Many sports leagues are still running their registration and league management by paper.  Does this make sense?  Absolutely not.  Consider this:  the average home in America will have at least two computers.  Those computers are connected to the internet and web ready.

Recently, I taught a research and writing class.  I was suprised by how the research was done online and not the library.  I'm not sure too many kids know how to use the library.  A friend of mine teaches research and writing at one of the top law schools around.  That generation of kids--20-25 years old--is all online.  They do their research online.  They check scores, read the newspaper, read restaurant reviews, and of course they manage their schedules online.

That includes sports leagues.  These are the same kids who are having kids and rushing their kids into sports leagues.  They are the same ones who will be looking for online registration.  It's simply the way they live.  So if the leagues, tournaments, and clubs are to keep up, they need to get online.  Kids need to be able to sign up online, pay online, manage camps, teams and tournaments all online.  They even need to get text messages to tell them the latest scores and whether practice got cancelled or a game got moved.

It is the way things are, and the one thing we learm from these kinds of changes:  things don't go backwards.  Go online.

--William High is a freelance writer.