The three-day tournament packing list

A three-day tournament is not a long weekend away. It is a logistics operation that happens to include volleyball. You are staffing a hotel room, a gym and a car for seventy-two hours with people who lose a sock an hour, and the difference between a smooth weekend and a Saturday-morning run to a big-box store is a list. Here is ours. Print it, pack from it Thursday night, and stop having the Saturday morning run.

The player's bag

Not your job to pack, entirely your job to check. Before you leave:

• Both uniforms, if the team has two, plus a spare of whatever gets wet.
• Knee pads, ankle braces, mouthguard, whatever the sport demands, and a backup of the cheap one.
• Court shoes in the bag, not on the feet. The gym floor is not the parking lot.
• Two water bottles. One will be lost by Saturday afternoon.
• Snacks the player will actually eat between matches, not what you wish they would eat.
• Headphones, charger, the pregame playlist. This is not optional in the eyes of a fourteen-year-old.
• A hoodie and sweatpants for between matches and the cold ride home.

The hotel suitcase

• One outfit per day plus one. Tournament weekends run on sweatpants; nobody has ever been underdressed at a hotel breakfast.
• Swimsuits for everyone, because pool night will happen whether or not you planned it.
• A power strip. Hotel rooms have two outlets and your family has eleven devices.
• A small laundry bag or a trash bag for the damp jerseys. Do not let them touch the clean clothes.
• Travel detergent packets, because three days produces a volume of sweaty uniform that the hotel's guest laundry was made for.
• A white-noise app or a small fan. Tournament hotels are loud until midnight.
• Your own pillow, if you are the kind of person who sleeps better with it. You know who you are.
• Medications, in the carry-on, not the trunk.

The tournament bag

This is the backpack that goes into the gym every day. We have a longer post on exactly what the veterans carry, but the core is:

1. Stadium seat with a back.
2. Blanket.
3. Battery pack and a long cable.
4. A small power strip.
5. Ibuprofen, bandages, antacids.
6. Earplugs or headphones.
7. Cash for the door, the lot and the booster table.
8. A book or a downloaded show for the two-hour breaks.

The cooler

Soft-sided, fits under a bleacher, packed Friday night. Two frozen water bottles as ice. Wraps, eggs, cheese, fruit, nuts, one treat, and a thermos of coffee you made yourself. Refill the frozen bottles at the hotel ice machine each night.

The car

• A second blanket and a pillow for the ride home. Someone will sleep.
• Trash bags. The car will become a landfill by Sunday without them.
• Paper towels and wipes. For the spill, the mud, the mystery.
• Phone mount and a car charger for every port.
• In winter: scraper, small shovel, boots, a bag of sand or litter. Our winter post has the full list.

The things everyone forgets

• The team's hotel confirmation number and the tournament wristbands or tickets. Screenshot them.
• Cash for parking. Lots run by a person with a cash box do not take your phone.
• Sunscreen for the outdoor sports and lip balm for the indoor ones. Gyms are dry.
• The kid's school assignment that is due Monday. It will not do itself at the hotel, but it has a better chance if it came along.
• A plan for dinner Friday night. Everyone arrives at 7 p.m. starving, and the team hotel has nothing. Pick a place before you leave home.

The system

Thursday night: lay out the player's bag and check it against the list together. Friday morning: pack the hotel suitcase and the car items. Friday evening: assemble the cooler and the tournament bag. Saturday morning: grab the two frozen bottles and go. The families who look calm at 7 a.m. in the hotel lobby are not calmer people. They did it Thursday.