Your Meet (& Every Meet) Can Now Be FREE of Entry Spreadsheets... Forever!


Isn't it about time you were using online registration instead of spreadsheets?

Most of you meet directors are coaches. I am, too. I am appealing to you as a coach (and as one who has occasionally done timing for a meet), not as your friendly, local MileSplit webmaster. I have absolutely nothing to gain financially from what I urge you to do in this article.

More precisely, I am a coach who really doesn't want to fill out even one more spreadsheet of entries for a meet. I will do it, if necessary, but it is so much more work--and produces vastly more errors--than online registration.

In the past, you had to pay for online registration. So, I got the whole spreadsheet thing. It was free, at least if you ignore time and effort. You no longer have to pay for online registration. So, I'm asking you to get online registration for your meets. Unless, that is, you're legitimately using address labels and poster board to keep track of athletes in your meet (a few meets still are).

Here's why:

1. It takes me far less time to click a radio button next to each athlete's name that I'm going to enter than it does to type out every name I'm going to enter.

2. There are far fewer examples of misspelled names, reversed first and last names, and missed athletes when online registration is used than when coaches are asked to fill out spreadsheets. And, athletes who were not entered but who show up on race day with a coach asking them to be allowed to run are a colossal headache for timers.

3. I don't have to remember each athlete's year in school when I use online registration.

4. If I use online registration instead of spreadsheets, that is one fewer e-mail that my AD and I have to deal with.

5. It is vastly more convenient (and far less likely something will get overlooked) for the timing company to upload a single file of uniform format than a dozen or two spreadsheets.

6. Neither you nor your timing company has to spend any time reinventing the wheel by coming up with a spreadsheet to use for your meet.

7. For the love of all that is simple and easy, is there a reason left on the face of this earth to use spreadsheets for meet registration? If there is, please let me know, because I can't think of one.

So, log yourself in, click on More/Online Registration. Then navigate the online registration wizard. If your meet has only one division, it is simplest to use HS as your division name. If you have a high school and a middle school division, use HS and MS as your division names. If you have problems or questions, e-mail me. Your online registration can be taking entries tomorrow!

If your meet had online registration last year and doesn't seem to want to activate online registration this year, please let me know. This is a known problem and an easy fix for me, but I need to know if you're having this problem to fix it.