As sports administrators, the safety and security of athletes should always be top priority. Conducting background checks is  a critical step in ensuring the safety of athletes in youth sports organizations.  By screening coaches, volunteers, and other team personnel, organizations can identify and prevent potentially harmful individuals from joining the coaching team. Additionally, it also gives parents and guardians peace of mind knowing that their children are being coached and mentored by qualified and responsible individuals. In this blog, we'll discuss the importance of background checks in youth sports and how TeamLinkt makes the process easy through their partnership with Certn!

Why Background Checks are Important in Youth Sports

Background checks are critical for youth sports to ensure the safety of all those who are involved in the organization. It is important to know if a coach or volunteer has a criminal record or a history of violence. This information helps youth sports organizations make informed decisions about who they allow into their programs, with the goal of keeping everyone safe.

How Certn Background Checks Work

Certn is a company that specializes in online background checks, putting safety first. They provide detailed national criminal record checks for US and Canada-based coaches and volunteers. Subsequently, Certn’s platform directly connects risk-relevant data from reputable databases & registries to your records. This enables them to provide accurate reports with the industry's shortest turnaround times.  Their process is quick, affordable, and comprehensive. With Certn, you can choose from a variety of different checks including criminal record checks, reference checks, and driver’s abstracts. Furthermore, the process is 100% online and results are typically available within hours!

How TeamLinkt's Partnership with Certn Benefits Youth Sports Organizations

TeamLinkt has partnered with Certn to make the background check process as easy as possible for youth sports organizations. TeamLinkt offers a feature that allows sports administrators to set up background checks for coaches and volunteers during the registration process. With the result that all coaches and volunteers can undergo a background check without any extra effort from the youth sports organization. Once the check is complete, the organization can quickly and easily view the results within the TeamLinkt platform. Your youth sports organization can simply follow the steps below on how to enable and set up Certn background checks in TeamLinkt:

Certn Background Checks for Youth Sports Organizations

To enable the Certn Background Checks power-up:

1. In TeamLinkt, Go to Organization > Power-Ups > Certn Background Check & click Enable

   
   
   

   

2. If you don't already have a Certn Account, you must create one from the following link: https://try.certn.co/teamlinkt  

   
   
   

3. In Certn, you will then have to copy your Certn Team ID from your browser. It will look like this:  

   

   
   
   

4. Go back to your TeamLinkt Account & the Certn Power-Ups section and paste it into TeamLinkt in the Certn Team ID field. It should look like this:

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

5. Back in Certn, click on API Keys > Add API Key > Actions > Copy API Key

   
   
   

   

      

6. In TeamLinkt, Paste in your API Key into the field labeled Certn API Key

   

    

7. Back to Certn again, click on General > Generate New (under Webhook Secret) > Copy

      

   

8. In TeamLinkt, paste your Webhook Secret in the field 'Certn Webhook Secret'

   

    

9. While still in TeamLinkt, you will then copy the TeamLinkt Webhook URL

   
   
   

   

10. In Certn, paste in your TeamLinkt Webhook URL into the Webhook URL field

    
    
    

    

     

11. For the Last Step, click Save in both Certn & TeamLinkt  

Once you have done this, reach out to help@teamlinkt.com for your next steps. Conclusion This blog has demonstrated the importance of background checks In youth sports and how TeamLinkt makes the process easy. Background checks are an essential tool in ensuring the safety and security of young athletes. While the process may seem overwhelming, TeamLinkt's built-in background check system streamlines the process and makes it easy for youth sports organizations to vet coaches and volunteers. With features like notifications, security, and affordability, TeamLinkt offers an efficient and practical way for sports organizations to conduct background checks.

Don't compromise on safety, start using TeamLinkt today! Learn more about background checks: 

How to Easily Get Background Checks During Youth Sports Registration | TeamLinkt's Partnership with Certn

See also why it's a good idea to add waivers into your registration:

How to Collect Waivers with Digital Signatures During Registration | TeamLinkt