Saturday morning. Your U10 soccer coach arrives at the field to find the previous game running fifteen minutes over, no lined fields, a parent screaming at a referee, and a kid on the sideline with a bloody nose whose guardian is nowhere in sight. The coach is now expected to manage all of this while also, somehow, coaching the game they came to coach.
By 2 PM, that coach has resolved two field conflicts, tracked down a missing first aid kit, entered scores into three different systems, and answered questions from parents who couldn't figure out which field their kid was supposed to be on. They've spent maybe 40 minutes actually coaching.
This coach will not be back next season. And honestly, who could blame them?
The problem isn't that your coaches aren't dedicated. The problem is that your game-day operation has no staffing beyond coaches. Every task that isn't literally playing the game falls to whoever happens to be standing nearby. Usually that's the coach. And coaches who signed up to work with kids are slowly crushed under the weight of everything else.
The Hidden Cost of Understaffed Game Days
When game-day operations rely entirely on coaches and referees, three things happen with depressing consistency.
First, games run late and schedules collapse. Without someone managing field transitions, the 9 AM game bleeds into the 10 AM slot, which pushes into 11 AM, and by noon you have four teams warming up on two fields while parents check their watches and text each other asking what's going on. Coaches bear the brunt of this frustration even though they have zero control over the schedule.
Second, conflicts escalate instead of getting resolved. When a parent starts yelling at a referee, who intervenes? When two coaches disagree about a rule interpretation, who has authority to make a call? When someone parks in the fire lane and blocks the entrance, who handles it? If the answer to all these questions is "whoever's nearby," you don't have conflict resolution. You have conflict distribution, spreading problems across everyone instead of solving them.
Third, safety becomes improvised. A kid gets hurt. The coach stops the game, tries to assess the injury, realizes they don't know where the first aid supplies are, sends a parent to find ice, and hopes the child's guardian is somewhere in the crowd. Meanwhile, the game is stopped, the other team is waiting, and twenty families are watching a coach try to handle a medical situation they're not trained or equipped to manage.
Each of these failures lands on coaches. And each one pushes good volunteers a little closer to deciding this isn't worth their time.
What Game-Day Staffing Actually Looks Like
Functional game-day operations require four roles beyond coaches and referees: site directors, field marshals, medical support, and scorekeepers. Not every program needs all four at every venue. But every program needs to understand what each role does and make intentional decisions about coverage.
Site Directors: The Single Point of Authority
The site director owns the venue for the day. They're the person everyone can point to when something goes wrong or someone has a question. Their job is making decisions so coaches don't have to.
A site director arrives before the first game to confirm fields are ready, equipment is in place, and any facility issues get addressed before families show up. During games, they monitor the schedule and manage transitions between time slots. They handle escalated conflicts, whether that's an angry parent, a referee dispute, or a team that showed up at the wrong location. They know where medical supplies are and can direct emergency responders if needed. And they stay until the last game ends to ensure the facility is secured.
The key attribute of a site director is authority. When they make a call, it sticks. This requires both the right personality and explicit backing from your program. Everyone working the event needs to know that the site director speaks for the organization.
Site directors don't need to be paid staff, though many programs do pay this role. They can be experienced parent volunteers, board members rotating through duty days, or part-time employees. What matters is that someone has the job, knows they have the job, and has the authority to do it.
Field Marshals: Keeping Games on Schedule
Field marshals manage the flow of games at a specific field or cluster of fields. Where the site director handles the venue, field marshals handle the clock.
A field marshal's primary job is transitions. They notify teams when their game time is approaching. They ensure the previous game ends on time, even if that means walking onto the field at the final whistle to signal that the next teams need to warm up. They manage the buffer between games, making sure teams clear the field, the next teams get set up, and any quick field maintenance happens.
Field marshals also serve as the first point of contact for minor issues. If a parent has a question about the schedule, they ask the field marshal. If a team can't find their assigned bench area, the field marshal directs them. This keeps small questions from floating up to the site director and keeps coaches focused on their teams.
In smaller programs, the site director might also serve as field marshal for all fields. In larger programs with multiple simultaneous games, dedicated field marshals for each field or field cluster prevent the chaos that happens when nobody's watching the clock.
Medical Support: Consistent Injury Response
Every program needs a plan for injuries. The question is whether that plan is "the coach figures it out" or something more intentional.
At minimum, every game-day venue needs a designated person who knows exactly where first aid supplies are, has basic first aid training, understands your incident reporting requirements, and can make the call on whether a situation requires emergency services. This person should be stationary and identifiable so anyone can find them quickly.
For larger tournaments or higher-risk sports, having a certified athletic trainer on site is worth the investment. Trainers can assess injuries accurately, make return-to-play decisions, and handle situations that would otherwise require calling 911 for precautionary reasons. A trainer on site often saves money in the long run by reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and protecting your program from liability when injuries are handled professionally.
