Managing a sports team, especially one with diverse programs like swimming and diving, requires a robust system to keep everything organized. One essential tool for this is the Athlete Roster Groups feature. This feature allows you to categorize athletes into distinct groups based on their participation in different programs or their school year, ensuring that you can efficiently manage registration, communication, and event eligibility.
What are Athlete Roster Groups?
Athlete Roster Groups are a way to organize your athletes into specific categories that reflect their participation in different team programs. These groups are exclusive, meaning each athlete can only belong to one roster group at a time. For instance, in a team that has both Swim and Dive programs, you would create three groups: Swim, Dive, and Swim & Dive. This setup allows you to manage athletes who participate in both activities without overlap or confusion.
Why Use Roster Groups?
Using Roster Groups offers several benefits:
- Targeted Communication: By assigning athletes to specific groups, you can easily send out group emails using the roster group as a mailing list. This ensures that your messages are relevant to the recipients.
- Specialized Registration Fees: You can set up and charge specific registration fees for different groups. This is particularly useful if different programs have varying costs.
- Organized Data Management: Roster Groups streamline the process of managing athlete data, making it easier to access and update information specific to each group.
Setting Up Roster Groups
To take full advantage of this feature, it’s crucial to set up your roster groups early in the season before registration begins. This proactive approach will save you time and ensure that athletes are correctly categorized as they join your team. Whether you’re working with a swim team, dive team, or any other sports team, the process involves creating groups and assigning athletes to them either during registration or by editing their information later.
Athlete Roster Groups are accessed under Manage Team > Settings > Athlete Roster Groups:
For more detailed instructions on enabling and creating Athlete Roster Groups, you can visit our Help Center. There, you’ll find guides on:
- Enabling the Athlete Roster Groups Feature
- Creating Athlete Roster Groups
- Age Restrictions & Non-Competitive Groups
School Year Athlete Groups: A Special Category for School Teams
For school teams, organizing athletes by grade level rather than age can be more effective, especially for event eligibility in freshman/sophomore meets or other grade-specific competitions. The School Year Athlete Groups feature allows you to group high school or middle school athletes by their grade. This group will replace the age group designation in the athlete’s profile and is used to filter event eligibility.
Grade level designations are initially set to (FR) Freshman, (SO) Sophomore, (JR) Junior, and (SR) Senior, but these can be customized by each team and are included in HY3 roster and entry exports when assigned for each athlete.
Additionally, during the registration process, you have the option to collect each athlete’s school year AND their date of birth, making it easier to manage and export data for rosters and entry submissions.
Learn More
For more information, check out the detailed guides in our Help Center, or watch our How-To videos on YouTube.
Properly utilizing Athlete Roster Groups is essential for the smooth operation of any sports team. Whether you’re managing a club with multiple programs or a school team organized by grade level, setting up these groups early and accurately will help streamline your administrative tasks, improve communication, and ensure that your team is ready to compete.
Published 09/03/2024. SwimTopia regularly releases new features, enhancements, and updates. Please visit our Help Center for up-to-date information on Managing Athlete Roster Groups.
