Starting a Beer League Team the Right Way

The Beer Leaguer:
0:05

So maybe you finished learning to play class and you're ready to ramp up with a brand new team. Or maybe you've been playing beer league for ten years and decided you want to go off on your own and do something different. Either way, you need to know the steps to starting a new beer league team. In this episode of the Beer League podcast, we're going to talk about starting a new beer league team. All right, so you are starting a What do you need to know? I mean, obviously you need to You know you got to get that Hopefully you've gotten that Find people. Find them somewhere. Either they're people you know or they're people you've met at are in a learn to play class. And you know, the next step is to create a team to join a regular league. Something gotta find skaters to How many skaters you have? That's kind of personal have huge rosters of twenty some know only a certain amount are Some people like to have a huge amount of skaters show up, you know, kind of depends on the team. Make sure that people are on the First off with that, also, some people like to have very small rosters because they know, hey, these ten, eleven, twelve people are going to show up like every week. And that's all we want. We don't want anybody else. So, you know, figure out that before you decide you're have enough people. I've seen a lot of people that hey, it's me, my three buddies. We want to start a team and they get maybe one or two other people. They don't have a goalie, and team to play on. So first off, get that figured Now that that's out of the way, what other kind of stuff do you need to know for starting a team? So I've had a lot of questions from a lot of these beginner what are some things I need to So this is kind of the first you do to start a team? There's a couple things you need brand new team. One. I think the first things you I know it sounds dumb. You know, you don't think of You think of like all this other You're probably twenty steps that kind of works for a lot of figuring stuff out. So you have to figure out a name A couple things you can ask out a team name. Uh, do you want something people to know. If you want something that's hard for people to say, if you want something that is going to look good on a jersey or if you want it to be a funny abbreviation. Uh, got to think about logos. We'll get into that. But that's something also to You can also just use real team Uh, you know, real professional A lot of people do that. But I will say, be careful if you're using it. Uh, if you're just playing beer league and, you know, copying an NHL team or something like that probably shouldn't be a big deal. But if you, you know, call your team the, I don't know, the Minneapolis Blackhawks and you have like full Chicago Blackhawks gear on, and then you decide to start selling stuff or making Blackhawks gear for your team. Probably okay, but it can get a Uh, possibly. So just something to think about Uh, if you don't care about just having the team for beer being a problem. So just something to think So when thinking of a name for is something I asked, uh, asked up with beer league names, of the same couple names. A lot of places, like I feel teams called the Mighty Drunks something like that. Uh, there's a lot of those out So you can do one of those. Uh, but what punch punched into league team name. And what it told me is there's three main categories for team names. And I kind of agree with this category one is the pun team name. Category two is the beer league is the mascot name. Uh, and a couple examples. And I will have many more Many, many more, uh, a couple It has for like a pun team name is stuff like the puck buddies or Puck Norris or Puck dynasty apparently just thinks putting puck into everything makes it punny. But you know, you get the idea Uh, then it has some of the ideas for the Beer League humor team name is things like the Benchwarmers or the Rusty Blades. Uh, these are very, very PG versions of these, I will say as well. Uh, and then also finally for the, and then finally for mascot names is kind of, it's just animals really is what it comes up with. Uh, so it's got like ice wolves, rats is another one. There's a lot of teams out there that have those, uh, all these kind of have their pros and cons. It's kind of what are you going Um, you know, something that great thing for logos. Uh, if you're having trouble have like a cool logo that want a name from that, that Uh, if you want something that's know, funny to say. Great. Pick one of those, you know, names or something, but also be Some leagues won't let you put I mean, definitely no one's going to let you do anything like explicit. But some leagues, that line of So be aware of that of how, uh, can make those names. I've seen people that really you know, they're fine when they then if they want to go play an something like that, you know, they can't use their name. So just be aware that not every single place handles this the same way. Uh, so if you are hoping to do play in your local league and else, uh, like I said, play in things like that. Be aware that if you're doing something that you think is really clever and, uh, I'll say cheeky, uh, be aware that that might not be accepted everywhere. All right. So you have to come up with your You got your name. Then you got to have a logo, some kind of a logo for your team. Uh, there's a couple different make a logo, uh, right along