The Soccer Chart
1.13 - Back to Work
Since Alabama’s loss to Louisville in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Round of 32, I haven’t opened Adobe InDesign on my computer.
An application that is vital to my game preparation suddenly goes dark with the end of basketball season. For baseball, I use a combination of Microsoft One Note and my scorebook to prepare for games.
But now as I get closer to my first play-by-play broadcasts of the new school year, it’s back up and running and putting my MacBook Pro to the test.
Last week I received my SEC Network+ Alabama soccer broadcast schedule. My first game is next Thursday, August 20 as Alabama welcomes in reigning Big 12 champion and NCAA College Cup participant TCU to Tuscaloosa.
Monday morning at my office it was time to fire up Adobe InDesign and get to work on my charts.
The term “charts” simply refers to the piece of paper I have in front of me as I call play-by-play for the game. There are many different terms for what announcers use as their “charts.” Many call these spotting boards, boards, spotting charts, spot charts, game sheets, etc. Usually I say “charts” just to keep it simple and the file name small.
I opened up my Alabama soccer chart from last year to have as a reference for building the 2026 chart.
I also opened “2025 Default Soccer Chart.” I went to Save As, then saved the file as “2026 Default Soccer Chart.” I went back to “Save As” and saved the file this time as “2026 Alabama Soccer Chart.” I repeat this process for every team this season.
While it’s tempting to just update my previous Alabama chart, the roster changes so much from one year to the next that I find it’s easier to just start from scratch each year.
My default charts for different sports are designed with little jokes for me to make sure I don’t miss anything when building up a new team. The logo placeholder is my high school logo, Dobyns-Bennett. I have D-B again as the placeholder for the team name. For the player boxes, each player has the same name.
Elvis will not be playing NCAA women’s soccer this season.
Humes High School is now a middle school, so I will not be seeing any players have that listed that either.
These little jokes as placeholders make sure I update everything with a new team. If all of a sudden I see “Alison Presley” as I work on her player notes, I know I still have work to do. If I see that Meredith Grey is still a trainer, I know she’s not helping out Mizzou on loan from Seattle Grace Hospital. It’s different but again it helps make sure I don’t repeat anything from a previous school’s chart.
Hasn’t played is the stat line, it will be filled in as the year goes along for soccer with goals, assists, points, shots, shots on goal, game-winning goals, yellow cards, and penalty kicks. For goalkeepers: games, goals allowed, goals allowed average, saves, save percentage, win-loss record, shutouts, minutes.
The final joke comes as the text placeholder for the player notes. That’s alright.
I always highlight the top line to serve as a headline. If I only say one thing about a player during that broadcast, I want it to be that. Examples might be:
Needs one more goal for the most in Alabama soccer history - 39.
Scored game-winning goal last match at UAB.
Sister Breezie also on UA roster.
Time to get to work. I first update the team colors, logo, and coach’s box then get to work on the roster.
I get everyone set numerically so they are easy to find during the game. Numerically makes the most sense to me, because I am so used to that format from years of basketball. I’ve also changed my football chart to be completely numerical, which is different from most broadcasters. I’ll write about football and basketball charts in the future.
I get the numbers correct, then go back to the player boxes and input the player names and information over Elvis and Humes High School.
Once the roster is done, I pull up the season stats and put all of the stats down. If a player leads a team in a stat, I will make that numeral bold so I quickly knows she leads the team with four goals. I shade this box light grey for starters from last match, it makes it easy for the starters to stand out when I look down during play.
I then get to work on the player notes, looking for my one sentence headline to introduce that player to the audience.
Below that, I put either key career or season stats from earlier in their career. Possibly some high school accolades or interesting facts. I love it most when I can put something from the head coach talking about the player. I use purple font for anything said by a coach.
For example, Alabama head coach Wes Hart on Tide goalkeeper Madi Mungia:
Hart: Incredible athlete, covers a lot of ground, quick, everything you want in GK.
The right side column under the school logo is reserved for team notes. There I have basic notes like last season, this season, the preseason SEC poll, series notes, last match, next match information. Below those basics that are on each chart, I can get into notes like “Winning at Home” or “Overtime Success” or “NCAA Tournament History”. Many of these notes correspond with specific graphics that we’ll use on air during our broadcast as well.
After those notes are done, I use whatever space is left in that column or below the player boxes to paste transcripts from our conference call with the head coach of that team.
Leading into the game for the SEC Network we’ll have a 30 minute Zoom or sometimes phone call with the coach of the team. I along with my analyst and producer will ask the coach questions about their team, individual players, sometimes the conference or sport in general. I take furious notes on it during the call to apply it to my charts.
I like to use quotes about players in their own boxes, but if they go in depth I can have it all right on the page to quickly reference during the game. Yes it’s all in small print and I rarely read any of it verbatim on air, but it’s extremely helpful to have, especially in the time leading up to the game.
At the bottom right I have quick team stats, featuring key stats for both teams head to head, with the team that leads the category in bold.
Here’s the finished product, from last year’s Alabama-Northwestern NCAA Tournament first round game.
Now I’m a week away from Alabama against TCU for my first match of the season. Both teams are starting their seasons this weekend, so I’ll wait to put in the stats until we see those results come in. But I have a good grip on rosters and basic information for both teams ready now. From there, it’s all about adding in the details with stats and information from our coaches calls.
For any broadcasters starting their seasons this weekend, godspeed in your preparation. Get organized any way you see fit, whether it’s by hand or using computer programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign like me.
It’s nice to have my InDesign window at the front of my MacBook again. This preparation work that starts in August will continue through March.
I just need to remember to hit save, print, and call the game.
Tide Thoughts
Speaking of soccer, Wes Hart’s team started the season with a 2-1 win over Saint Louis on Wednesday night. Ashley Roni and Larkin Thomason provided the goals for the Crimson Tide.
Ashley Roni is an incredible story. She missed her entire freshman season with a preseason injury. She came back and scored Alabama’s first goal of the 2025 season against Louisiana Tech. Then two games later she once again suffered a season-ending injury, and her 2025 was lost. Her hard work got her back on the pitch for this year, and I loved that she netted the first goal of the season again. Here’s hoping she stays healthy the entire season and provides firepower for Alabama up top.
On Thursday Alabama football held its first scrimmage of preseason camp. The quarterback battle between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell continues. I still believe we won’t learn much more about how that is trending until after next week’s second scrimmage. Running back EJ Crowell and wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks did not participate in the scrimmage, and running back AK Dear also left the scrimmage with an injury as well.
There’s still time for a lot of work to be done on the practice fields. But September 5 against East Carolina is getting closer and closer.
What’s Next
My weekly social media show Crimson Drive driven by NASCAR has returned on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. Watch it premiere Thursdays at 2 p.m. central, and always on demand on our YouTube channel. This week’s episode featured Alabama football discussion with Yea Alabama’s Emily Grace McWhorter and an interview with Alabama soccer’s Kiley Kukan.
Next Thursday August 20 brings my first broadcast of the 2026-27 season. Alabama soccer against TCU in Tuscaloosa, I’ll be on the SEC Network+ call with Hayley MacDonald, catch it on the ESPN app.