How One Sports Director Transformed Her Program After Reclaiming 5+ Hours a Week

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"It's definitely helped improve our sports program and all the things that we can offer. We can now offer those additional programs because we've got the time to do that without having to increase our staffing."

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As Director of Sport and Sport Performance at Loreto College Marryatville, Sophie Hage wasn’t short on ideas. A strength and conditioning program. Intercollegiate competitions. A deeper partnership with the Adelaide Thunderbirds. These weren’t just wish-list items, but part of Sophie’s long-held vision to elevate sport at Loreto beyond weekend games, creating an inclusive, high-performing culture that offers opportunities for all students and levels, with a balance of team sports and individual fitness programs. But, without the right systems to support her team, time quickly became her scarcest resource.

Everything shifted when she introduced Clipboard to the sports department. In the first year alone, her team consolidated five systems into one, gained back hours each week, and used that time to elevate the student experience.
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“You want to be able to put your time into developing programs and doing as much as you can to give the students the best opportunities,” says Sophie Hage.

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Leading sport across reception to year 12

Sophie Hage joined Loreto College Marryatville nearly five years ago as Sport Coordinator. As student numbers grew and the co-curricular program expanded, her role evolved. Today, she oversees the full sports program from Reception to Year 12.

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Loreto’s model is uniquely expansive. As an independent girls’ school in Adelaide, it brings together day students and boarders under one roof, supporting everything from weekend fixtures to strength & conditioning sessions, interstate trips, and team sports across multiple year levels.

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“It’s not just about one age group or one term,” Sophie explains.

“We’ve got ELC students, primary and senior students, boarders, day students — and they’re all part of the sports program in different ways.”

That wide reach brings opportunity, but also pressure. The day-to-day required constant coordination across students, staff, coaches, and families… all while finding room to build new programs and lift performance.

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“There’s so many things you want to do,” Sophie said. “But there’s not always the time to develop them. Obviously, to do things well, any kind of program does take time... and I think saving time on the admin has allowed that.”

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The challenge: Making communication work across people, platforms, and programs

“Sport was never the issue at Loreto College Marryatville,” Sophie said.
‍“Our girls are always keen to be involved. But as the program grew, the admin side of things became the challenge.”

Each season brought more students, more teams, and more moving parts. But the way the program was managed remained unchanged. Scheduling, selections, attendance, and communications were spread across Word documents, Microsoft Forms, spreadsheets, emails, and Loreto Connect. Nothing was connected. Everything needed to be checked and re-checked.

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Scheduling, selections, attendance, and communication were managed across several platforms, requiring extra time and attention to keep everything running smoothly.

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“We had so many different platforms,” Sophie said. “I felt like I had to communicate the same information multiple times just to ensure it reached everyone.”

It made it harder to stay on top of everything, especially to uphold the duty of care. Coaches needed immediate access to medical alerts for conditions like asthma or anaphylaxis. Instead, she was relying on printouts.

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“Our student rolls were still hard copies,” Sophie said. “If someone didn’t turn up to training, we wouldn’t know until much later. 

Without one place to manage everything, the risk of something slipping through was always there. The more the program expanded, the harder it became to stay connected with every student and support them consistently. 

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The solution: One platform that replaced five

Juggling multiple platforms and email was already creating strain, not just for Sophie, but for students, families, and coaches across the program. 

Clipboard brought all of that together into an all-in-one system built specifically for sports coordination, but the impact went further. From real-time updates to safer coach-student communication, here are five ways the platform helped Sophie and her team move from admin-heavy to athlete-first.

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When it’s easy to use, everyone’s on board

Before Clipboard, the school used Microsoft Forms to gather student preferences, but responses weren’t always clear or complete. Students would forget what they’d selected. Parents would email to check if their submission had gone through. Staff had to cross-check spreadsheets, forms, and inboxes,  just to confirm the basics.

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With Clipboard, the process became seamless and straightforward. The platform integrated directly into Loreto’s existing ecosystem, including Digistorm and Schoolbox, so families didn’t need to learn anything new. They could view and manage their child’s sport selections via a familiar interface, on any device.

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“Parents just click the tile on their phone or computer and see the sport choices,” Sophie explains. “They don’t need to download anything else, and they only see what’s relevant to their child.”