you need a logo for your team. Not as hard as it sounds. Uh, there's really just a couple Uh, one, you can do like a Uh, you know, there's a lot of like some kind of like crossed something in it, you know, a picture of that there. Again, this is where kind of mascot or something like that, us up to be really easy, you generic like crest or shield picture that has to do with For the team name in it. That's another really simple way Uh, also, some teams just have like a picture of a puck with, you know, whatever it is on it, you know? So if you are called like, I don't know, the bears, you know, you have a picture of a, you have a puck with like a bear on it or a bear paw or something super easy. You can probably do that Uh, very easy online. Uh, you know, way to do that. Um, be thinking about with your something that actually is going Uh, so things that are super, super intricate can be tough to put on a jersey and make it look good. So be aware of that. You kind of have to think of all You can do them in steps, but You know, if you pick a team something be associated with it. It might be hard to make a logo looks really cool, but it's got going to be tough to get that No matter how you get jerseys made, that's going to be tough to do. So you kind of have to keep all this stuff in mind when you're doing this. You know, it's again, putting it But they all do go together. Now, if you don't want to have just a logo like that, like a very generic logo, or no one on your team knows how to do any design, this is a good thing to ask around. Maybe you have someone on your great Photoshop skills, you actually a graphic designer on If you don't. Another thing you can do is hire Uh, there's sites out there like Uh, if you guys know that, uh, logo, usually for fairly cheap. Uh, I would say you can probably under fifty bucks. Uh, made up for you. Not a, not overtly expensive, different results, all kinds of You can try and hire someone on Fiverr is just the one that I Uh, The people that you are they might have some sort of polishing of your logo design Some places do, some places Find out. Maybe you can just kind of go your jerseys done and go, hey, Can you come up with something? You know, that might be a very Uh, this is also where I think really help out using some of you can go, hey, you know, I This is our team name and maybe want or the colors of the team something like that and have it options of logos. And this is something you can keep refining and refining and maybe do it yourself, or come up of close to what you want, and you're hiring out, or to the journey and saying, hey, this is Can you help us, you know, a little bit better? This is, I think, a great use for some of these AI tools out there, like ChatGPT and stuff to help you out with your logo creation. This is a great way, I think, to there to help not completely scratch, but give them some over to a professional on Fiverr generally what we want. Here's kind of what I would like to do different or do better, or to whoever is doing your jerseys if they have this option as well. Uh, there's a lot of places out Um, obviously there's like Canva has some, uh, tools Uh, Google Gemini has their All these things, you can give type out something. And like I said, you can keep or just get a very basic kind of uh, what you see in your head easily pass along to people. So whichever option you choose, to get logos made. Uh, again, you can also just copy a logo from a pro team, but we talked about the caveats of that. A couple of things to keep in mind is, like I said, the simpler the logo, the better it's going to look on the jersey. No matter how you get stuff be for them to print, and to be for you to get it printed, jerseys you get. And like those tiny details really get tough to put on a jersey. Uh, if you have like, like I said, a lot of small detail, it gets tough, especially depending on how you get your jerseys made. That can be near impossible to So keep that in mind. All right. Along with getting your logo like I said, these things all So need to have team colors. Probably it's what's in your complementary to your logo. If your logo doesn't have a lot mind when you're doing this, play, you're going to need a And by light jersey, I mean So something that's going to have for a dark jersey, you or anything like that. Just some sort of a color jersey So make sure that the logo is going to look good on that and that there's colors you can use for it. You can be a team that just has a completely blank white jersey with a logo on it and nothing else. That's what you want to go for But if you want something looks a little bit nicer, you know, you have to figure out for like, uh, you know, shoulder colors and striping and things like that. So you need to have some sort of probably come from your logo or Uh, generally you want colors that contrast and look good together. I mean, there's like classic red and white, navy and white. Uh, what a lot of people will do l e c h l whatever. Uh, league you prefer pick like a jersey blank from one of those places and use that for their jerseys. You know, they'll go, hey, I want black and white jerseys. So we're going to go with the LA Kings home and away jerseys because those work well with our logos. A lot of people do that. That's how a lot of jerseys are And a lot of companies can make jerseys, have these blanks or have the stuff set up for these blanks. You can do that. No problem. So that's something else to Um, or