Team parent duties: the season checklist, from rides to the party

If you have been asked to be team parent, you want to know which duties come with it and where the role stops. Below is the checklist for each part of the season, what is not a team parent's job, the difference with a team manager and how the role works in Koach.

What does a team parent do?

The team parent is the link between the coach and the parents for everything that is not volleyball. How much the role involves differs by club and by country. Clubs use different names for it: team parent is the most common, many American teams say team mom or team dad, and some clubs talk about a parent rep. There is no job description that fits every club, so agree the duties with the coach at the start of the season.

Almost every youth team comes back to the same duties:

• Rides to away matches and tournaments, so it is not the same three parents driving every week.
• Keeping parents informed about practical things: departure time, meeting point, what to bring.
• Fielding questions and passing them on: you answer the practical ones yourself, questions about the sport go to the coach.
• Helping on special days, such as a tournament, a team outing or the end-of-season party.
• In some teams: running the team fund or the rota for snacks and washing the kit.

Team parent duties for each part of the season

At the start of the season

• Agree with the coach who communicates what. One channel for practical messages, and clarity about which messages come from the coach.
• Ask which parents can drive and how many seats they have, including the driver.
• Set up a duty rota if the team uses one; there is a template in the team snack schedule template.
• Send the parents one welcome message saying what they can expect from you. Examples of such messages are in the letter to your team's parents.

Every week

• Check who is coming to the away match and whether there are enough seats.
• Let that week's drivers know it is their turn, with the departure time.
• Field questions from parents. If a question is about playing time or the lineup, refer it to the coach.

On match day

• Make sure everyone knows who they are riding with, on the way back too.
• Be the point of contact if someone is stuck in traffic or running late.
• Help new parents find their way: where the gym is, where they can watch.

Tournaments and outings

• A tournament is a long day with one ride there and one back. Sort out food and drinks, and share the timetable once the coach has it.
• For an outing or camp: drivers, costs and who is going.

At the end of the season

• Organise the end-of-season party or wrap-up, perhaps with a thank-you for the coach.
• Close the team fund and show where the money went.
• Write down what went well with the rides and what did not, and pass it on to next season's team parent.

How do you communicate with the other parents as team parent?

Most of a team parent's work is sending messages, and that is also where most things go wrong. Four habits help:

• One message a week, on a fixed day. Parents who know the practical information arrives on Wednesday do not start asking on Friday.
• Answer first, then explain. "Saturday: leaving 12:15 from the sports hall, drivers: ..." reads better than a paragraph that starts with the opponent.
• Practical things in the group, personal things in private. A question about one child or one family does not belong in the group chat.
• No debates about the coach in the group. If you get criticism about the lineup or playing time, thank the parent for raising it and pass it on. Tips for that conversation are in agreements with parents on the sideline.

What is not part of a team parent's duties?

The role works best when it stays small. Leave these things with the coach, even when parents bring them to you:

• who plays, the lineup and playing time;
• what happens at practice;
• judgements about players and next year's team selection;
• conflicts between players or between a parent and the coach.

Flagging things is fine. "Three parents asked me about playing time" is useful information for the coach; the solution is up to them. And you do not sign other children out either: the player does that, or their own parent.

Team parent or team manager? A team manager handles all the organisation around a team, such as the gym, the forms, the player registrations and the equipment. The team parent does a smaller part: rides and the parents. In a small team one person often does both. Everything a team manager does is in what a volleyball team manager does.

How does the team parent work in Koach?

In Koach, team parent is not a separate role but a switch on a parent who is already in the team. The coach turns it on via Profile, My teams, the team, the Parents list and then that parent's name: there you find the Team parent switch with the explanation "Arranges rides". Before switching it on, the app asks for confirmation: "This parent will see who is coming to matches and tournaments, and can create and edit the driving rota. They cannot change anyone's sign-up." The steps are in appointing a team parent.

What the team parent can do after that:

• The Match tab. An ordinary parent only has Dashboard and Schedule; the team parent also gets Match. There they see for each match who is coming, who is not and the reason given with a decline. Their own child is listed as "Your child". They cannot change any sign-ups. For a match that has been played, they see the summary and their own child's numbers.
• The driving rota. Under Profile, their team has a Rides row. On Drivers they enter who is driving and with how many seats, and on Schedule they see for each away match whether there are enough seats. Generate schedule has the app share the trips out fairly by kilometres. Tournaments are listed as "Not in rides"; you arrange those separately. How that works is in the driving rota for away matches.
• Add driver. If nobody is assigned yet for an away match, they see the Add driver button on that match.

What they cannot do: sign other players in or out, see the team's practice attendance or schedule matches. The team parent has existed in Koach since September 2026; in version 3.0 the coach manages it from a single parent sheet.

For parents, including the team parent, the app is free. The coach or the club pays for the subscription; the amounts are on the pricing page. More about how parents, players and coaches work together in one team is in managing a volleyball team.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

Appointing a team parent to arrange the transport Driving rota for away matches: sharing the driving out fairly What does a volleyball team manager do? The task list

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