This is where Clipboard’s personalised communication features came into play. Instead of bulk emails or generic notices, Sophie’s team could tailor updates based on year level, sport, or individual team, ensuring everyone saw only what mattered to them. Fewer missed forms. Fewer back-and-forths. 

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On the admin side, staff could create registration windows, manage preferences, and generate team lists all within Clipboard, eliminating the risk of missing students or manually sorting data.

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“We used to do sport selections through Microsoft Forms, and there were always ones that were missed. Now we can filter students into teams directly. It’s saved time, but also safeguarded against errors.”

With Clipboard working quietly in the background, Sophie’s team could finally focus on sport and not system-wrangling.

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The peace of mind that comes with up-to-date team data

In school sport, things change fast. A student pulls out sick. A coach swaps schedules. A fixture moves. And when team lists live in static documents or in isolated inboxes, even the smallest update can fall through the cracks.

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For Sophie, that gap between real-time events and real-time information was one of her biggest operational pain points until Clipboard changed the rhythm of how her team worked.

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“You’ve got a team turning up to the right venue at the right time. It sounds simple, but the potential for things to go wrong through miscommunication is quite high.”

With Clipboard, team lists are always up to date. When a student withdraws or is reassigned, the change is reflected instantly across the platform. Coaches can see who’s in their team and when they’re playing. Staff can access those same lists at any time, from anywhere. Parents stay informed, with no need to double-check or chase.

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And when something unexpected happens? Sophie can step in immediately. 

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“If I need to hit forfeit on my phone because an opposition team can’t make it, I can do that straight away,” she says. “Everyone who needs to know gets the right information in real time.”

With Clipboard acting as the single source of truth, Sophie no longer worries that someone’s missed a message or brought the outdated team sheet.

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From keeping up to moving ahead

In Sophie’s early days at Loreto, many hours were spent on sport admin. But once those hours were reclaimed through Clipboard, something more important followed: headspace.

Freed from the constant cycle of follow-ups and form checks, Sophie and her team began to reimagine what sport at Loreto could look like. Apart from the opportunities mentioned before, she envisioned a strength and conditioning program for older students. Intercollegiate competitions that brought schools together. Holiday clinics that helped teams bond and sharpen their skills.

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“It was always a wish to bring in some Pilates and strength and conditioning, to bring in that sense of community… those extra programs you want to offer, but you just don’t have the time to organise or develop.”

With Clipboard handling the coordination layer, her team could design and deliver new experiences without worrying that something would fall through the cracks.

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“We’ve been able to offer more without increasing our staffing. That’s huge.”

What began as a tool to save time gave Sophie the space to build a sports program that moved forward with purpose.

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Reporting that gives leaders the full picture

For Sophie, sport at Loreto is as much about insight as it is about involvement. With Clipboard, she no longer has to rely on instinct or piecemeal tracking to understand what’s working, and where support is needed.

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“It’s really easy to see exact numbers playing sport. I can pull up any kind of data record like how many Year 3s are doing sport, which students are participating across multiple teams, what our basketball numbers look like this term.”

She now shares those insights with Loreto’s executive team, ensuring decisions are shaped by clear data, not guesswork.

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“I do use it to report to our executive team… so that they know what sports we're offering and they know what our participation levels are like across the board.”

It’s helped lift the visibility of sport across the school, not just as a timetable item, but as a vibrant, student-driven program with real momentum behind it. That clarity and confidence, from daily logistics to strategic decisions, is what makes Clipboard a powerful investment, not just for sport, but for schools as a whole.

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When asked whether she’d recommend Clipboard to other schools, Sophie didn’t hesitate:

“I think for any sport department looking at a program like this, I would say, look, you'll have good communication, you'll have good record keeping, you'll have good duty of care to your students. And more than anything, all your information is in one spot. So it's not, did I do that on that Word document? Was that on the Microsoft form? Was that in a folder somewhere? All your records of all your teams, your attendance, everything is in the one spot, which makes life easier for anyone in the area of sport.”

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If you're a Sports Director or Head of Co-Curricular juggling too many platforms, chasing comms, and stretched for time, we’d love to talk. 

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Book a demo with Clipboard and see how one platform can give you back the headspace to focus on sport, not spreadsheets.

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