This webpage is a tutorial for coaches on the EP Fastpitch website. Coaches have a lot of access to website features, allowing you to:

• communicate with their team through team bulletins
• add, edit, cancel or delete events (games, scrimmages, practices)

Use the following shortcuts to skip sections.

Team Bulletin Board
Roster
Schedule an Event
     Adding an Event
     Editing/Cancelling an Event

Team Overview

When you first enter your team page, the main features you will use are:

• in the center
  • Team bulletin board
• on the left side
  • Schedule​
  • Roster 

Team Bulletin Board - use this area to communicate to your team and/or post information for players/parents to centrally acquire information.

The Green [+] button will allow you to add messages that post to your team's bulletin board

• Set the Expiration Date as needed, and click "Archive Thereafter" in case you need to refer back to an old message you sent to your team (otherwise it will be deleted)
• Insert a Title
• Type your message
• When your message is done, click "Broadcast message" to email your message to your team (uncheck the option for "Board, Officials and Friends Teams").
  • Clicking [Submit] at the bottom without clicking "Broadcast message" will only post your message to the team bulletin board.

Top
Schedule an Event
     Adding an Event
     Editing/Cancelling an Event

Roster - this page is where you can acquire pertinent player information

• Coach name(s) and contact info (phone, address)
• Player name and info
  • Parent(s) name
  • birthdate
  • address
  • contact phone #s
  • email addresses
• Pictures of your players are performed by parents who edit their child's profile page
• You have an option to assign jersey numbers
• Email your team without posting it to your team page
  1. ​​Teams
  2. Roster
  3. Options
  4. Email Team

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Top
     Adding an Event
     Editing/Cancelling an Event

Schedule - use this page to perform maintenance on any events for your team's schedule

• Adding an event (game or practice) is done through the Options menu.
• Editing an event is done using the orange icon on the listed event
• Deleting an event is done using the red X icon on the listed event
  • To cancel an event, do NOT delete it (see below)
• Calendar Feed - to install team schedule events into your mobile device or other calendar

Top
Roster
     Editing/Cancelling an Event

Add Event - This task creates and inserts an event into your team schedule.

To manually enter a new event

• Clicking on the Date textbox will open a calendar, click on the appropriate date
• TBD will not give a time, and is useful as a temporary placeholder, but it will also cause the event to not show on a calendar feed (for those who use the website's team calendar to populate their own personal electronic calendar)
• Clicking on the first time box will edit the start time
• You can enter the length of time (often 65min softball game) and the ending time will automatically adjust
  • or you can edit the ending time by clicking on the second time box
• Select the Location by using the dropdown. All Eden Prairie locations are entered into the system
  • DO NOT ADD A NEW LOCATION !!!!!!!!!!!
  • In the event you cannot find a location in the dropdown, contact the to create one. There are specific facility codes to associate to each location that coaches are unable to insert if they attempt to create a new location. 
• Select the event Category of your event from the dropdown
• Leave Status alone; this is the dropdown you would use to Cancel an event (ie- rainout)
  • Cancelling an event will create an email notification to families for the change in plans 
  • Deleting the event will NOT notify families that an event is cancelled
• Verify that the event is happening to the appropriate Season
• Select your team in the first dropdown
  • the Opponent team in the second dropdown is only used if you play against another EP team and the event will be added to both EP team schedules
  • in cases on inter-EP team games, the first team dropdown is the home team and the second dropdown is the visiting team
• Select your non-EP opponent in the Outside Opponent dropdown; do your best to find an appropriate match (Minnetonka Silver Bullets may be listed under Minnetonka Silver) and avoid creating an unnecessary duplicate.
  • If an opponent does not exist, you may type one in the Define Other textbox. 
    • Please observe proper capitalization as you will be creating an opponent team name that future coaches will be able to select from the Outside Opponent dropdown
      • Please use appropriate capitalization and do not include coach names in the team name
      • GOOD: Farmington Black, 
      • BAD: Farmington Black Nelson, Farmington
• You are limited to 64 characters for your Event Note. This is a good place to describe what the event is (tournament name) or inform parents what time to arrive, etc
• The Send Notifications Now? checkboxes will flag the website to create email notifications about your event. 
  • There may be instances where you create an event but you do not yet want to announce it to families. 
  • Do NOT send notifications to Officials

Top
Roster
Schedule an Event

Edit/Cancel Event - Sometimes you have to create a placeholder for an event; you may have a tournament, but you don't know details. Insert as much of the event as you know, and Edit the event later. Editing an event is done from the main team schedule using the orange edit icon. Once complete, you can opt to send a notification right away, or the system will generate it automatically 48 hours prior to the start. If you are already within 48 hours of the event and you elect to Send Notifications, the system will create duplicate email notifications. 

If you need to cancel an event (weather is the most common reason to cancel a practice or game),

• Edit it instead, and use the Status dropdown to flag your event as Canceled and

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• edit the Event Note to explain the cancelation. The website will automatically generate an email notification to your team.
  • ​Be sure that "Reset RSVP responses for this event" and "Notify Officials" are unchecked 
  • Be sure that "Notify Team Managers" and "Notify Team members and parents" are checked

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Deleting an event should be avoided, as this will remove any record of the event in your full schedule, and it will not generate a notification to families that the event is being removed from your schedule. Canceling a practice through Edit mode, will still show on your team schedule that you had a practice scheduled on X date, but it was canceled for Y reason.