when life happens anyway.

— Chad Henry

Or add some other ops tools to your toolbox:

You've done everything right. Tryouts ran smoothly. Coaches are prepared. Families are engaged. And then Saturday morning arrives and you're scrambling to find anyone who can officiate the 9 AM game. Officiating shortages have quietly become one of the biggest operational headaches in youth sports, and the problem is getting worse. The officials who remain are stretched thin. The ones who leave cite the same reason: sideline abuse from the adults in your stands. You can't fix a national labor shortage from your desk. But you can build a program officials actually want to work. Sideline culture, competitive pay, scheduling respect, and a pipeline you grow yourself. Staff the whistle or nothing else matters.

— Maddie Soviero

Or check out more ideas for staffing and coaches:

Here's a question nobody asks at registration: what happens when your families go home? Most programs pour energy into practice plans, game schedules, and coach training. And then the weekend comes, and movement disappears. Screens expand. Routines collapse. Physical activity becomes something that only exists inside your program. Over time, this creates families who associate movement with cost, logistics, and obligation rather than just... life. The fix isn't more programming. It's smarter nudges. Rituals that cost nothing. Weekend systems that take fifteen minutes. Language that makes activity feel normal instead of aspirational. Build a movement culture that survives the car ride home.

— Ricky Reyes

Or check out more ideas for staffing and coaches:

Have a great sports week,

Chad Henry and the Signature Locker Team

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