Naming Guidelines and Best Practices

The names that you select for your organization, sports, teams, and facilities can have a substantial impact on the usability of the system for your members. A consistently applied naming convention helps users quickly locate and understand information such as game schedules, practice schedules, and locations. Here are some of the key fields, where they are used, and best practices.

School/Program Name

Where Visible

• User dashboard - visible at the top of the dashboard when users first login.
• Always visible at the top of the navigation menu.
• If the user belongs to multiple communities, visible as a selectable community in the "Other Communities" section of the navigation menu.
• Schedules, standings, and everywhere game information is displayed (unless overridden by the School/Program Nickname below).

Best Practices

We typically recommend using a name that reflects the norms adopted by your community and a name that members of the community are most familiar with. This helps give users confidence in the information in the system and the communications they receive.

Many communities use formal school or program names. For example, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School. In other cases, abbreviations, such as St. Thomas, are used. 

Larger leagues may need to consider the addition of a city or neighborhood suffix to distinguish between programs with similar names.

School/Program Nickname (optional)

Where Visible

• Schedules, standings, and everywhere game information is displayed.
• If a nickname is not entered, the School/Program Name will be used.

Best Practices

Nicknames can be used to make schedules more readable by reducing the length of school/program names. If some of your communities have longer names, such as St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, the information on the schedules will become very crowded and difficult to read. When possible, it is better to use a nickname for the school/program to avoid overcrowding. Instead of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, for example, the nickname could be defined as St. Thomas or STA. 

Sports Season Name

Where Visible

• Everywhere a user is able to select a sports season, such as the Sports Schedule screen.
• Sports selection menus on websites
• Administrative screens

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Best Practices

• Select a standard naming convention and use that consistently. That will prevent confusion and help members navigate to the information they need more quickly.
• For most communities, we recommend prefixing the sports season with the school year the activity will take place. For example, 2024 - 2025 Basketball or 2025 Baseball. 
• For league sports, it can help to include the league name or abbreviation in the sport name. This can help member communities distinguish between league sports and sports defined by a school. For example 2024 - 2025 CYO Basketball. 

Division Name

Where Visible

• Schedules, standings, and everywhere game information is displayed.
• Everywhere a user is able to select a division, such as the Sports Schedule screen.

Best Practices

• Avoid long division names when possible. Because division names are a key component of the schedule displays, long names can make the schedule appear crowded and can make it difficult for members to locate the information they need.
• Be consistent with your division names from year to year, especially if using abbreviations. For example, if you use the acronym VG as an abbreviation for Varsity Girls, use the acronym consistently. Your members will quickly understand the usage and will remember it from season to season.

Conference Name

Where Visible

• Schedules, standings, and everywhere game information is displayed.
• Everywhere a user is able to select a conference, such as the Sports Schedule screen.
• Sometimes displayed in a separate column, other places display the conference name alongside the division name encased in parenthesis, such as "Varsity Boys (East)".

Best Practices

• Avoid long conference names when possible. 
• Conference names can be reused across divisions. For example, if you typically use conferences "East" and "West", those conference labels can be defined once in a sports season and then applied to each division that requires conferences.
• Every community has different needs, but we typically recommend assigning conference names only when splitting divisions into conferences for the purposes of scheduling games. Otherwise your list of conferences can become very long and cause confusion for administrators.

Team Link

Where Visible

• The team link is only visible to members on their home page (the main page in the app that appears after they login.
• Users can click the team link to access team communications for coaches and parents.
• Note that team links are not displayed on schedules or anyplace else in the system.

Best Practices

• Provide enough information in the team link to allow members to distinguish between teams. For example, a parent may have children playing on multiple team and in multiple sports and the same time. The team link should allow that parent to quickly determine the team they want to access. For example "2024 Basketball Varsity Boys".

Team Nickname (optional)

Where Visible

• Nicknames are typically used to help members distinguish between teams while viewing a schedule whenever a school has more than one team in a division.
• If entered, the team nickname is displayed just after the school name on schedules and standings.

Best Practices

• Use nicknames when necessary to distinguish teams in the same division, but only when necessary. Because they take up space on the schedule, unnecessary use of nicknames can cause schedules to appear cluttered.
• Select a convention for your league and apply it consistently. Most leagues use either coaches' names or school colors as nicknames.

Venue Name

Where Visible

• Venue names (such as gyms or fields) are displayed on schedules and wherever game information is displayed.
• The schedule automatically displays the name of the venue host (school name, program name, or league name) before the name of the venue.

Best Practices

• Make venue names brief, but descriptive enough for members to identify the venue. Often something like "Gym" will suffice. 
• Do not enter your school name as part of the venue name. The schedule automatically displays the school name so if you add it to the venue name, the school name will appear twice and cause the schedule to become crowded and difficult to read.
• Always enter a full address for your venue. When you do, the schedule will automatically display a link members can click to view and map and get driving directions.
• Enter a description if extra information is needed to help people locate the venue. The description is displayed when members view game details and will soon be included in event reminder messages.