Nicole Lemon-Morris’ involvement with the Kingwood Youth Lacrosse (KLAX) program started like most parents. About four years ago, she started volunteering for the team when her youngest son started playing. Like so many volunteers, she embraced the work, and her role in the program quickly grew.
An accounting manager by trade, she was drawn to helping the organization—which serves about 150 athletes in suburban Houston—with their finances. And what she found didn’t please the accounting pro.
“What we were using when I got here was lackluster,” she says. “It didn’t have the performance or functionality we needed to grow.”
She first heard about SportsEngine from another local program and fell in love right away. “As an accountant, I was really impressed with the financial tools,” she notes. “SportsEngine just makes all of our reporting and tracking so easy.”
With her recommendation, KLAX invested in SportsEngine and saw immediate benefits.
The first area they tackled was getting away from their merchant processor vendor. “The agreement was seriously terrible. One of the worst I have ever seen,” Lemon-Morris says.
"I really can’t say nice enough things about what SportsEngine has done for us. It’s been a true transformation.”
In addition to saving money on processing payments, SportsEngine is helping KLAX grow the program—and make more money—by stepping up their marketing game.
Like most sport businesses, that starts with their website. “It wasn’t easy to do anything before on our previous site. So no one did anything,” she laughs. “But SportsEngine makes it so easy, even people with no experience are confident to get in there and create.”
Now the KLAX team is excited about what they can do and show off the program in a positive light. “We’re all volunteers, but we want it to feel professional,” she says. “SportsEngine makes it so easy to build a site and social platforms everyone from the players to parents can take pride in.”
The organization is hearing from more and more families outside of the program who are interested in joining. “All of them start out by experiencing the website,” Lemon-Morris says. “It draws them in right away.”
All those extra members are starting to lead to success on and off the field for KLAX. "It's been a true transformation," states Lemon-Morris.