Why Have ID Cards in Youth Sports?

When it comes to competitive play in any youth sport, everyone wants to be sure that the competition is playing by the rules. This is especially true when it comes to the eligibility of a player on another team whether it’s the player’s size, age, or jurisdiction. This is where photo ID cards come in as an excellent way to assist in regulating these factors.

Using photo identification cards and an online tracking system for players and coaches allows all of the documentation required for a player to only be checked once. Presently many organizations manage their paperwork for each player several times a year to verify eligibility. And most players participate in a sport for several years during their childhood. Anytime a player advances in a championship event, as well as invitational events, people want to be sure the other coach is playing by the rules so paperwork has to be verified at each event. And then the question still remains, did the coach have documentation for one player and bring another?

By implementing a registration solution, an organization can eliminate most of the paperwork review when it comes to eligibility. A good registration system tracks the player from the day they first enter the program until the day the participant graduates from the organization. Upon the participant’s initial registration, the paperwork can be provided and recorded and then tracked by the system from that point forward. But couldn’t a coach bring the wrong documentation to the first registration? Of course he can, but someone will catch the player sooner or later and then the system can be corrected. Our company has produced millions of ID cards and it’s a rare case that someone has provided the wrong documentation intentionally. Face it; the manager is the one being tracked on the system at the time of registration!

Individual Registration VS Team Registration

There are some sports that are handling registrations by the team and others by the players. One of the initials reasons that team registrations were created was in the ease of only tracking one name instead of every name on the team. I mean even an 11 man football team commonly has 25 players. So do the math: if an organization has 500 teams, it’s a lot easier to track the 500 teams than the 12,500 players.

But now with the systems that exist today and others that will be developed, there are advantages to registering the individuals instead of the teams alone. The benefits span on individual registration from tracking player movements from year to year and team to team through getting better rates on accidental and liability insurance.

Another great thing that can be incorporated into a good photo ID card program is incorporating background screening for the coaches and administrators. In today’s society we are more than aware that there are bad people in the wrong places. This is critical when it comes to our children as they play in organized sports because of the level of contact our coaches have with the participants. Everyone wants to know that the mentors on the field of play have been background screened. Incorporating a background check with the photo ID card allows rules to be enforced that forces all coaches wear their badges. And a good system will only produce ID cards only after the administrator or coach has been screened.

There are many other things that can be integrated into a photo id program such as team and league management features. If all of the participant’s information is captured in an online system, these records can be used to assist the coaches, tournament directors and league directors in better managing their programs. Printing rosters, building brackets, and scheduling league play can all be easier to manage if tools are developed to use those registration records. These tools can also be utilized to track the movement of the players from year to year, game to game and team to team.

Another good reason to add a photo identification program to your sport is because of the marketing and branding opportunity it offers. We always suggest creating two cards for every player; this way the coach has one to check the players into events while the player has a badge of honor that carries their picture and your organizations name and logo.

Ultimately, there are several reasons you should thoroughly consider adding photo identification cards to your program, but the largest reason is most likely the paperwork time that will be saved and the mistakes that are caught earlier rather than when it’s too late.

Author of Personal Discipline: Tools for Consistent Success and founder of http://www.fullidentity.com and Virtual Tournament Director, Allen Richardson has been a leader in developing solutions for registration and ID cards for organizations for over seven years. Additionally, he as served Southwest Airlines and Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway as a consultant for automation and internal development.