Throughout the season, a Team Manager does these things:
Bring all of the paperwork and fees needed to play on gameday to the field before the game.
Communicate practice and game schedules to parents and players, typically through Game Changer.
Confirm games by contacting the other team's coaches and managers using GotSport a few days before each game.
Handle team finances, getting funds from the club (LHSA) and paying referees.
Manage rosters and paperwork, including player passes ("cards") and game cards (which are not cards but printed sheets) that must be presented to referees before each game.
Arrange for the team to play in tournaments, if the team wants to.
Talk to parents and coaches to facilitate information exchange between them, and be available to answer questions.
Before the season, the Team Manager does these things to prepare the team:
Get all players properly registered and "carded".
If players or parents need help with the process, assist them if you can, or direct them to someone at LHSA.
Print player cards (these are usually laminated to withstand frequent handlng in all kinds of weather), and print the official team roster and any medical waivers or other information that LHSA gives you that may be needed at the field.
Set up the team roster for the season with jersey numbers and USYS IDs in GotSport, including any "club pass" players that your team may "borrow" from other LHSA teams.
Make sure every player has a uniform.
These are the things a Team Manager must do for each game. The schedule suggested here is for Sunday games, if you have games on other days, you should make adjustments.
Enter the score(s) for previous game(s) that you won. The winning team generally enters the score into GotSport.
Confirm the upcoming game with the opposing team. Check the game date and time in GotSport before you confirm it with the other team. Remember that GameChanger is not an official source of game information, it is only a convenience app that teams use for internal communication. GotSport is the "system of record" that has the official times and all communication between the two teams related to a game. See "Confirm Games With The Other Team, Through GotSport" below.
LHSA may have a spreadsheet of games with their dates, times, and locations where they want every time to confirm their game info. If so, confirm it based on the confirmation exchange you had with the other team, or if the other team never responded, confirm the date and time based on information in GotSport (not GameChanger).
Print the "game card" for the game from GotSport. This must be done less than 72 hours before game time, a game card printed more than 72 hours before game time may not be allowed. (This is because the league may designate players as ineligible due to concussion risk or sanctions from a previous game.)
Make sure you have player passes (or "cards") for every player, including any club pass players you are "borrowing" from another LHSA team.
Make sure you have the money for referee fees if you need it. (For MOSA, you only need referee fees for home games.)
The "game card" an 8.5x11 sheet of paper printed for that game on GotSport, listing the rosters (including coaches) of both teams. This must be printed within 72 hours of the game time, and not before, so you can't just print all of these out at the start of the season. You (or a coach, if you hand the sheet off to a coach) will give the game card to the referee, who will keep it, you are done with the game card at this point (you won't get it back from the referee). The game card should have the players' jersey numbers on it, and their correct USYS ID numbers (when a player is first rostered, they may have a GotSport ID instead of a USYS ID, and you need to change that). Make sure that the coaches who will be at your game appear on the game card by adding them or adjusting their "roles" on your roster if necessary.
You should make sure you or someone else has these things at the field and available to the referees 20 minutes before the scheduled game time.
Player cards for any player who will be playing or on the sidelines
The "game card", a form that referees use that lists the players for your team and the opposing team.
A printed roster on New Jersey Youth Soccer letterhead. (LHSA should have given you this in PDF when they gave you the player passes or cards, also in PDF.
Printed copies of medical waivers or other information, if LHSA provided them to you.
Referee fees, if you need to pay them (in MOSA, you need referee fees for home games).
For a game, the Team Manager needs to bring these things to the game, at least 15 minutes before the start time:
A "game card": This is a form you print on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper after generating it for the game on GotSport, listing the rosters (including coaches) of both teams. Either you, or a coach, will give the game card to the referee, who will keep it to record notes on the game that will be given to the league (MOSA). The game card should have the players' jersey numbers on it, and their correct USYS ID numbers (when a player is first rostered, they may have a GotSport ID instead of a USYS ID, and you need to change that). Make sure that the coaches who will be at your game appear on the game card by adding them or adjusting their "roles" on your roster if necessary.
The players' cards: You will hand these out to the players before they check in with the referee for the game, and get them back from the players or the referee once the pre-game check in is done. You might give the cards to one of the coaches, let the coach handle the check in, and get the cards from the coach after the game.
Referee fees: You may need to pay the referees. In MOSA (where most of the younger LHSA teams play), you (or the coach, if you want to give a coach on the field the money) pay the referees in cash, and the home team pays the full fee (the visiting team does not pay). There is a fee schedule in MOSA that depends on the age group, as of August 2024 there is a link to the referee fees on the MOSA "helpful links" page at https://mosa.gotsportsites.com/helpful-links/. You should pay them in cash using bills that allow them to split the fee among themselves. For example, for a 7v7 game in 2024 you pay them $140, but you shouldn't give them 7 $20 bills, because that cannot be split into $70+$35+$35.
The Team Manager must organize some things in the weeks leading up to the season. These things also need to be done for any new player who joins during the season.
Get Players Registered and Carded: This can be very time consuming for several weeks. Every player needs to complete several steps before they will be eligible to play in any game, and these steps can take up to a week so you do not want to wait until the last minute to check on progress and nudge people along.
