Sideline Away questions

Sideline Away is a free web app that helps a youth sports team plan an away tournament together. The team manager shares one link, and every family can say whether they are coming, help choose the hotel privately, see when to be at each game and how far everything is, order team meals, tick off a packing list and join plans between games. It all syncs to their own calendar.

Any youth sports team travelling to a tournament: the volunteer manager who organizes the trip, the families on the team, and the coach, who can add team rules like arrival times and curfew. Families going to a tournament can use it too, even if their manager isn’t organizing one.

Every youth sport. You pick your sport when you sign up, and the app uses the right words for it, like rink, field or court. It was built by hockey parents, so hockey details like several rinks, early ice times and stay-to-play hotels are handled well.

No. Sideline Away is a web app. Families open a link from their team manager in any phone browser and answer a few quick questions. There is no app to install. If you like, you can add it to your home screen so it opens with one tap, like an app.

Yes. Your team stays set up for the whole season. Families join once, and each new tournament or away trip you add shows up for them, so there is nothing to re-send.

Yes. Anyone on the team, manager or parent, can plan a team event: a team dinner, an end-of-season party or an outing. Families say who’s coming, the meal can take pre-orders, and the restaurant gets the order by private link.

Yes. The manager picks the expected weather, like cold, snow, rain or a hotel pool, and Sideline Away suggests a packing list for your sport that they can edit and send. Each family ticks things off and can add their own items. What a family ticks stays private; the manager only sees how many families are all packed.

Yes. Each person can add their team to the calendar on their phone or computer: iPhone and Mac, Google Calendar or Outlook. Games come with the address and when to be there, plus the meals and events your family is going to. When a game moves, your calendar updates by itself. You can also add a single plan with one tap.

Yes. Sideline Away shows drive and walk times between the hotel, every venue and the team’s plans, worked out with Google Maps, and marks anything 20 minutes or less on foot as walkable. Directions open in your phone’s maps app.

Whoever runs the meal adds a link to the restaurant’s menu, or a few set options if the restaurant offers a group menu. Each family types what each person would like before the order-by time, with a private allergy note. When everyone coming has ordered, the meal manager is told, and they send the restaurant one private link with the whole order grouped by jersey number. The restaurant can confirm they’ve got it.

Sideline Away is free for youth sports teams and families.

The manager copies the team’s invite link and posts it wherever the team already talks: a TeamSnap message, the group chat or an email. Families tap it, pick their player and answer. It takes about a minute.

Yes. Sign in with TeamSnap and Sideline Away brings in your roster, so families only have to tap their player’s name. You can also skip TeamSnap and type or paste the roster in, or just share the link. Game times are added in a minute, and changing one updates every family’s plan.

No. Families book their own rooms with the hotel or the tournament’s booking link. Sideline Away helps the team decide where to stay and shows everyone how to book and by when.

Sideline Away works inside it. When a tournament says teams must stay at its partner hotels, only those hotels are offered, and families are sent to the tournament’s own booking link. Our guide to stay-to-play explains how these rules work.

The manager picks a short list. Each family privately says which hotels work for them and what matters, like budget, a pool, breakfast or parking. The manager sees totals, such as how many families each hotel works for and the drive time to every venue, and then makes the call.

No. Your budget and preferences are private. The team manager sees totals only, and small numbers show as "a few", so nobody can work out which family said what.

That is fine and nobody is told. "Not this time" is never shown to other families, and plans have an I’m In and a Maybe button but no list of who said no.

As little as possible: a player’s first name and jersey number, so families can find their player, and for younger siblings who travel, an optional first name and an age range like “under 5”. No birthdays, no photos and no tracking of where anyone is.

Only if you say yes. When you sign up there is a separate, unticked box for news and tips from the Sideline Sports Network, which includes Sideline DJ. Trip updates, like a game time change or the hotel being picked, show in the app either way. You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time.

Sideline DJ and Sideline Away are both part of the Sideline Sports Network, built by the same hockey parent. Sideline DJ runs game-day music and player announcements. Sideline Away plans the trip to the tournament. Each works on its own, and you do not need one to use the other.

No. It was built by hockey parents and works for any youth sport that travels: ringette, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, football and more. The wording follows your sport, like rink, field or court and puck drop or first pitch, and the packing list suggests the right gear.

Yes. One Sideline account signs you in to both apps. Your Sideline DJ teams and your Sideline Away trips stay separate, and using one app never shares your family’s trip details with the other.