even just use it as a add like a third color into a But you want to use mostly what It's a great way to use as a Uh, there's a bunch of stuff out there that, you know, the colors go together. Well, they look good. So, hey, you have a lot of Use them. One caveat I do want to say when seen, and it's very annoying. So please don't do this is I see like away jerseys. So your non white jersey, whatever color it is, don't have large swatches of white on your away jerseys. It makes it very confusing. So if you're a team that has say go with like a blue jersey, you main color for your away jersey. Great. That's a fine color. Don't have like, oh, yeah, our, are all white or the whole side stripe up and down it. Something like that. Don't do that. That's, that's just annoying for you, you know? Uh, you can have white jerseys, giant sea of white like that for And by the same token, if you're jersey don't have a huge part be some other color that's going opponent to see. And it's just kind of a jerk Don't do that. All right. So we've got all the elements for your jersey. We've got a team name. They gave us a logo. We've got team colors. We've got an idea of what we want our jersey base to look like. So now you have to put together, create some jerseys for your team. Uh, things that you have to When you go in and use jersey Jersey design tools out there. Again, you can use all the AI tools to help you come up with something. I'm going to link to as many of and can find that I think are at the beer dot com. So you don't have to worry about find this stuff on your own. There's a ton of them out there, I will make sure to link for you So you're trying to make your Uh, things you have to think Do you have just a big center That's what most people have. Do you have shoulder logos? Are they different logos? Do you have different logos for You can totally do that. You can get as crazy as you want If you. If you really want to. Numbers. Most leagues require every every number on their jersey. Uh, there's some pretty standard numbers, uh, that people use. You can find those again, I'll for that kind of stuff, but jersey font numbers out there black, white, white with black outline kind of thing. Uh, definitely want numbers on If you want, you can put numbers Uh, you could do that as well, I guess if for some reason you want to put numbers on the front. Sure. You know, your jersey's do Uh, finally, kind of with the couple of different ways you can You can get every jersey with Uh, if you get them printed, you can have them printed with names on it. You can get separate name bars. Uh, that is just like a piece of fabric that has the name on it that you somehow attach to the jerseys. You can get them sewn on, which is the professional way to do it. I have seen teams that have like Velcro sewn onto the jerseys and then Velcro on the name bars, so they can replace the name bars very easily. Uh, because they have a lot of people moving through the team like that. So if you want to do something along those ways and people don't want to keep their jerseys. That is an option to do that as I do plan on doing in the very completely about jerseys. Talking about the different printing techniques and ways Kind of cost summing all that So I'm kind of skipping over a we're going to do a full, is a lot of stuff to consider So we're going to look forward Finally, we have to talk about if you want to get matching socks and pants, or if you want to get real crazy and have people matching, you know, their gloves and their helmets to the team. I know teams that do that, uh, a inadvertently because everybody So it just kind of works. Some teams, there are teams out to have everybody have like the because red is their one of And so everybody gets one. You know, think about that. I mean, that's not a decision That's the decision for the going to buy new equipment, uh, Uh, socks, pretty standard, you're getting jerseys from. I'm sure you can get socks from, that, you know, that match your, You can also get pants that match if everybody again, this happens a lot of times because pretty much everybody has black pants. Uh, but you can also get covers There's a lot of, you'll see pro goofy Jersey Knights. They will have, you know, their say, overalls, and then they pants that look like overalls, match that as well. So that's not tough to do with Now, it's pretty easy to get Uh, but they're all going to be thinner sock, not the like That you're thinking of. That pretty much every hockey Tons of that are, you know. Usually very basic. They're usually one color with That's almost every NHL team Uh, so those are very generic. People obviously have those, but matching socks or if your league socks, you can definitely get up for whatever colors you have Or if you want to have funny I've seen, you know, the teams overall stuff where it looks overalls because of the jersey shells for their pants and then You can get all that stuff too. All that or none of that. That's the team decision to figure out how you want to do that. Because also then every time you team, they're going to need the So either buying extra of these things or, you know, making sure that you can buy a small amount of these every year is super important. So next thing up, when you're something you have to consider. Consider how is it going to be More than likely you're not team every year. So are you going to kind of keep and hand it off to the next going to have to give up their whatever they