Washing the whole team kit

[PurpleBirch]

DS has joined a new rugby team and they have a very organised WhatsApp including a rota of all the parents’ jobs. Fair enough, I’m very happy to participate mannjngbyhe car park, cooking food for after etc. This includes taking turns to wash the whole team shirts. Is it just me or does it seem a bit silly to take home 20 dirty teenage size shirts to wash and dry instead of each taking their own and wearing them to the match the following week?

There are more than enough shirts per player. It’s our turn in a couple of weeks and I’m already hoping for good weather!

I want to question the logic but DH thinks just do it and don’t rock the boat.

Do any of your DC teams do this?

It’s always been a thing.
Have you never seen the laundry detergent ads?

Here’s one for your DH since he’s so eager to “just do it”… 😉
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWFb06jhm4

Seems it’s quite normal so I’ll stick to the rota!

It’s only the shirts and so I’ve still got DS’s shorts, socks and base layers each week so not at a total week off!
It’s not a big deal but I was curious about the reasoning.

I thought it was quite an old fashioned idea but I see it makes sense if there is a limit on kit. For what it’s worth we’ve all paid for our own kit and everyone wears the same numbers and there’s enough for substitutions.

I’ve got 4 sporty teens and it’s the first time I’ve come across it but I won’t say anything and I’ll hope it’s a dry windy weekend when it’s our turn!

So you've paid for the kit so own it... but someone else's washes it? That is a bit strange...

I ran a kids rugby club for many years, and I landed up doing the whole team shirt wash every single week because no other parent was willing to assist (despite me literally begging them for help time and time again)😡. They always had a million reasons why they couldn't do the washing or help with hotdogs on match days, or help to coach, or clean up afterwards, or organise matches, or any other fucking thing despite cheerfully enjoying free rugby for their kids!

Your way sounds a much better approach!

We have a couple of large and supersize card operated machines at the local service centre. Job lot, bung them all in together and they're done, get a text notification before the cycle finishes, pop down and pick up.

It seems strange if you own the kit, DS plays footy and every player gets their kit every season but they own it so they keep it, wash it and are responsible for it, they get to keep it though at the end of the season. If they lose it, they have to buy the replacement, but it's not happened yet in 4 years

I put my foot down about this when ours were playing rugby regularly. Other parents joined in the boycott, and we arranged for the laundry to be done by a local company. No way was I having my machine clogged up with all that mud! It was bad enough doing all the training kit for mine, and there was one notable day when the machine flooded the utility room. Investigations revealed a drain pipe full of muddy silt.

Our coach used to wash the match kit for our girl’s rugby team every week. I offered to take turns with him because that didn’t seem fair.

What an outdated concept.

Each teen should be responsible for their own shirt - turn up without it and you're off the team.

Not excuse for forgetting it other than laziness.

Yup - very common to warm up in training kit then put on the match top from the match bag.

Doing a whole team's match day strip is common. Can't really have your "own" strip as the positions are numbered (and need to go onto the team sheet by playing number) and you may a) not be picked and b) be playing a different position that week.

Ds for example, although he prefers to play scrum half (No. 9), regularly played 10 or 15 and occasionally 12 or 13. Or if he's on the bench, could be 21,22 or 23.

It's not something you have to do often - and anyway, dh or ds would often do the wash themselves.

People wash their own socks and shorts - and the kit that they warm up in.

At our club, the seniors get their kit washed externally but it didn't work for the juniors (Minis and Midis) as they play on a Sunday so would miss the laundry pick up, so we reverted to getting parent volunteers.

You're lucky! I used to manage a youth footy team and had to wash the whole kit every week for everyone!

We all wash our own kids football kit. They all have their own shirts so it’s fine as plenty to go around. I don’t get how it would work. They all change at the side of the pitch before they play and again at the end? What would happen if I was washing the whole teams kit and then my child was ill the following week and couldn’t play - seems more hassle than everyone washing their own.

Rugby kit? Pshaw… try being on rota to wash a squad’s worth of bejewelled leotards with delicate netting and shiNy panels and velvet… that was terrifying- so many ways ruin really expensive kit! One of the reasons they did it was to ensure completely consistent fading / wear of the leotards through consistent treatment of them.

Consider enrolling your DS in Embroidery Club instead.

just don't do what dc teammate gran did: ironing.
the jerseys ended up weirdly shiny and stiff.

It works easily - generally, the match kit (the tops) are not the individual player's. They belong to the club / team.

They arrive in their match day kit, change into the jerseys for the game, change back at the end.

If your child isn't coming that week, you find a way to get the jerseys to the team, that's obvious!

(the remaining part of the kit, shorts, socks, base layers - that belongs to each player and is washed by them).

This is the way.

I think it's a bit odd in your situation where the kits are specific per kid and paid for by each family. Each family should therefore take responsibility for the kit - it's not that big a deal, even on a muddy day.

I used to be a team manager for one of DS' sports teams and we had to provide kit for many of the children. I wish I'd thought of this - everyone take turns to do the washing thing - because the number of times the kit just wouldn't come back and everyone would swear blind they had brought it back.... Well, let's just say it was a regular thing.

Very common here. I loved my turn, all the red and white jerseys on the line, in number order of course. I hated when one particular house got them they stank of grease and smoke. Eventually just a few of us did it, 3 bags with a box of washing powder in the bottom. Good times:)

Not at our club - you do your own

GSs team pay subs, out of the subs they pay someone to wash the kit, the wife of one of the coaches I think. We live nearest to him so if he isn't going to make it to a match we have to pick the clean kit up.

This is fairly common practice. I would find it a drag too. But better just to go along with it.

Your teenagers are going to become good at using the washing machine then! It's their job, not yours.

That wouldn’t work in our house. Nothing that has been washed in allergenic soap is allowed in our machine or into the house in the first place. They really haven’t thought that one through.