Getting Started with Draft Night
Draft Night helps you run a smooth, organized draft for your Little League or youth sports league. This guide will walk you through creating your first draft from start to finish.
1Sign In
Visit the login page and sign in with your Google account. No separate account creation needed - just click "Sign in with Google" and you're ready to go.
2Create a New Draft
From your dashboard, click "New Draft". You'll need to provide:
- League name (optional) - e.g., "Walnut Creek Little League"
- Division - e.g., "Majors", "AAA", "AA"
- Year - The season year
- Number of rounds - How many rounds in your draft (default is 12)
3Add Your Teams
On the Teams tab, add each team that will be drafting:
- Enter the coach name(s) and click "Add Team"
- Optionally assign MLB team names (Dodgers, Yankees, etc.)
- Drag and drop to set the draft order, or click "Randomize Order"
Tip: The draft uses snake order - Round 1 goes 1→8, Round 2 goes 8→1, and so on. The team in position #1 picks first in odd rounds and last in even rounds.
4Import Your Players
On the Players tab, import your player list. You have two options:
- Paste from Sheets - Copy your data from Google Sheets and paste directly
- Upload CSV - Upload a CSV file exported from your spreadsheet
Draft Night recognizes common column names automatically:
- Full Name, Rating/Draft Score, LL Age
- Previous Team, Previous Coach/Manager
- School, Pitch Count
- Swim Team, Other Sports, Teammate Request
See Player Management for more details on importing.
5Pre-Assign Coach Kids (Optional)
If coaches have children who are pre-assigned to their team, you can set this up before the draft:
- Find the player in the Players tab
- Click on them to open the detail view
- Select their coach's team from the "Pre-Assigned" dropdown
- Optionally set which round they count as being drafted in
When the draft starts, pre-assigned players will automatically be placed on their teams.
6Share the Coach Link
At the top of your draft page, you'll see a Coach Access Link. Share this with your coaches so they can follow along during the draft. Coaches can:
- Watch the draft board update in real-time
- Browse the player list
- Get alerts when it's their turn to pick
See Coach View for more details.
7Start the Draft!
When you're ready, click "Start Draft" on the setup page. This will:
- Lock in your teams and draft order
- Place pre-assigned coach kids on their teams
- Take you to the live draft board
See Running a Live Draft for how to manage the draft once it's started.