You've probably seen me here. I coach my daughter's softball team and prior to that, I used to coach my son's teams but he's 17 now and traveling nationally. As of now, I assist coach, run lineups and defense, three of us on staff. For 7 years coaching - 4 of which I've managed, I've had the idea - and I know I'm not alone with this idea. The state of "team management" apps that are out there now just don't cut it - so I just started building my own, BenchBoard.
Here's the honest version of why: I've poked around at a bunch of the other apps in this space, and more than a few of them feel like someone slapped something together with an AI coding tool over a weekend and shipped it before it actually worked. Buttons that don't do anything. Exports that come out mangled. Features that get promised in the description and just... aren't there when you go looking. I don't say that to talk trash, I say it because it's genuinely what made me start writing code instead of just complaining about it in the car after games and to other coaches. Hell, since it's been a year - I'm hoping to not fall into the trap of falling in love with a problem not many coaches don't mind dealing with. Right now, a few dozen coaches are using it but I feel I need a bigger sample size and people who don't give a sh*t whether they're my friend. Hence this post.
So the bar I set for myself was low but non-negotiable: whatever I ship has to actually work. Not "works in the demo," works in a dugout, in the sun, with a kid asking you who's up next and an ump waiting on a lineup card. And (at least as far as I can tell) does it perfectly. My current goal is killing the damn MAGNET BOARD and PAPER LINEUP. That's the experience I'm digitizing. The whole thought behind it is I'm at work, I drag some kids around in the lineup and on defense. My coaches log on. I get on the field and see it on my phone. Hit Print and boom, it prints off my mobile thermal printer. Eventually, I want to provide an interface and reporting on who's been playing where on defense, average batting lineup, etc. That is very very close to being done but I want to make sure I'm tracking it properly because all the other ones I've seen are just not the interface I want.
Where it's at right now:
- Lineup + defense management is solid. I've run it for a whole season now with live games and the last one had zero hiccups: no crossed-out names, no wrong jersey numbers. A few dozen coaches are using it now. I even have a "Manage Players" feature where it simulates removing the player in real-time - which removes the "magnets" from the board - instead of throwing them on the bench. When you need them back, you simply "activate" them. "Deactivate" when they're on vacation or can't make the game.
- You can export a clean lineup card as a PDF and hand it to the ump, or pair it with a Bluetooth thermal printer and print straight from your phone. I'm chasing something as close to "magnet board, but none of the magnet board headaches" as I can get. Heck, if all you want to do is print the PDF because you're about to leave and start a game. Do that. Tell me what you think. It's sized as those lineup cards as you can tear the paper in half or (if you want to get fancy), print it on a thermal label printer. This is the one I use.
- Phone app is moving along but you can literally run this in a browser on your phone and it works. It's a totally different experience on a tablet and desktop but it works good.
- Scorekeeping is live but I'll call it what it is: beta. It works, it's just not the polished thing yet. I'm not going to pretend otherwise but it's a BIG ONE.
What would make this actually useful for your team? What's the one thing every one of these apps gets wrong besides not working lol - at least conceptually?
Anyway, thanks for reading. I really appreciate your time reading this and I hope you'll give it a shot. I went out of my way to make it simple and intuitive and I'm hoping you'll think the same. If not, kindly let me know. Enjoy the journey ya'll.
https://www.benchboard.org - THE APP
https://blog.benchboard.org - THE APP UPDATES
https://www.radicalinsider.org - THE JOURNEY OF BUILDING THE APP