Build a Free Soccer Team Website using Google

We're just about finished here with our 2nd AYSO soccer season. My hat's off to all of you moms and dads who volunteer tons of time and effort to make their kids' sports activities go smoothly. The kids had fun, got fresh air, exercised, and learned a lot. I would like to pass on my experience in building a website for our son's team, the Rhinos. It wasn't one of the assigned jobs, like banner, which I also did, or referee, which my husband did, but it sure was fun to try out my website-building skills on everyone! I hope the kids got a kick out of seeing themselves in action on their home computer screens.

When I started looking into developing a website, I checked out the AYSO option on their home page. They use Clubspaces, which charges $19.95 for the site, of which $5 is donated to the region. I figured after everyone has paid for AYSO fees, donated banner money, sponsorship, and other expenses, the last thing parents wanted was to spring for another item which is just an add-on. So on to Google. Owners of Google accounts have free access to many tools that suit this project well. I wasn't trying to start an online business, I just wanted to share information, photos and videos with friends and family. FREE was the perfect price in this case.

The Google services I used to build and manage the site are Google Sites and Picasa for the photos. I also used YouTube to hold a few videos.

Google Sites gives the option of making sites public or private. With private sites, viewers need the site administrator's permission to access the site. My opinion is since there were going to be pictures of our kids on the site, we would want to keep it amongst ourselves. The parents were added to the access list, as well as any friends or family they wanted to add. All they had to do was give me e-mail addresses of people to add.

To access the site, viewers need a Google account. They do not have to have a Google e-mail address. They can use their current e-mail address to open a Google account if they don't have one. To view the site, they first log into their Google account, then navigate to the site's URL.  For some reason, this was a hard concept for some.

Don't be surprised if there's someone (like my mom) that's techno-phobic and can't seem to get on board. I had to create her account for her, then e-mail her the password.

1. Go to Google.com.  Click on "Sign In"
2. Click on "Create an Account Now" which appears below the words "Don't have a Google Account?" on the right side of the screen.
3. Enter your current e-mail address.
4. Think of a password and enter it. Re-enter your password.
5. Choose or de-select "Enable Web History." Whatever you like.
6. Location should be "United States" but then again, maybe not!
7. Type in the funky looking anti-spam letters
8. Click on "I accept. Create my account." below the Google terms of service.
   

You now have a Google account. After the season ends, Google accounts can be deleted if desired.

To delete a Google account:

1. Sign in to your account
2. From the Google classic home page, click "Settings" in the top right corner of the page
3. Select Google Account Settings
   
4. From an iGoogle home page, click "My Account" in the top right corner of the page
5. Click on "Edit" which appears next to "My Products"
6. Click on "Delete Account"

After signing into your Google account, go to "more" with an arrow pointing down.

Then scroll down to click on "Sites." You will get a page to set up your site name, description, sharing public or private, and template design. Don't worry about which template to choose, you can go back and change it later. Type in the funny looking letters and click "create site".

This isn't meant to be an HTML session or a website design tutorial. With Google sites, you choose a template, then start typing and creating pages. You can add images, photos, tables and even widgets. I tried to add a weather widget but it took too much space and I couldn't get it smaller. What I'll share are the pages I ended up with on the Rhino team site, with screen shots as visual aids.

• Home Page - welcome statement, banner pic, navigation links to the other pages, and instructions on how to get on the access list and sign up for a Google account. I added a key contact list (coach, referee and team parents' names and phone numbers)
  

• Game Schedule - date, time and place/field info for each game, plus who was responsible for bringing snack each week.

• Team Roster and Contact List - names, photos and short bios of each team player; full names, addresses and phone numbers of all team member families.
  

• Rhino Soccer News - news and pictures of the most recent game.  Each week our coach would write an article about the game, always in the spirit of highlighting our players' accomplishments and encouraging team spirit. I would post it here along with a Picasa photo album in slide show format from that game.
  

Picasa works similar to Flickr or other online photo albums. You create a Picasa account through Google, upload your photos, group them into albums. I used it to embed slideshows of each game's photos on the Rhino site. With lots of pictures, I figured viewing a slideshow was better than scrolling down a huge page of photos.

• Photo Album and News Archive - as the weeks went by, I would just move last week's news and photos from the Rhino Soccer News page onto this page so I could update the Rhino Soccer News page with the most current game.
• Instructions on how to make an AYSO Soccer Banner (which has turned out to be a popular hub so far!)
• A referee's corner, where our team referee re-published the rules and philosophies of AYSO soccer (to have FUN!) and gave tips on game rules that were appropriate for the age group.
• Lastly, there were links to the AYSO home page for our region.

I got some ideas by visiting the websites of professional soccer teams, like Manchester United and Los Angeles Galaxy. I liked how they included biographies of all their players, so I tried it myself. If anything, it was good experience because now I think I have the tools to build a simple website for any small organization we might be involved in later. And it was fun to do!