Preseason Setup: Everything to Do Once Before the Season

Oct 21

Preseason prep

Much of the work of running Takedown happens once, before the first practice. An hour of setup now means the first home dual needs only a short checklist at the scorer’s table, and parents, athletes and media receive what they need all season without repeated effort from you.

Subscription and iPads
The Season
Roster, weights and contacts
Opponent Teams, schedule and calendar
Practices
A pass through Settings

1. Subscription and iPads

Subscription. Open Settings > Takedown Store and check that it says Your subscription will renew automatically on and a date. If it says auto-renewal is off, or there’s a billing problem, resolve it now rather than on the day of the first event. See Managing an App Store Subscription or Managing a Direct LevelChanger Subscription. If Takedown shows the subscription as expired and you know it was paid, see Takedown Says My Subscription Expired, But I Paid.
Every iPad signed in. One login covers the team. Sign in on every iPad with the same email and password, and everything syncs.
Your login email. Password resets and verification messages go to the email address on your Takedown account, so it must be one you can still read. If it’s a school address that has changed, see Your Takedown Account. If a message doesn’t arrive, see Not Receiving Verification or Password Reset Email.
Up to date. On every iPad, update iOS first (Takedown 4.0 needs iOS 18.6 or later), then get the current Takedown from the App Store. Turn on App Updates in the iPad’s Settings > App Store so future versions install on their own. On the iPads that record video, make room for it. If Takedown closes right after it opens on an iPad that sat unused over the summer, see Takedown Closes or Freezes When It Opens.

2. The Season

The Roster, schedule and practices all belong to a Season, so create the Season first.

Create it in My Team > Seasons and set its Event Defaults: style, weight classes and home location. High school programs also pick the competition levels they’ll use. Every new Event starts from these.
Copy last season’s schedule. Copy Schedule brings last year’s events into the new Season. Then edit it: add the events that are new this year, delete the ones that aren’t on the schedule, and fix dates and times.
Archive old seasons. If the Seasons list is getting long, swipe left on seasons from years back and tap Archive. The list gets shorter, nothing is lost, and an archived season comes back with one tap.

3. Roster, weights and contacts

Roster. Your Roster is your own team’s wrestlers for this Season. Get Roster loads it from our database, or import it from a spreadsheet. Every team with a roster on Trackwrestling, USA Bracketing or USA Wrestling is in the database, which is updated several times a day through December and daily for the rest of the season. If your Roster is hosted on Trackwrestling, wrestler details entered there, email addresses for instance, come down with it. Then fill in what’s missing: photos can show on the scoreboard, and email is how athletes get their video. If your team isn’t in the database, see Team Missing in Online Database.
Certified weights. If your program certifies through Trackwrestling or USA Bracketing, each wrestler’s minimum weight class is already in our roster database and comes down with Get Roster. Otherwise, enter it for each wrestler when certification comes in. The Event Roster shows it and weigh-ins use it.
Contacts. Add coaches and media with their roles, so box scores go to the right people after every event. Then import the parents from your preseason meeting list in one step.

4. Opponent Teams, schedule and calendar

Opponent Teams. Opponent Teams are the teams you compete against, with their wrestlers. Get Opponent Teams for every team on your schedule, or download whole states for tournaments; the same database covers every team with a roster on Trackwrestling, USA Bracketing or USA Wrestling. Add their logos.
Schedule. Enter the season’s dual meets, tournaments and dual meet tournaments. Multi-day tournaments get a weigh-in for each day.
Share the calendar. Open the Season and tap Share Calendar. Send parents and athletes the link or QR code once; Events and practices then stay current in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar and Outlook all season. Change a start time in Takedown and every subscribed calendar updates. See Sharing the Season Calendar.

5. Practices

Schedule them once. Add the first practice, set Repeat to Weekly, and Takedown creates one for every week through the end of the season, with the roster already on each one for attendance.
Plan them. Build each practice from sections and activities with the Practice Planner, and save your best ones as templates.

6. A pass through Settings

Most of Takedown’s one-time choices live in the Settings tab. Review each item once. Items marked per iPad are stored on each iPad, so set them on every iPad that will score or record.

Weight Classes. The NFHS, NCAA, state and USA Wrestling sets are built in. If your state or league wrestles something else, add it with Add Custom Weight Classes, then pick it as the Season default.
Periods. The standard period lengths are built in. Add Custom Periods covers a JV or youth schedule with shorter periods.
Scoring (per iPad). Leave Ask for official time on so pins and tech falls get the referee’s time. Turn on Score shots if you want the Shot Success Rate report; it’s off by default, and decide as a staff what counts as a shot.
Scoreboard (per iPad). Buy the monitors and stand for Takedown Advantage well ahead of the first home event. Then turn on Use Scoreboard, choose what it shows, try the buzzer, and test the whole setup. Sponsor images go in Advertising.
Video. Set up your team’s YouTube channel and sign in to it on each recording iPad. Leave the YouTube privacy setting at Unlisted; Private stops video playing in Takedown and sharing with wrestlers. Raise the channel’s daily upload limit before the first tournament; the steps are in the same article.
Bluetooth Scale. If you weigh in on a Befour scale, connect it here once and weigh-in fields fill themselves.
Practice. Set the default attendance status (per iPad), and build your plan templates and activities list for the Practice Planner.
Takedown LIVE (per iPad). Turn on Broadcast on each scoring iPad, and give parents and fans the Takedown LIVE link for live scores.

With this setup complete, each event needs only the short Game Day Event Checklist, and your attention stays on the wrestling.

Takedown Scoring and Stats is the leading mobile app for college and scholastic wrestling teams. Save time and effort by digitizing your team's critical information.

Takedown App