Cheer Coach Organization: DIY Coaches Binder

Attention all cheer and dance coaches – this post is for you!!

I think we can all agree that after a certain point in the cheerleading/dance season, it all starts to feel slightly like mass chaos. With shoes, uniforms, practices, injury reports, competition, traveling, etc., etc. The list just goes on and on. And every year we end the season saying, it won’t be like this next year, we will be organized and have everything together at all times. But then a break comes. There is no cheerleading practice after school, no competitions on weekends, it is just nice and relaxing. So relaxing that you forget all about your vow at the end of last season and the next thing you know, it starts all back up again with cheer tryouts and you still don’t have it all organized.

This scenario sounds familiar doesn’t it? Yep, we thought so.

Well you are in luck, because we at Cheer and Pom are in the business of making sure you don’t pull your hair out midseason. We specialize in cheer footwear, yes. But we also pride ourselves in specializing in cheerleading as a whole, just because we don’t sell poms and bows, doesn’t mean we stop being on your team. So sit back and just let us help you in organizing your cheer season.

Read on for our tutorial on making a cheer coach binder to help you feel more of that Zen feeling everyone is talking about. PLUS at the end of this post, we include a FREE bonus gift from us to you!

Roster

First you should start with the basics. Your squad roster at a quick glance. All you need on this sheet is their name, phone number, and birthday. A quick reference guide so you don’t have to dig through all of your paperwork. After that you can get a little bit more specific and include things like:

1.       Full name

2.       Nickname

3.       Birthday

4.       Address

5.       Email Address

6.       Phone number

7.       Parents Contacts

8.       Cheer level (varsity/JV)

9.       Important notes (infractions/allergies/reminders Etc.)

10.    Uniform Information

11.    Payment History

By including a short profile on each team member, it will be easier to keep track of everyone’s information.

 Coaches Contacts

If you are an organization with multiple coaches, it might be handy to have all of their contact information written down as well. You probably have it all in your phone but a written version can be helpful so you don’t have to keep digging through your phone for info.

Calendar

You should have 2 calendars in your coach’s binder – one calendar with the entire year at a glance for quick reference and a monthly calendar with all significant dates filled in. What are the significant dates? Where do you even begin to fill in dates? Easy – start basic and narrow in. We’ve compiled a list for you!

1.       Holidays

2.       School Dates (Meetings/Breaks/Testing schedules etc.)

3.       Squad members birthdays

a.        If this is important to you, if not just skip it. But we always feel like remembering the little things like birthdays can really go a long way in to building morale and respect.

4.       Cheer Camp Dates

5.       Team Bonding Days

a.        Again, building morale here, sometimes it helps when you schedule days that aren’t for practicing but just for hanging out with each other as a team. Helps break up the monotony of practicing and brings everyone together.

6.       Games

7.       Competitions

8.       Practices

9.       Your own personal dates

a.        You know, your vacations, appointments, and basically any days you are unavailable so that you don’t accidentally double book yourself on team things.

Uniform Organizer + Cost sheet

Keeping track of who you ordered from, how much you spent, when you bought things is challenging if there is no organization. This sheet will help you keep it all together with dates, vendors, item descriptions, costs, order numbers, and any additional notes you may have about the order (i.e. exchanges, returns, issues, etc.

Shoe Sizing

When it comes to simply ordering shoes for your team, it’s a mess when not done properly or with the right vendor *cough* Cheer and Pom *cough*. Haha Just kidding!

What we really want to emphasize is staying organized throughout the whole process is crucial. If you scroll down we’ve given you a roster form for ordering. Simply fill out the roster, email it to us, and we’ll start the order for you PLUS because we have your roster, we will label every single shoe with each squad member’s name and the order number – makes it easy to distribute and easy to reorder.

Just last week we outfitted a team with Practice shoes, game day shoes, competition shoes, training shoes, AND team backpacks. You think we’re kidding – promise we’re not. You know how hard it would have been for this coach of a 75 person organization to keep it all together? That’s why we made it easier for her a hassle free list of who received which shoes and which sizes.

This way, when midway through the season a girl comes to her saying she lost 2 pairs of cheer shoes, she can quickly reference which style shoes she received and in which sizes. SO helpful and headache free!

Okay, okay enough shameless plugging, moving on….:P

Photo from Pinterest

Routine Organization

As a coach you should remember all the routines by heart BUT what you probably don’t remember is the exact spacing and formations that get tweaked with every single practice. Keeping all routines together in a simple template makes referencing little things helpful when no one can seem to remember what they’re supposed to be doing. This form can include where the routine is performed, the formations/spacing, cheers, which song you’re using etc.

Practice Planning

Practice is obviously important but can often become unproductive and lack focus when no plan is set. In this sheet, you should lay out each practice before hand with goals and topics to go over. No, you do not have to set every single practice right this second for the entire year, but at the beginning of the week would be great. On each sheet, you should also make notes as to what happened, what you want to focus on for next week, and what incentive you can give the squad if they work hard.

Signed responsibility sheets

At the beginning of each season, you should have every single person and their parents sign a responsibility agreement. No, it is not for you to use as evidence in court or anything serious like that. It is used more as a commitment than anything else. This simply means that they know and agree to what is expected of them, the behavior they should exhibit, and everything else that comes with the responsibility of being on a team. This holds each team member AND their parents accountable. That way they can’t come back to you and say they were never informed on a rule.

Competition checklist

How many times have you had someone on your team forget something for competition? Um, try every time? Below is a checklist you can print off and hand to every single person so that they do not forget anything. They can even quiz each other on the checklist to make sure they’ve got everything. More organization, less panic! Did you miss our previous post on competition checklists? Check it out HERE

Ideas/Important Notes/ Important Contacts Etc.

The last remaining sheets are just extra note sheets for you to have handy. Anything that comes up that you need to remember goes on these sheets. You’ll be kicking yourself if you forget something important or an amazing idea for part of the routine. Write it down!

Other ideas

We’ve only touched on the major points here but there are so many other things you could include in this binder. Some ideas we have are Eligibility requirements, Discipline information, Safety guidelines, School/organization policies, Officer Roles (captains, etc.), Parent Commitments, or maybe even Social media Accounts to stay connected with your squad. Anything that you might want to reference at a moment’s notice instead of digging through paperwork.

We know, this is slightly time consuming…but a PERFECT Sunday afternoon project. Once you finish it all, it will feel amazing and you will feel totally in control of everything. We swear!

Plus we have a nice little BONUS for you guys, we’ve included free downloads of all the organization sheets you might need throughout the season. Click {HERE} to download.

Do you have any other helpful tips + advice for all of the other coaches out there?! Let us know! We'd love to spread your words of wisdom!