A Coach's Story: Why I Built Sub Wizard

I've coached my local youth team for three seasons now. I didn't set out to build an app, I set out to be the best volunteer coach a team could have. My son started in Under-8s, on lowered rings, on a team of boys who differed hugely in raw ability and coachability.

Basketball comes naturally to me. I've played with the same core group of friends in a local rec league for 27 years, long enough to know what makes a team special. I taught these boys what I learned: be a good teammate, look up and pass first, and give maximum effort.

My son loves basketball now, but that love wasn't innate, it took four seasons to build. Which raises the obvious question: how did he start loving the game in his fourth season, when I've only coached for three?

Here's the gap. I coached his first season, in Under-8s. We made the grand final that year, but the job wore me down. Long nights planning subs before gameday. New drills built to keep a court full of seven-year-olds engaged, week after week. By the end of the season I was going through the motions, running the same sessions on repeat. I started dreading training, dreading the effort of just rallying the boys to get through it.

A junior coach took over for the next two seasons, and I stayed involved as team manager. It was a tough stretch, the junior coach struggled to manage the boys, and we went winless in season 3.

I decided to return as coach for season four. We went from zero wins the prior season to making the semi-finals, and for the first time in a while, I started enjoying coaching again.

That was the season my son fell in love with the game. He told me I was the best coach in the world. As a dad, I don't think it gets better than that.

Season five brought eight players for the first time. Subbing three at once made it hard to manage fair minutes and strategy in real time. It got harder when parents ran late. Some games we'd start with only four kids on the court, and I wouldn't know who I actually had until tip-off. I knew there had to be a better way.

So I built Sub Wizard and kept refining it all season. Setting who started and who finished became effortless. I coded in the strategies I actually use: always a tall player on the court, always two guards together. To optimise rest, no one plays two segments in a row, and when the numbers don't allow it, the app tells me exactly who has to.

On gameday, even the best sub plan falls apart if a player doesn't show or comes late. So I built a fix: tap a name to mark someone absent, and the plan regenerates instantly, same rules, new lineup. And when equal minutes just aren't possible, you get to make the strategic call on who gets less minutes.

That's the app. I've been using it all season, and the real payoff surprised me: I finally get to watch the game. I hadn't realised how much mental space subs were taking up until it was gone. When the kids ask when they're subbing on, and they always do, I just glance at the app and tell them exactly how long, and who they're swapping with. No more arguing, the plan's already set, and they know it.

I'm excited to finally share it. If any of this resonates, I built this for you.