Updated! Team sports + Office Web Apps: Organize soccer, baseball, and more

Note: See the end of this post for updates on using Office Web Apps.

Community and youth sports teams aren't all about winning and losing. How involved and connected the coaches, players, and parents are is another measure of success.

Office Web Apps simplify sharing schedules, directions to games, and team stats for all kinds of community teams and leagues. Notify everyone when there's an announcement or important change to the schedule or roster. Update game locations and fund-raising info. You can even use the Web Apps to coordinate crucial details...like who's on snack duty for which events.   

Just upload your team docs and then share them with all of the participants -- from players and parents to coaches, volunteers, even fans.

Changes automatically get merged into shared schedules and documents, and everyone who needs the info can get to it in real-time from wherever they are: work, home, or on the road.

Compared to the alternative of keeping local files on everyone's computers, collecting changes through email, and then having to merge those changes back into one file and share it out again, the Office Web Apps free more time to enjoy the actual games. 

Getting everyone on the same page takes just a few steps:

1. Upload your team-related files at Office.live.com. (For full how-to's, see Upload documents to use in Office Web Apps.)

2. As you'll see below, I saved my file in a "Youth Soccer" folder that I created for the soccer team parents. In SkyDrive, I set the folder permissions for that folder to "Share with my friends and their friends" to make sure they could access everything for the team.

3. Share your team documents with other team members or parents. (See Share Office documents in Windows Live for more info on how this works).

The second image shows the email window. I selected the 'Require recipients to sign in with Windows Live ID' checkbox so that the other parents can edit the documents.   

 4. Now any parent can sign in with their Windows Live ID to easily access the same file, make updates as necessary, and stay on the same page. Even better, they'll be able to access these files from virtually anywhere.

Community sports leagues succeed thanks to volunteer efforts, so anything that can facilitate helping out and make these events easier to plan and manage can make a difference to all involved.

Updates:

If you're a busy parent, you might find this post useful: Excel Web App leads to healthier snacks for kids.

And read about the broad applicability of Office Web Apps:

• Office Web Apps now available worldwide
• Office Web Apps: Why they're the clearer connection
• Windows SkyDrive gets better with Office Web Apps

What else can we do to help?

Gary Kamikawa, Senior Marketing Manager for Office