SportsEngine Saves Club Founder ‘Hundreds of Hours’ Every Season

Two years after founding a volleyball organization focused on teaching and positive reinforcement, Patrick Rausch realized his homegrown website and basic registration process were holding the club back.

"SportsEngine saves me hundreds of hours each season with their Registration tool alone."

Name: Patrick Rausch

Organization: Out of System Volleyball

Position: Founder, Club Director, Coach

SportsEngine Tools Utilized: Registration, Sitebuilder

Patrick Rausch never shies away from an opportunity to learn. Mistakes and stumbling blocks open doors to exciting chances for growth—a mantra he preaches to his athletes, coaches, and, regularly, to himself.

Two years after founding a volleyball organization focused on teaching and positive reinforcement, he realized his homegrown website and basic registration process were holding the club back.

What he was up against

Out of System Volleyball of Spokane, Washington, was founded in 2015 and quickly grew to include 50 athletes with six club teams and one national travel team. Founder, Club Director, and Coach Patrick Rausch quickly realized he didn’t have time to do it all, especially when website changes took weeks to implement and registration consumed more than 500 hours of his time every season.

What SportsEngine did to help

After a recommendation from a friend and fellow club director, Rausch researched SportsEngine and chose to create a custom website and use the registration tool to move the entire process online.

What the impact was

Patrick Rausch founded Out of System Volleyball because he wanted to change sports culture and move away from the disciplinary atmosphere that some coaches and clubs employ. “We want to teach them skills and not be afraid of making mistakes,” says Rausch. “We talk about learning opportunities and work on skills.”

For Rausch, his coaching philosophy mirrors how he runs his business—pain points become opportunities for growth.

“When I started the club, I built a website with the help of an athlete’s parent, and soon realized I made a mistake,” says Rausch. “It was rarely up to date, changes took weeks to implement, and it couldn’t host online registration.”

“Registration was just problematic for us,” says Rausch. “I tried to do it online, but it was too expensive to work directly with a bank. So, I did the whole thing on paper, accepting cash and checks. I bet I spent more than 500 hours working on registration every season.”

After a recommendation from a friend, Rausch investigated SportsEngine and discovered the time and money he could save with the Registration and Sitebuilder tools.

“SportsEngine saves me hundreds of hours each season with their Registration tool alone,” says Rausch. “All I do is submit a form online and they build it for us, then parents go online to register and pay—saving me a bunch of time and the club a bunch of money.”

“The website is also a huge plus for me, as I don’t have to wait for someone in IT to make changes for me,” says Rausch. “I can post schedules, stats, photos, and videos instantly—the parents, athletes, and coaches love that.”

“It can be hard for startup clubs to initially see the value in investing in a platform like SportsEngine when you think you can save money by doing a homegrown website and paper registration,” says Rausch. “But doing it all yourself is too time-consuming and too much work.”

“SportsEngine is so user-friendly and easy to learn,” says Rausch. “Plus, if there’s ever an issue or question, I can get answers from them 24/7, it’s fantastic.”

Rausch is emphatic when speaking about the potential of expanding his organization with the help of SportsEngine.

“There are very few things in my life that I get excited about and stay excited about, but SportsEngine excites me,” says Rausch. “I can keep learning more and adding new features— I have nothing but praise.”

“You need to use SportsEngine. It’s well worth the money.”