FAQs

The top-level organization in Small Ball — it has a name, a sport, a public page (at its own URL), and its own Seasons and Divisions. A League can run everything itself, or it can open itself up to one or more independently-run Programs.

An independently-run organization inside a League — think of a town's club or booster organization that runs its own teams under a shared league umbrella. A Program picks which of the League's Divisions it wants to run, sets its own fees for them, fields its own Teams, and can connect its own Stripe account, all separately from the League and from any other Program in it.

A League is the umbrella; a Program is one organization operating under it. A League with no Programs just runs everything directly (fees live on the Division itself, one shared Stripe account). Once a League has Programs, each one is a separate self-contained operation: its own registration, its own fees (via ProgramDivision), its own Teams, its own payment account — the League just provides the shared pool of Divisions and Seasons they can opt into.

A standalone Program is one that was set up via "Start independently" instead of joining an existing league. Behind the scenes, Small Ball still creates a League to hold it — it just hides that League's multi-program admin screens and folds everything into the Program's own dashboard, so a small, single-program group never has to think about "leagues" vs. "programs" at all.

Yes — a League can host any number of Programs, each running its own registration independently, alongside (or instead of) registering players directly at the League level.

A time-bounded period for a League, like "Spring 2027" or "Fall 2026" — it has start/end dates and, optionally, registration open/close windows. Every Division belongs to exactly one Season.

An age or grade bracket within a Season, like "8U Coach Pitch" or "12U." A Division defines who's eligible (by age range or school grade), and — for a League with no Programs — its own fee, capacity, and payment due date.

Because more than one Program can offer the same Division (e.g. two town clubs both running "10U" this season), and they don't have to charge the same price. A Program "opts in" to a Division and sets its own fee, capacity, and due date for it — the Division's own fee is only what's charged when a League registers players directly, with no Program involved.

A roster within a Division — belonging to a League directly, or to one of its Programs. A Team carries its own color, sponsor info, home field(s), and schedule of games, plus plain-text coach contact info separate from any actual coach login (see the next question).

A Field is a physical playing location — a name and optional address. Fields are managed once per League (or per Program) and shared by every Team in it, regardless of which Division that team plays in, so you're not re-adding "Memorial Park Field 2" separately for every age group.

Every Team has plain-text "Coach name / email / phone" fields — just contact info shown to parents, no login involved. Separately, a Team can have real, login-linked coach accounts who can sign in and manage the team themselves. Entering an email in the "Coach email" field on the team sets up both at once: it's shown as contact info, and that person also gets signed-in access the moment an account with that email exists.

An admin can assign (and reassign) players to teams freely while building rosters — that never notifies anyone by itself. A team only shows as final once an admin clicks "Finalize rosters," which emails every affected parent and shows the team everywhere in the app. If it's been a while, check back later or ask your league/program admin when rosters will be finalized.

Only that player's own team's coaches, and your league/program's admins — never other parents, and never a coach of a different team. Medical notes are also encrypted at rest in the database, on top of that access restriction.

A self-serve way for coaches or parents to claim open time slots — a gym/field reservation, a concession-stand shift, anything with a time and a limited number of spots — without an admin assigning everyone by hand. An admin builds the slots and publishes the sheet; from there, anyone eligible can claim (or release) a slot themselves.

Both are just TeamEvents — non-game team happenings like a practice, picture day, or team party. "Practice" gets its own filter tab on the Schedule page since it's the one testers check most often; everything else (picture day, a team party, a volunteer shift) falls under "Other." A sign-up sheet's own Practice/Other setting decides which one its claimed slots count as.

PENDING PAYMENT means the spot is reserved but not yet paid for (typically a parent chose to pay cash/check in person). PAID means payment is confirmed, online or marked received. WAIVED means an admin has waived the fee. CANCELLED and REFUNDED mean the registration was removed or its payment refunded — those registrations no longer count against a division's capacity.

Pay online via Stripe (if the league or program has connected an account), or pay in person with cash or check — which reserves the spot right away and leaves it PENDING PAYMENT until an admin marks it received.

The league or program's own connected Stripe account — money goes directly to them, not to Small Ball. Stripe deducts its normal processing fee, and Small Ball's platform fee is taken from the same transaction automatically, so there's nothing to invoice separately.

A Guardian record is a parent/guardian's contact info (name, email, phone) tied to a player — it can exist before that person ever creates a Small Ball account, e.g. when someone registers on a spouse's behalf. The moment someone signs up with that same email, their new account gets linked automatically and they can see the player right away — that's what a "Not registered — no account yet" label next to a guardian means: the contact info is on file, but no one has actually signed in with that email yet.

If the correction means they no longer fit their current division, Small Ball flags it automatically. A simple case (registration still open, one obvious division to move to, no team or payment affected) moves them right away; anything more involved — already on a team, already paid, or more than one division it could fit — goes to your league/program admin to review and resolve instead of changing anything on its own.

Channels are scoped by audience so you always know who's reading: a league's own admin channel, every program admin or coach league-wide, a single program's own admins, a league-direct or program's parents, and each team's own parent channel. Pick the narrowest channel that reaches everyone you actually need — a team channel for one team's parents, a program- or league-wide one when you need everybody.