Simple Excel time savers.

People who are not using Excel spreadsheets for their various records are missing the boat. And it's time to get aboard. Which means finding a person who is semi-competent with computers and can easily show you the basics of Excel:

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Set up the spreadsheet and have you "Excelling" in about five minutes.

The following three examples will show you how to make your life instantly easier and more enjoyable. Even though Internet game scheduling programs have provisions for posting the scores of contests, an Excel spreadsheet offers a much easier alternative.

We aren't talking about the number of shots taken, the rebounds garnered, or who started, but rather the date of the contest, the opponent, and the final score.

This score sheet has to be affixed to the officials' vouchers in order to verify that the game was played and this packet is then sent to the Payroll Office for processing.

As part of this normal process, the coach photocopies the score sheet and I file it as a backup and an ongoing record for each sport. During the course of a season, I frequently get calls from the media or other coaches asking for a particular score or for the final record of a team.

Until I developed our Excel Score Log, finding the file folder and sorting through the individual forms to find requested information was tedious and time-consuming.

To create our score log, we entered the title "Score Log 2007-2008" on the first line in column D. On the 2nd or 3rd line, we labeled the following 7 columns:

* Column A -- Date.

* Column B -- Gender (boys' or girls').

* Column C -- Sport.

* Column D -- Opponent.

* Column E -- Level: V/JV, which represents varsity or junior varsity (if you have a freshman level you can also add that designation).

* Column F -- W/L for win or loss.

* Column G -- Score.

For ease and quickness, this score log stays on my desktop. Every morning, I enter the previous day's results using the score sheets and it doesn't take more than a minute or two to complete. The end result is a complete, ongoing record of all of our results.

One of the great features of Excel is that you can sort the data by all of the different categories that you have used. This is done by highlighting all of the information entered for each line. Click on the left-hand margin and drag the curser down over the entries. Next, go up into Data on the menu bar and select sort.

With data sort, you can group the information in whatever way is useful to you. For example, you can group the results for each sport, for only the varsity or JV levels, everything by gender and, of course, you can even see how you did in all sports versus a particular opponent. However, being able to group results by a sport is extremely helpful at the end of a season when this information is needed for the state tournament entries.

In like fashion, creating an Excel spreadsheet for all of the contact information for your coaching staff is invaluable. To create this data bank, you would start on the first line, perhaps column D, with the title--LRHS Coaching Staff 2007-2008 and then label the following columns:

* Column A -- Last Name.

* Column B -- First Name.

* Column C -- Street address.

* Column D -- Town.

* Column E -- State.

* Column F -- ZIP Code.

* Column G -- Phone number.

* Column H -- Cell phone number.

* Column I -- E-mail address--this has become essential in the last few years.

* Column J -- Social Security number--although you have to insure great care and security with this one. We need the coach's number for their salary vouchers at the end of the season.

* Other columns -- depending upon what other information you may need in your setting.

With this document, I put a copy on my computer at home, one on my laptop, a hardcopy (minus the Social Security numbers) in my briefcase and, of course, the master copy on my office computer. Quite literally, I always have easy access to my contact information for our coaches.

In addition, I usually add similar contact information for the assigners of officials, the bus dispatchers, and all other individuals who you might need in emergencies.

The obvious advantages of this coaching staff Excel spreadsheet is that you can change the year in the heading, delete all of the coaches who left your program, and you are ready to start the next school year. When you hire new coaches, simply enter their information. By sorting the data by last names, it is alphabetized and you have everything back at your disposal.

However, even the simplest Excel spreadsheet can be extremely useful. Most schools have a team uniform rotation system whereby the purchases are made in an organized manner that is fair to all teams. By using an Excel document, it is extremely easy to keep this order totally up-to-date.

In order to create a rotation for team uniform purchases, you really only need to use three columns of an Excel document. After entering your title on the first line or two, you use Column A for the # in the rotation. Column B indicates the team or sport, and Column C lists the date of the last purchase.

When you buy the next set of uniforms, delete the line for that team and enter it at the bottom of the list. Next, go to Column A and renumber all of the entries from the top. Now, you have a complete and accurate record waiting for your next purchase.

To create these three documents using Microsoft Word or even doing it by hand on graph paper would take a great deal of work. They would also have to be redone every time you wanted to update your records. Excel, on the other hand, makes these tasks extremely easy and quick. It is a must that will increase the efficiency of any athletic director.

By Dr. David Hoch, CMAA, Baltimore, MD