have or ever. You're going to order new. And can you order, you know, one or two jerseys or do you have to order, you know, a minimum of twelve? Some places have that. And you know, if you only need wanna order twelve jerseys. So something to keep in mind, and especially with the places that you are working with and talking to. Now, if you're ordering jerseys tournament or something like You're probably never going to But if you are doing this for a hopefully keep going for a Something to consider there. All right, so you got your new Everybody's outfitted. You're looking sharp. What else do you have to do for Well, as you know, here on the podcast, one of the things that we talk about all the time is team culture. And that can be all sorts of We talk about it on almost every It gets touched on. It can evolve in a lot of different ways, but if you have a new team, you can create a lot of this stuff that really helps out. Creating a good team culture, some of this stuff, to try and and build a camaraderie right You know, this is the kind of stuff that one people remember, uh, years later, this is, this is what people will remember for things. But this is also the things that get people to want to be on your team. This is the stuff that people maybe their team's not doing. And they go, wow, I really want Sounds like you guys are having fun, and it's a great recruitment tool for getting people. Uh, so don't just think that it's just a fun, goofy thing to do. It can also be a great get new players. This kind of culture stuff, which can seem small and seem kind of silly, is really a big deal for things to also getting people to keep coming back to the team year over year over year and not going to other teams, or maybe just saying, hey, I don't have the time for hockey. This is the stuff that gets you know, having something to go having a skate for an hour. It's I want to go hang out with I want to go, you know, see my So I know we always emphasize that a lot of the stuff can seem silly, but it does make a big deal. But it definitely can make a big difference, especially for a new team. It's a great time to start it. This includes things like locker We've talked about on these Having things like player of the game awards and stuff like that, that you have every game that you establish. Having things like, you know, a I mean, it can seem silly, but can really go a long way to getting people to kind of bond over stuff. And that can be something that's just, you know, a text group, a WhatsApp group, whatever you guys use. Uh, to have some sort of way to about the games that you play updates, the things that are just talk about, you know, other send stupid memes about stuff All these different things. It's little stuff, but all these things can really add up and help create your locker room culture. Um, you know, we, we've brought up here many times things about like post game hangouts, uh, whether it's in the locker room, in the parking lot, at a local bar, uh, things like having a beer bucket also that can help people to hang out a little bit more and spend a little bit time and, you know, get to know each other better. Again, creating locker room So this is the stuff that when games are over, seasons are done with. This is the stuff that people really look back on and talk about and the stuff they remember fondly. So it's important, I think, to set that up early versus trying to create something like that later on. Uh, another thing that I think is very important when you have a new team is setting up a quote unquote good locker room and new teams. I think this is a lot easier for really try and do this stuff. And this can be kind of setting up not really hard and fast rules for things, but setting kind of the bar for where things are. And this can be things ranging from not talking politics in the locker room, you know, because maybe not everybody agrees on things. And that can be a hot button for some people to kind of what level of good natured ribbing do you have between teammates and who can you kind of include on that? Some people, you know, don't Uh, some people don't take even So kind of establishing that early on I think is super important. And especially for beer league, league is setting where the bar wanting to win and just being a there is generally a pretty but I think really establishing what you consider being, you things, uh, either being not being too competitive or really really establishing that stuff it is to run into these things stop it and explain to people So I think if you have a new establish a lot of this stuff and make for a good locker room. All right. So we've talked about all kinds Getting your first team ready. So you know you're all kitted socks and stuff like that. You've got a cool team name that You've got logos ready to go out You've established kind of your boundaries for making a good locker room. Well, what's left on ice stuff? Actually, having an actual team that can go out there and play hockey. And really, I think the way to to delegate this stuff out. A lot of these things don't work trying to do them. People can help, but having one of this stuff, I think really cleaner to keep track of stuff. So this is things along the lines of like, who's handling money? Somebody is getting paid for you Somebody is paying for that ice Who's handling it? Is it, you know, uh, you know, They're figuring out how it's They're making sure people are They can ask for payment however