If you can't staff dedicated medical support, at minimum ensure your site director has first aid training and knows the emergency action plan. But recognize that asking the same person to manage the venue and handle medical situations creates a gap whenever both needs arise simultaneously.
Scorekeepers: Accurate Records Without Coach Burden
Scorekeeping sounds minor until you realize how much coach frustration traces back to it. The coach who has to enter scores immediately after a tough loss. The disputes that arise when two teams report different final scores. The standings that are wrong for three weeks because nobody submitted results from fields 4 and 5.
Dedicated scorekeepers solve all of this. They record scores in real time, verify results with both coaches before teams leave, and enter data into your system before the day ends. Coaches never touch the administrative side of results.
Scorekeepers can be teen volunteers, parent volunteers on a rotating schedule, or part-time staff. The role requires attention to detail and reliability, not expertise. What matters is that the task belongs to someone who isn't also trying to coach a game.
If you can't staff scorekeepers, at minimum create a system where score reporting doesn't fall to coaches. A field marshal who collects scores at the end of each game and handles data entry removes the burden from coaches while ensuring accuracy.
Building Your Game-Day Staffing Model
The right staffing model depends on your venue size, number of simultaneous games, and available resources. But every model should follow the same principle: coaches should coach, and everything else should belong to someone else.
For a small venue with two or three fields running sequential games, a single site director can handle most functions. They manage the schedule, serve as field marshal, know where the first aid kit is, and collect scores. This works when game volume is low enough that one person can genuinely cover everything.
For a medium venue with four to six fields running simultaneous games, you need a site director plus field marshals. The site director handles venue-level issues and escalations while field marshals keep individual fields on schedule. One person should be designated for medical response, even if they're also serving in another role. Scorekeeping can be handled by field marshals or a dedicated volunteer.
For a large venue or tournament setting with many simultaneous games, full staffing becomes essential. Site director, multiple field marshals, dedicated medical support or an athletic trainer, and scorekeepers for each field. The investment pays off in smooth operations, reduced complaints, and coaches who can actually focus on their teams.
The Staffing You're Probably Missing
Most programs have some version of a site director, even if the role isn't formalized. Someone shows up early, has keys to the storage shed, and handles problems when they arise. The gap is usually everything else.
Field marshals are the most commonly missing role, which is why schedule chaos is so universal. Nobody is watching the clock. Nobody is managing transitions. Games run over because ending them on time isn't anyone's explicit job.
Medical coverage is often assumed rather than assigned. Directors figure that someone at the field will know first aid, or that calling 911 handles everything. This works until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, the consequences range from frustrated parents to serious liability exposure.
Scorekeeping gets dumped on coaches almost everywhere. It seems like such a small task that dedicating a person to it feels excessive. But small tasks add up, and this particular small task comes at the exact moment when coaches most want to focus on their players: immediately after the game ends.
Recruiting for These Roles
Game-day staffing positions are often easier to fill than coaching roles. They don't require sport-specific knowledge. They don't require working directly with children for extended periods. They appeal to parents who want to contribute but don't feel qualified to coach, to teens looking for volunteer hours, and to community members who enjoy being part of the action without the pressure of competition.
Recruit explicitly for these roles rather than hoping they fill themselves. Include site director and field marshal positions in your volunteer registration. Reach out to local high schools about scorekeeper opportunities. Partner with athletic training programs at nearby colleges for medical coverage.
The pitch is simple: help us run great game days so coaches can focus on kids. Many people will say yes to a role that feels manageable and clearly defined, even people who would never say yes to coaching.
What Coaches Notice Immediately
When you staff game days properly, coaches notice. They notice that someone else is handling the parent who's upset about the schedule. They notice that the previous game ended on time and they can actually warm up. They notice that when a kid gets hurt, a person with a first aid kit appears instead of everyone looking around helplessly. They notice that they didn't have to enter scores into the app while loading equipment into their car.
These aren't dramatic changes. They're the absence of friction. And that absence is exactly what keeps coaches coming back.
The programs that retain volunteers aren't necessarily the ones with the best training or the highest-profile leagues. They're the ones that protect their coaches from death by a thousand cuts. Every task you remove from a coach's game-day plate is a small investment in them returning next season.
Your coaches signed up to coach. Let them.
Ian Goldberg is the CEO of Signature Media and the Editor of the largest and fastest growing sports parenting newsletter. He’s been recognized as an industry expert by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, the US Olympic Committee’s Truesport, and the Aspen Institute's Project Play. Ian is also a suburban NJ sports dad of two teenage daughters and has over 2,000 hours of volunteer time coaching them (which he calls the most fun form of R&D for his newsletter content). Ian and his team provide players, coaches, parents and program directors with the articles and content they need to have a great sports season. Ian has spent most of his career in digital product development and marketing and got his start at the White House where he worked for the economic advisors to two US Presidents.
