Finding a Time That Works

Sometimes you don’t have a date in mind — you just want to play sometime this week and need to see when people are free. Headcount Buddy handles the whole thing over text: it asks your players when they’re available, figures out the best times, and creates the event once you pick one. Nobody installs anything.

Starting a time search

Tell the assistant what you want in plain language:

You: Find a time for a scrimmage this week

Assistant: Got it — I’ll ask the team when they’re free for a scrimmage this week. What should I call this one?

You: Weekend scrimmage

Assistant: Done. I’ve texted everyone and asked when they can play for a “Weekend Scrimmage.” I’ll let you know as responses come in. When are you free this week?

The assistant opens an availability request — sometimes called a poll — and texts your whole roster. Every poll gets a short name so players know what they’re responding to and you can tell your polls apart. If the name you give is very generic (like “practice”) or matches one you’ve already used, the assistant will suggest something more specific. You can always rename it later.

The assistant will also ask for your own availability right away — you count toward the headcount too.

One poll at a time: each team can have one active poll open at a time. If one is already running when you try to start another, the assistant will tell you which poll is in the way, who owns it, and when it expires — and offer to ask that person to close it so you can proceed.

How players answer

Each player gets a text like this:

Assistant → player: Hey! We’re trying to find a time for the Weekend Scrimmage this week. When are you free? Just reply in your own words.

Player: Free Tuesday after 6, Wednesday all day, not Thursday

Assistant: Got it — Tuesday after 6 and Wednesday all day, not Thursday. Anything else?

That’s all there is to it. Players just reply naturally. No app, no link, no account.

Players can:

Add more availability later (“Thursday morning works too”)
Change something they said (“Actually scratch Wednesday — something came up”)
Ask what they put down (“What did I say I was free?”)

The assistant remembers everything as it comes in and reads it back so there are no surprises.

Organizers can also ask what a specific player has recorded: “What did Alex say?” The assistant will tell you.

How the assistant finds the best times

Once responses start coming in, the assistant does the time math itself — you never tally anything. It looks at everyone’s availability windows, checks them against your event length and how many players you need, and figures out which start times would actually work for enough people.

A few things worth knowing:

It only surfaces reasonable times of day — nothing at 6am or midnight.
It accounts for gender requirements if your team has them.
Non-responders are tracked separately and don’t get counted as available.

If people answered at a day level (“free all day Saturday”), the assistant follows up to pin down a more specific time before declaring Saturday a winner. It might text the available players: “Saturday looks good for the group — what time that day works best for you?”

When the assistant has enough information, it’ll send you a summary:

Assistant → you: Here’s what I found for the Weekend Scrimmage:

A) Tuesday 7:00pm — 5 of 6 players free B) Wednesday 6:30pm — 4 of 6 players free C) Saturday 10:00am — 4 of 6 players free

Which one works for you, or want me to keep looking?

You can pick a slot, ask to keep looking, or narrow by a specific stretch (“show me just the Saturday options”).

Booking the event

Once you pick a time, the assistant shows you exactly who’s in, who’s out, and whether there are any conflicts before creating anything:

You: Let’s do Tuesday at 7

Assistant: Here’s the plan for Tuesday 7:00pm: ✅ Pencilled in: Maya, Jordan, Sam, Chris, Pat (5) ❌ Not available then: Alex

Ready to create the event?

You: Yes

Assistant: Done! The scrimmage is set for Tuesday 7:00pm. Maya, Jordan, Sam, Chris, and Pat have been pencilled in as probably in — they’ll each get a text saying a time was found from their availability and asking if they’re in. Alex wasn’t free at that time.

Players who are pencilled in get a text: “We found a time for the Weekend Scrimmage — Tuesday 7pm. Are you in?” They’re tentatively on the roster until they confirm. Everyone else’s RSVP stays untouched.

One poll, multiple events: you can use the same poll to create more than one event — for example, booking both a Tuesday session and a Thursday session from the same set of availability responses.

Managing your polls

As the organizer, you can:

See all your polls — not just the active one. Ask “show me our polls” to get a list including closed ones.
Rename a poll — “rename the Weekend Scrimmage to Fall Scrimmage.”
Close a poll — stops collecting availability and frees up the slot for a new poll. The responses you’ve collected stay usable until the poll expires, so you can still create events from them. When you close a poll, you can leave a note for the players who responded — something like “going with Saturday instead” or “court fell through” — and they’ll be sent a message letting them know the poll closed.
Ask someone else to close theirs — if another organizer’s poll is in the way, the assistant can send them a message asking them to close it.

When a similar poll ran recently

If you open a new poll whose window overlaps a recent one that just closed, the assistant automatically carries forward everyone’s availability from the earlier poll. Players get a text that says what was prefilled from last time and asks them to confirm or update — so nobody has to re-enter everything from scratch.

Matches against another team

The same flow works for scheduling a match. How it plays out depends on whether the other team uses Headcount Buddy.

Opponent not on Headcount Buddy

The assistant polls your roster, figures out when your team can field a full lineup, and gives you a clean summary to share:

Assistant → you: Here are the times your team can field a full roster for the match vs. Riverside Ravens:

— Wednesday 6:30pm (5 of 6 available) — Thursday 7:00pm (5 of 6 available)

Send these to the other captain and let me know what they pick.

Once the other captain chooses a time, just tell the assistant and it’ll create the match event and pencil in your available players as tentative.

Opponent on Headcount Buddy

When both teams use Headcount Buddy, the captains can coordinate directly through the assistant without any spreadsheet or back-and-forth texts.

Here’s how it works:

You kick it off: “Schedule our match vs. the Riverside Ravens this week.”
Their captain gets an invite: The assistant texts the other captain: “[Your team] wants to set up a match — want me to find a time with your players?” Their roster doesn’t get asked anything yet.
Their captain accepts: Once they say yes, both rosters get asked for availability independently. Neither side sees the other team’s players or their responses.
The assistant finds times that work for both teams. You each only see the slots where both teams can field a full lineup.
Either captain proposes a time. The other captain confirms (or passes, which clears it so a different time can be suggested). Only one proposal can be outstanding at a time.
The match is booked on both teams’ schedules. Available players on both rosters are pencilled in as tentative and each gets a text asking if they’re in.

If there’s no time that works for both teams within the window, both captains are told so they can widen the search.

If the other captain declines the match invite, you’ll be notified so you can reach out another way.

Questions or help getting started?

Reach out at help@headcountbuddy.com — we’re happy to get your team set up.