A simple hack that solves the problem of every coach's game day call sheet

One of the first gifts my wife got for me after landing my first head coaching job at Ravenna HS (MI) was as simple as it was genius.

During the course of the season calling the offense at West Ottawa HS (MI), my better half surely noticed the weekly Friday trips to Staples to get my play call sheet laminated, and I did the same for the rest of the offensive staff as well. It had never crossed my mind to purchase a laminator and do it at home, but it did cross hers, and a basic laminator was among the things she bought for my office at the school.

Laminated play call sheets are seen on every sideline across the country starting with middle school games, with more regularity at the JV level, and can be seen on attached to a lanyard on the neck or hip, tucked into the waistband, or simply carried around by every high school, college and NFL coordinator.

The one thing I could never figure out, or get an answer from anyone else about, is how to take notes in-game on a laminated play call sheet that will stay there.

Over the years, I've tried nearly everything.

Pens and pencils: I know we've all seen the pictures floating around making fun of a Matt Patricia on a sideline holding a laminated play call sheet along with a pencil in his ear (that pencil even has its very own X handle). That even spawned a question from Eli Manning on a ManningCast featuring Bill Belichick.

Belichick shares that the pencil is for the adjustment sheet, not the laminated play call sheet.

Thanks for clearing that up, because without that explanation I believed that pencil was about as productive on game day as the Patriots offense has been without Tom Brady.

Permanent markers: Seems like a great solution initially, and have heard from plenty of coaches that use them up in the box over the years, but the reality is that down on the field, where there is any semblance of moisture, those notes are smearing off your laminated sheet 100% of the time.

Vis-a-Vi Markers: I had this idea pop into my head a few years ago. These markers work on the old-school overhead projectors, which are basically like the lamination sheets, right? If that's right, the only way they'd come off is with some water. But nope, those didn't work out either.

Of course, along with the laminated sheets you also need a hole-punch, and while rookies utilize a lanyard of any sort and have that play call sheet dangling low, veterans purchase the retractable lanyard and put a lot of thought into what area of the page that hole punch is going (which by they way, did you know they make slot-punches, so you can get a long, flat hole instead of a round one?), and what hip that lanyard is getting clipped to for optimal efficiency.

That brings me to something I tried out this week after another random idea regarding my play call sheet popped in my head. (I know, I know. This kind of stuff takes up far too much space in my brain)

I got to thinking that I really wanted to be able to utilize my retractable lanyard and take notes after drives and with intel from eyes in the press box on Friday nights. There had to be a way.

I figured I could skip the lamination part and use thicker card stock for my personal play call sheet, but figured I couldn't trust that the slot-punch would hold after a bunch of pulling on it.

So what if there was a way to attach a tab of some sort to the card stock game day call sheet, and skip the lamination process altogether in order to write on the sheet in-game?

That led me to Amazon, and the discovery of something we see every time we walk into a retail store, but never pay it any attention.

After going down a bit of a rabbit hole with a few differently worded searches, I stumbled upon "hanging tabs for retail." 

That, fellas, was the solution.

These are the tabs that get added to things stores want to hang on their shelves, and they work perfectly for a card stock call sheet.

There are plenty to choose from, in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and they come in bulk with 300-400 of them for less than $10. 

I carry my same game day call sheet around from Monday to Thursday, and I doubled up on the tabs (one on each side of the card stock) just in case, taking notes each day, before using those notes to rework the call sheet heading into Friday. 

This solution held up great, and I don't have a single complaint.

Sharing this game day coaching hack now with all of you in hopes that it solves the age-old problem we all have, and I look forward to seeing it on the sidelines Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays, and even Saturday' and Sundays this fall.

Here's what it looks like on my call sheet on Friday.