Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Pushing the Plan Forward

I took on an a rather intense project with nothing but negatives if I failed. The AA draft database and manual for Lakehead Minor.

Gathering registration info for 2 divisions from 6 organizations and then assembling them into books with sorted lists and groups was relativley easy. Creating emails to advise parents of their two tryout times and confirm jersey numbers was more complex, mostly because many emails included transposed letters.

The night of the draft was where the nerves got a good testing. One spreadsheet was used to display the picks. 180 players in each division. Tracking all of the chips and goalies and warning of duplicates picked. Another spreadsheet contained all the contact info for the players and as the draft ended it needed to print out a list for each team and then another for each association to let them know who was going where. I struggled to keep up in the first one as it started before I had entered the coaches kids and I played catchup throughout. The second went smoother.

2 entire drafts were completed in less than 2 hours. My work helped but coaches were basically well behaved which made all the difference. Handshakes came from many coaches who endured a long wait for lists after the draft last year. Any email exchanges today came with thanks for all the work.

Best of all I was asked to help run another large draft and get paid to do so. Maybe Kresack Consulting won't be a full time thing but this is a start.