Starting a youth baseball program has a lot of moving parts. Collecting player registration & fees, recruiting volunteers, managing a budget, finding coaches, building a website, and scheduling events are only a small part of making sure everything runs smoothly.
The quickest way to be certain that your next baseball season gets off on the right foot is staying organized during player registration. Take a look below to build a simple digital youth baseball registration form to help you collect all of the information you need next season.
Collect Critical Player Information First
The first thing you’ll want in your registration form is the basic information about the player. This can include the player’s first and last name, date of birth, gender, and home address. All of this information can be filtered and used to organize each player into the appropriate team, division, or league.
Make sure your form lists “First Name” and “Last Name” into separate columns. You’ll need to be able to sort players alphabetically easily – so you’ll want “Last Name” to be in its own field.
Registering players online makes it super easy to collect and store player information.
Get Accurate Mobile Numbers and Email Addresses from Parents
In order to communicate effectively during the season you need to collect accurate parent contact information. Home phone numbers are a thing of the past – so just include mobile phone number and email address.
You should give the parents the option to add at least three contacts, but only require one. Each family is unique, some will only have one parent that needs to be kept in the loop, while others will have three or four family members that they want to receive league updates during your season.
Require parents to submit accurate emails and 10-digit phone numbers during registration. No one wants to be left out of an important message about game cancellations or tournament updates.
Include Detailed Information About Each Player Based on Your League Size and Age Groups
Each youth baseball program is unique. Depending on the size of your program and how it’s structured, you’ll need to ask more detailed questions based upon your needs.
But detailed doesn’t mean complex. Collect only the important information you need – don’t force parents to fill out long, tedious forms with unnecessary information.
Questions might include:
- T-Shirt Size
- Pants Size
- Player’s School
- Player's Grade
- Preferred Positions
- Whether or not the player has travel baseball or select baseball experience
- Preferred Uniform Number
Questions should be dropdown menus so player information is easy to sort. You don’t want to have answers like “Youth L”, “YL”, “Youth Large”, “Large”, etc.
Recruit Support from Volunteers During Registration
A huge part of any youth baseball league is the volunteers. In your registration form you should ask parents to help support your organization.
You should request (or even require!) that parents volunteer throughout your season, and give them a variety of ways to help in a way that they are comfortable with. A few options can be:
- Be the Head Coach of a team
- Be an Assistant Coach
- Help with concessions
- Umpiring
- Facility maintenance before and during your season
- Join a committee (like sponsorship, fundraising, etc.)
Asking parents to volunteer for your program can be a great way to find volunteers quickly. Get new coaches, concessions volunteers, and facility crew members easily!
List Fundraising and Sponsorship Options - Get Extra Cash During Registration!
Fundraising and recruiting sponsors is a huge challenge for many baseball organizations. It can be costly to start a baseball team so making sure your registration form can be used to increase revenue is a major bonus!
Calling businesses, collecting checks, and following up with sponsors from previous years can be time consuming. Save yourself as much work as possible by allowing parents to sponsor your organization during the registration process!
Adding a custom question to your baseball sponsorship form makes it super easy for parents to sponsor your program at the end of registration.
Allowing parents to sponsor during the registration process can be a quick way to get some extra support for your next season. Parents already have their card out and are ready to pay, so don't be afraid to request additional support during registration.
Collect Important Medical Information About Each Player
It’s important that coaches are aware of any important medical information about each player. At the end of your form you should include a question asking the parent to list any important medical conditions or information that coaches should be aware of.
This can include player limitations, allergies, medications, etc. Delivering medical information to coaches before practice begins is important so that coaches can prepare for the season, and in case the player’s parents aren’t available at every practice or game.
Clean up Your Form by Removing Unnecessary Questions
To increase participation you need to make the registration and payment process super easy for parents. Parents are busy; don’t make them jump through hoops to register a player.
Simplifying your registration process and pricing will also make your life easier as a volunteer.
Include important questions in your form but don’t overdo it. Before starting registration you should go through your form and make sure every question is necessary. If a question isn’t important you should remove it.
Getting Started Registering Baseball Players for Next Season
Creating a simple youth baseball registration form template can be a big difference maker for your next season. Don’t strike out this season and update your form before you start registering players!
If you're looking for a simple way to build a website, setup registration, and communication with your organization you can learn more about Jersey Watch on our Baseball League Management Page.