Each player must:
Register: First the player must "register" for their team on the LHSA site.
Accept: Next, after an LHSA administrator processes to the registration in the system, the player will have to "accept" their roster spot on the team. They also choose a payment plan at this point.
Documents: Every player must upload a copy of their birth certificate and a "headshot" photo that clearly shows their head and face (like a driver license picture) to their profile on the LHSA system.
You have no way to tell whether a player has done any or all of these steps. You will get updates from LHSA once or twice a week on progress, so it can be difficult and time consuming to get everyone through the process if players and parents are procrastinating.
Once the player has done all three steps, NJ Youth Soccer (often called "the state" by LHSA people) must approve the player's documents. The state will verify the birth certificate and approve the player photo. If the state does not approve, you will have to ask the player to upload them again. This most commonly happens when the photo is the same one as a previous year, or the photo is taken from too far away and does not clearly show the head and face for identity verification on the field.
Coaches who want to monitor the progress of document acceptance by NJ Youth Soccer can log on to https://www.njyouthsoccer.com/ and see who is registered for their team with the state and which documents have been uploaded and approved. (Most teams do not do this and rely on LHSA to track it and give updates. I am not sure whether team managers can do this or only coaches.)
Make Sure Players Have Uniforms: LHSA currently (Fall 2026) uses soccer.com for uniforms. Every player needs to be set up in the system by LHSA administrators (Kay Bidle), who will need you to tell them the jersey number for each player.
Make Laminated Player Passes (Cards): LHSA will email one of the team managers PDF files with the player cards, which you should print and laminate so they will last the full year. You should make at least two copies so that more than one person has a set, because the team cannot play in a game unless someone in attendance has the player cards. I recommend using Staples print service with 7 mil lamination, which is thicker than most home laminators can make.
Print an Official Roster: Along with the player passes, LHSA will also email a PDF of the official team roster. You are supposed to have a copy of the roster at all games, the referees may request to inspect it (though I have never seen this happen).
Provide Club Pass Cards to Other LHSA Teams: Sometimes players will play on more than one team within LHSA if the game schedule allows it. For example a strong U9 player can be rostered on a U9 team but sometimes play games with the U10 team. If you have a rostered player that will play for another LHSA team, that team needs you to provide them with a copy of the player's card.
Create an Event Roster for the Season in GotSport: You need to make a roster for the "event" in GotSport that is your upcoming season, for example there will be a "MOSA Fall 2026" event. You should set the players' jersey numbers on the event roster in GotSport so that they print on the "game card" that you will take to each game (described below). The roster should have 10-digit USYS ID numbers for each player that either you or an LHSA administrator must set up. (Sometimes a player will have a shorter number which is a GotSport ID number and not a USYS ID number, and it is possible that a referee will not allow the player to participate in a game.) The USYS ID number will be on each player's card, which you will have a copy of before the season.
You will also need to make sure that the coaches (your parent coaches and Red Bull coaches) are on your roster. The Red Bull coaches may be different for each game and you may need to update your roster before printing each game's "game card" sheet. The best way to prepare for the season is to add all Red Bull coaches to your event roster, and then set their "role" on the roster for each game so that the coaches you want on the game card "outrank" the ones you do not need for that game. For example, an "Assistant 1" has higher priority on the game card than an "Assistant 9".
LHSA has some information about managing rosters at this link.
Add Club Pass Players to Your GotSport Team Roster: If a player on another LHSA team will also play games with your team, you need to get them on your roster in GotSport. You can figure out how to do this yourself if you know the email address used to register the player and the player's birth date. Most managers ask LHSA administrators to do it.
Game Changer is a free app available on Android and Apple devices that you can use to set up a team contact list for a season, send messages to the whole team or individual families, and create events and schedules for games and practices that your families can RSVP to so you know how many players will be able to attend a game or practice.
Remember that the information in Game Changer is not "authoritative", it is a copy of information you obtain elsewhere (usually from GotSport or LHSA) and it is only as correct as you make it. You should verify that your information in Game Changer for upcoming games is correct a week before each game by comparing it to what is on GotSport.
By the middle of the week (for upcoming weekend games), you should send a message on the message board associated with the match in GotSport to the coaches of both teams confirming the game.
The date and time of the game.
The color of the jersey your team will wear.
The field location.
Being very specific about the location of the field can prevent a lot of gameday headaches.
This is an example of what I might use as the confirmation message for a home game:
Hi Coaches, confirming our game this Sunday at XX:XXpm on our field, we will wear red. Use 241 Federal City Rd, Pennington, NJ 08534 as the address for driving directions. (Make sure to use that zip code or you’ll end up a mile away.) You enter from Federal City Rd at the eastern end of the fields, there is a parking lot entrance just north of Lawrenceville-Pennington Rd. Paste this link into a browser for a good clear picture/map: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1dNu5YadL3uvNFfkVcq1vsyItLHBquh5-8aTGbKZIgv4.
This is an example of a confirmation for an away game:
Hi Coaches - Confirming our game this Sunday May 10 at 2:15pm on your field at Ocean Road Elementary School at Ocean Rd and Benedict St. Is that the right location? We will wear white.
TODO, info on this.
TODO, something about this.