People keep asking me the same two questions since the app landed. How did a grassroots coach end up shipping an actual app, and who built it? Fair questions. Here's the honest answer to both.
What actually changed
For a couple of seasons Trac lived in your browser. It worked, but a website can only do so much. It can't send you a push notification when a parent finally replies about Saturday. It doesn't sit on your home screen next to WhatsApp. And it's slower when you're stood on a wet touchline with one bar of signal.
So I built the native app. Same login, same team, same data. It just runs like an app should. Push reminders for availability, line-ups and match updates. Works offline and syncs when you're back on signal. iPhone is in open beta on TestFlight, Android installs straight from the site. Get it here.
Who built it
I did. But not just as a coach who dabbles in a bit of code on the side.
By day I run a software studio called Headless Digital. We build fast, modern websites and apps for businesses across Hull, Yorkshire and beyond. Trac is the thing I build in the evenings, but it's built to the same standard as the client work. Same stack, same care, same obsession with getting it quick and getting it right.
That's why the app is a bit different from the usual grassroots software. It isn't a template with a club badge slapped on the top. It's a proper product, built by someone who does this for a living and coaches a real team every weekend. If you run a club and want to see what that looks like from our side, we wrote it up as one of our grassroots football projects.
Why that's good news for you
It means Trac isn't going anywhere, and it isn't going to rot. I use it every Saturday myself. When something annoys me on the touchline, it gets fixed. When a coach emails an idea, it usually ships. The app you install today is genuinely maintained by the person who needs it to work as much as you do.
Build your own team on it and you're not renting some faceless platform. You're using a tool made by a grassroots coach who also happens to build software for a living. That's the whole reason it feels the way it does.