To ensure the best experience for our student athletes, we encourage parents/guardians to get involved with team volunteering! Volunteers help with things like team dinners, post-race snacks, camp set up and more. Please see below for the different volunteer opportunities that you could get involved in. Thanks in advance! We greatly appreciate everything our volunteers do to give our athletes an awesome XC season! We will post sign-ups for the 2023 season on ParentSquare later this summer.
Ways to Volunteer:
*Team Dinner: Held the day prior to a Meet. 3 Volunteers to coordinate meal location, time, menu and RSVPs (if you don't want to worry about RSVPs, we have noticed ~40-50 athletes attending in the past). Please provide coaches with the info at least 1 week prior to give time to inform the families. Coaches do have a paper/plastic supply tub for team dinner hosts to use! Please have one of the volunteers pick up the tub after practice the week of team dinner if you'd like to use it and return to coaches the following Monday after practice so it can be restocked and given to the next team dinner hosts. Athletes are to bring $7 and their own water bottle/drink to cover the costs. If we don't have enough volunteers, we will cancel team dinner by the Wednesday prior to the Saturday meet. Volunteers in the past have recommended including gluten free and vegetarian options for dinner and having cash and Venmo as a payment options.
*Camp Set Up/Tear Down: Done the day of a meet. 3 Volunteers to coordinate supply pick up, transport to the race site, set up camp prior to bus arrival and transport back home (coaches and athletes will complete tear down after the last race). Supplies can be picked up at CHS after practice on Thursday at 5:45pm prior to the Saturday meet. The coaches will assist with loading and further instructions. The tent is ~5x1.5x1ft in dimensions so the transporting volunteer will require a vehicle with the space to accommodate. Coaches will send specific camp location/instructions by email if/when it is received from the meet organizer. (See the Meet Info page for race site addresses and race times). When you arrive to the race site, please follow the instructions of parking attendants/officials and/or use the camp location info to begin camp set up. Click here for video of tent set up. There are also picture instructions on the tent cover. We ask that tent set up is complete prior to bus arrivals but do not worry if it's not! We will try to have a coach arrive before the buses to assist as needed. After the meet, we ask that supplies are dropped back off to CHS after practice on the Monday following the meet at 5:45pm. After the last race of the year, please meet coaching staff at CHS immediately following Bus Drop Off at Watts MS. **THIS IS THE MOST HELPFUL OF THE VOLUNTEER POSITIONS TO THE MS COACHES**
*Camp Supervisor: Done the day of a meet. 1 Volunteer per race to supervise the camp site while athletes and coaches are away during warm-ups, races, cool-downs, etc, to ensure items are not taken/tampered with.
*Post-race Snacks: Done the day of a meet. 4 Volunteers to coordinate & provide pre-packaged snacks and drinks to athletes AFTER THE TEAM HAS COMPLETED COOL DOWN JOG & STRETCHING. Please ensure athletes are being courteous, i.e. not taking many of a particular item so that others will not be able to have any. Also, make sure to include peanut free options as we often have at least one athlete with severe peanut allergy. It would be very beneficial if 1 of the volunteers brings a table to set snacks/drinks on and a cooler with ice to keep snacks cool/to use to cool athletes off during a particularly HOT meet.
*Saturday Night Light Meet: Done the Saturday of the HS SNL meet. Volunteers to scan phones for parking tickets and direct buses and spectator/coach vehicles to their respective parking locations. This is not only volunteering but also the biggest fundraising opportunity for the MS as we will earn some of the meet profits if we help out! Volunteers should arrive 20min prior to their shift time to allow time to walk to volunteer check in and receive training on their task. Each volunteer should train their next shift replacement and notify the coordinator prior to leaving. THE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES USUALLY SEND OUT THEIR OWN SIGN UP FOR THIS LATER IN THE SEASON BUT WE'LL KEEP PARENTS POSTED! **EVERY FAMILY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 1 VOLUNTEER SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT**
*Team Awards/Banquet: During the week after GWOC. 1 volunteer to coordinator and recruit additional volunteers as necessary to organize and set up/decorate team banquet for awards at the end of the season. The event will be for athletes and their family members to attend - RSVPs to be set up by volunteer. Athletes will be free to attend but family members will be charged per person for their food costs (~$10 per person). See here for previous coordinator notes/timeline.