they want to, you know, are they asking everybody to pay in installments? They ask everybody to pay This is why it's one of those kind of be in charge of it and Rosters, who's handling the Who's handling, making sure you roster to begin with? Who's handling if you need to have fill in people or reserves, whatever your league calls it, who's making sure that those people are allowed to play in your league? Who's making sure that you always have a goalie you know is your goalie. If they can't make it, are they out to other goalies? Or is it someone else that the can't make it, you know. Does everyone use something like popular tool for kind of and out for games. Do something like that. And then someone is in charge of asking other people to make games. So you have a full roster of people to make it, or are they just like texting someone and letting them know, hey, I'm not playing, you know, next week or tonight. And then this person has to you know, the right number of right number of people is. You know, does your team only people on your roster and some you're fine with that? Or does your team want to have a everybody can show up? That's something that needs to be established and kind of figured out before you start playing games. One to set expectations for hey, three people called off. Do you need to call three people You know, establish these things And again, this is where I think charge of this is good to have. So you have a point person on When you're on game day, you know, are you making set lines for things? Do you care? Do people just want to play like set like, hey, this is one line. This is the second line. This is D pairing one. This is D pairing two. Do you want that? What happens if you have odd fit into that. If you have eleven skaters, you know, do you run five defensemen? Do you run three centers? What is your team like to do? Do you rotate wingers? So you have an odd, you know, three left wingers and two right wingers? Every team kind of does these the personnel that are there, preferences, things like that. But again, establishing a point helps versus showing up and five scrambling to figure out what And then finally, kind of the I think a lot of teams don't somebody doing this. You need to make sure somebody's got pucks for the games, because pretty much every beer league I know you need to bring your own pucks, so make sure you have those. And if you are doing something beers in the locker room after who's bringing those? Or is it everybody brings their Uh, things like that are just that is your job to do it. You can establish if it is someone's job to do certain things. Does that mean they get certain Uh, like if only one person is ever bringing beers, I assume they're either paying significantly less to play hockey or people are paying them regularly so they don't have to just pony up to buy beers every week. Uh, same thing. If somebody's bringing pucks, does that mean they get something out of it, you know, or are they just being nice in doing that? So establishing, establishing one just helps avoid confusion. There's gonna be enough crap If you can cut out some of this set up so people don't have to. Worry about everything. Just going to make your games a I think a lot more fun. So there you go. All the different things I can That you really should consider team for the first time, or starting up for the first time. Things to think about. Things you might not have Now, like I said, throughout any talked about, so be it Jersey image tools, things like that. I'll have links to everything I recommend and have used down with every episode, links to all thebeer dot com. Also, if you have anything else that I've missed about this or more insight into any of these topics, I would love to hear about it. You can always text the show with the link in the show notes, and again available at thebeer dot com. Many different ways to get a I'd love to hear if you have things I've talked about or This. And like I said, the upcoming come from listener feedback, so You can also leave a comment if leave a comment for. I would love to hear that. And I do read all of those. Uh, another thing that I would there is what's the best or league team name or jersey that I would love to hear about I have some fun ones that I've One of my favorites is when my the Hockey North America Uh, there is a group of teams jerseys that just have a big old pink And they're great. They're hilarious and great. And I love those and they're so So I'd love to hear some of the best or worst jerseys or team names or. Terrible pun names that you have I'd love to hear about that. Alright, so remember starting a It is one of the most fun things You're not just making a roster people an escape from their And usually the best and most fun teams aren't the teams that have the most success on the ice. They're the ones that have the All right. Thanks a lot, everybody. I'll catch you in the next one. And as promised, some of these league team names. We've got puck, luck club, Puck, you. Puck and beauties. The dearly beloved Brewskies on The Zam. Brewskies. Ice and ales. Suds and buds. The last call line. The broken sticks. Midlife crisis. The Danglers who can't dangle. The beer bellies. The. Almost good. The shin pad. Shufflers. The blue line. Bandits. The crease. Crashers. The slot machines. The five hole. Fellas. The red line. Renegades. Ice. Raptors. The frozen Bisons. Arctic foxes. Net results. Stick. Figures. The penalty box heroes.