Configuring Athletic Events

Overview

Veracross defines Athletic events as group events with any one of the following event types: Game, Practice, Scrimmage, Tournament, Game/Multi-Opponent, or Athletics: Other. Athletic events can be found and added via the Athletic homepage using the links Find Athletic Events and Add an Athletic Event. The article below highlights the various features and functions of Athletic Events.

Event Details

Many of the event fields are straightforward, including Event Type, Start Date, Start Time, End Time, Team, and Home/Away. Some fields do include automation to assist creating Athletic Events. Learn more about the automation options for managing athletic events.

In the event of a game or tournament, the Description will be automatically populated with the team name, opponent, and either ‘@’ in the case of an away game, or ‘vs.’ in the case of a home game. Other event types require manually entering the description of the event.

Other details like Game Type, Out Of Conference, and School Level can be setup as well. If the event being set up is a make-up game, see the section below on tracking Make-Up Games.

An Away or Home location should also be set. The Home Location will always be a resource like a gym, field, or track. Away Locations are organizations. If the organization has an address, the mapping features can be used to find directions from home to the opponent school. The Away Location can be automatically swapped when copying events each year. Learn more about copying athletic events.

Multiple Opponents or Teams

In the case of a single opponent, use the Opponent field to indicate which school will be played. Alternatively, if multiple opponents are involved or multiple teams are participating in the event, choosing either Athletic Event or Tournament will enable an input grid for multiple opponents and a Teams tab on the Event. When multiple opponents are participating, the individual score fields on each opponent row should be used instead of the single Opponent Score field on the general tab of the Event.

Travel and Event Logistics

When travel is involved, tracking logistics can be important. The Logistics tab has a number of options for helping track important travel details.

The Food Option drop down and Food Notes fields are used to track specific details about how meals will be handled on the road.

Certain time fields will automatically be populated if other required fields like Game Duration and Travel time have been filled out. Read more in the configuration section here to learn more about adding this required data. Each auto update requires entering a Start Time. In addition, no values will be added to fields with time values already entered.

The following fields are calculated as follows:
Game End Time = Start Time + Team Game Duration
Leave Campus Time = Start Time – Team Early Arrival Time – Opponent Travel Duration
Return to Campus Time = Start Time + Team Game Duration + Opponent Travel Duration

In addition, an Event Logistics Checklist can be configured and used on an Athletic Event. Learn more about configuring the checklist.

To populate a checklist select the checklist template on the event. Upon updating the event, all checklist items within the chosen template will be automatically populated in the checklist grid. It is also possible to add checklist items manually if needed.

Event Communication

The Communication tab on each Athletic Event has a number of tools to help manage event communications. Sending Notifications to specific constituencies is a quick way for a user to send a preset email template with some specific details from Veracross. In contrast, the email distribution lists are used to send an email from a user’s email client after they have written the full email.

Email All Constituents

The first distribution list available is a tool to make emailing the widest group possible with updates about the event. The distribution list recipients are selected based on the event classification and visibility settings. If for example, the School Level classification drop down field is set to All School and Visibility is set to display on Student and Parent portals, all parents and students across all school levels would receive any email sent. This email distribution list should be viewed as the best way to email all people who most likely know about the event via calendars in other areas of the system.

Email Players, Coaches, and Parents

There are four links for emailing very specific constituencies each with it’s own logic:

• Email Players – Sends to all players on the roster
• Email Parents of Players – Emails the parents of all players on the roster
• Email Coaches – Sends to any person with a class permission record on the team whether they have the coach role or the other role
• Email Players, Parents, & Coaches – A quick way to grab all of the above

Event Attendance Distribution Lists

The distribution lists will email groups of people based on Event Attendance. A potential use of Athletic Event Attendance is a golf team who only sends specific students to games and uses Event Attendance to ‘confirm’ the attendance of some players, while ‘declining’ the attendance of others. Each group is based on a specific attendance status. These links will not be enabled until the Event Attendance Taken drop down is marked as either Yes – Default to Invited or Yes – Default to Attended.

Event Notifications

Each Athletic Event includes a system for sending quick notifications to specific constituencies. Each of the three email templates will need to have been configured (read more here for details on configuring event email templates).

The process for sending notifications is as follows: (1) Select a notification template; (2) Write the insert for the notification template; (3) Select one or more constituencies; (4) update the event record to send the notification.

Once the notification has been sent the notification options reset to ready the notification functionality to be used again. One specific feature of the notification system is that it can be used to notify persons assigned to event checklist items of event details.

Calendar Display Options

Athletic Group Events can be configured to display on the “My Calendar” of a student portal. In order for this to occur, the user must be a member of the team associated with the group event and the visibility on the group event must be set to Group Members. Athletic Event Types of Game/Multi-Opponent and Tournament will display on both the My Calendar display and the Athletics calendar.

Attendance Integration

Athletic Events can be set up to integrate with attendance, to automatically dismiss students from their other academic schedules while participating in an event. Doing so for Away athletic events can save time for teachers and others who track attendance. Start by indicating a Class Departure and/or Campus Return Time. If attendance integration is set up on games, any classes that are in progress during the Class Departure Time or take place after the Class Departure Time will be automatically updated based on the Class or Master Attendance statuses specified. Likewise, if the Campus Return Time is before the end of school, classes that take place after the campus return time will be left alone. Learn more about Event attendance integration: Group Event Student Attendance.

Make Up Games

When scheduling a make up game, create a new event for the makeup game as opposed to changing data on the event that needs to be moved. Keeping the games separate will best reflect what happened: one game was postponed, another was scheduled in its place.

Create the new game by opening the postponed game, use the Axiom copy feature to create a duplicate of the postponed game. Change the dates, times, and any other travel logistics. Ensure that the ‘Make Up’ flag gets checked during the setup of the make up game.

Note: if an event has any resources reserved (for example, a bus or a van) and the event has been postponed (or cancelled), this won’t automatically affect the resource reservation. That bus or van will still look like it’s “reserved”, and will not be available for others to reserve it if conflicts are not allowed. Delete the resource reservation when you postpone an event in order to “free up” the resource.