*Photographer: Done the day of a meet. 1 volunteer to take pictures of athletes and coaches during races. Coaches will create a Google photo album for the season and share the link so you can upload your photos directly to the album. We would appreciate if this could be done for at least one meet per year and if a volunteer(s) would like to do for additional meets, that is awesome. :) We can use these photos for the End of Season Banquet slideshow.
Ways to Volunteer:
*Team Dinner: Held the day prior to a Meet. 3 Volunteers to coordinate meal location, time, menu and RSVPs (if you don't want to worry about RSVPs, we have noticed ~40-50 athletes attending in the past). Please provide coaches with the info at least 1 week prior to give time to inform the families. Coaches do have a paper/plastic supply tub for team dinner hosts to use! Please have one of the volunteers pick up the tub after practice the week of team dinner if you'd like to use it and return to coaches the following Monday after practice so it can be restocked and given to the next team dinner hosts. Athletes are to bring $7 and their own water bottle/drink to cover the costs. If we don't have enough volunteers, we will cancel team dinner by the Wednesday prior to the Saturday meet. Volunteers in the past have recommended including gluten free and vegetarian options for dinner and having cash and Venmo as a payment options.
*Camp Set Up/Tear Down: Done the day of a meet. 3 Volunteers to coordinate supply pick up, transport to the race site, set up camp prior to bus arrival and transport back home (coaches and athletes will complete tear down after the last race). Supplies can be picked up at CHS after practice on Thursday at 5:45pm prior to the Saturday meet. The coaches will assist with loading and further instructions. The tent is ~5x1.5x1ft in dimensions so the transporting volunteer will require a vehicle with the space to accommodate. Coaches will send specific camp location/instructions by email if/when it is received from the meet organizer. (See the Meet Info page for race site addresses and race times). When you arrive to the race site, please follow the instructions of parking attendants/officials and/or use the camp location info to begin camp set up. Click here for video of tent set up. There are also picture instructions on the tent cover. We ask that tent set up is complete prior to bus arrivals but do not worry if it's not! We will try to have a coach arrive before the buses to assist as needed. After the meet, we ask that supplies are dropped back off to CHS after practice on the Monday following the meet at 5:45pm. After the last race of the year, please meet coaching staff at CHS immediately following Bus Drop Off at Watts MS. **THIS IS THE MOST HELPFUL OF THE VOLUNTEER POSITIONS TO THE MS COACHES**
*Camp Supervisor: Done the day of a meet. 1 Volunteer per race to supervise the camp site while athletes and coaches are away during warm-ups, races, cool-downs, etc, to ensure items are not taken/tampered with.
*Post-race Snacks: Done the day of a meet. 4 Volunteers to coordinate & provide pre-packaged snacks and drinks to athletes AFTER THE TEAM HAS COMPLETED COOL DOWN JOG & STRETCHING. Please ensure athletes are being courteous, i.e. not taking many of a particular item so that others will not be able to have any. Also, make sure to include peanut free options as we often have at least one athlete with severe peanut allergy. It would be very beneficial if 1 of the volunteers brings a table to set snacks/drinks on and a cooler with ice to keep snacks cool/to use to cool athletes off during a particularly HOT meet.
*Saturday Night Light Meet: Done the Saturday of the HS SNL meet. Volunteers to scan phones for parking tickets and direct buses and spectator/coach vehicles to their respective parking locations. This is not only volunteering but also the biggest fundraising opportunity for the MS as we will earn some of the meet profits if we help out! Volunteers should arrive 20min prior to their shift time to allow time to walk to volunteer check in and receive training on their task. Each volunteer should train their next shift replacement and notify the coordinator prior to leaving. THE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES USUALLY SEND OUT THEIR OWN SIGN UP FOR THIS LATER IN THE SEASON BUT WE'LL KEEP PARENTS POSTED! **EVERY FAMILY SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 1 VOLUNTEER SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT**
*Team Awards/Banquet: During the week after GWOC. 1 volunteer to coordinator and recruit additional volunteers as necessary to organize and set up/decorate team banquet for awards at the end of the season. The event will be for athletes and their family members to attend - RSVPs to be set up by volunteer. Athletes will be free to attend but family members will be charged per person for their food costs (~$10 per person). See here for previous coordinator notes/timeline.
*Photographer: Done the day of a meet. 1 volunteer to take pictures of athletes and coaches during races. Coaches will create a Google photo album for the season and share the link so you can upload your photos directly to the album. We would appreciate if this could be done for at least one meet per year and if a volunteer(s) would like to do for additional meets, that is awesome. :) We can use these photos for the End of Season Banquet slideshow.