Substitution plan when someone drops out
The message comes at nine on a Saturday: two are sick. Your plan was made for eleven names. Now there are nine, the game is in an hour, and you're standing in a parking lot with your phone in hand. Here’s what you do—and what to make sure doesn’t happen in the next game.
First: Don't Patch the Old Plan
The usual reflex is to cross out the two names and push the others up. That's the reflex that causes the problem. The plan you had was calculated for eleven players. If you cross out two and push the rest up, you haven't made a new plan—you’ve kept the old plan with holes, and those holes are filled by whoever happened to be next in line. It has nothing to do with who’s lagging behind in playing time. Instead, recalculate from the nine who are actually there.
The Five-Minute Calculation
Count the slots: number on the field times number of periods. Seven slots in four periods is 28. Divide by the number of players present: 28 divided by 9 is 3.1. Seven players play three periods, two play four—or vice versa. Those who should have the extra period are those who are furthest behind in the season. Not those who are in best form today, and not those who asked. It’s the only rule you need for it to be right over time, and it's easier to explain to a parent than any other criteria.
When You’re Too Few to Fill the Team
If you’re fewer than there are slots on the field, everyone plays the full game, and then there's nothing to distribute. That's the one day playing time isn't a problem. What is a problem is what the day does to the season: everyone who was there got a full game, and everyone who was absent got zero. Note that. In the next match, those who were absent are at the back, and should have the periods first. This is the most important reason to track the season totals at all. Without it, the game with nine players looks like a day everything went fine.
The Skewed Season, and How It Happens
A coach described it like this: if four players miss one game each, the remaining players end up with an uneven number of shifts — the variation can be between 20 and 27 shifts over the season, even though each individual game seemed fair. It's worth reading again. No single game was unfair. The imbalance arose in the sum because no one adjusted it next time. That's why it's not enough to distribute fairly today. You have to distribute fairly today given everything that's happened before.
Unexpected absences are the rule, not the exception
Plan for it. A team of twelve where everyone shows up every time doesn't exist in children's sports — there are vacations, illnesses, birthdays, and siblings with games at the same time. This means that a system that only works when everyone is present, in practice, never works. The way to test a setup is not "will this be fair if everyone shows up," but "what happens when three don't show up." The answer should be: nothing dramatic. You remove three names, and you get a new plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should someone who arrives late be counted as absent?
The simplest way is to count the periods she actually makes it to. If she's there from the second period, she's available from the second period, and those periods count in the season total as usual.
Does the one who was sick have to make up everything in the next game?
No, and she shouldn't either — that would make the game skewed the other way. It's enough to give her the periods first, game by game, until the difference is gone. It usually takes two to three games.
What about a player who is absent for half the season?
Then the total will never be equal, and it shouldn't be. What you can keep equal is the minutes per game she actually participated in. Say it out loud to the parent group, so you avoid the discussion in May.
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