The game has changed. Coaching a soccer team is no longer as simple as signing and submitting a few paper forms. There are now state and national government mandates in place to educate coaches in an effort to protect children....mandates that have come about from situations such as the Nasser case, USA Gymnastics, the Boys Scouts of America and even closer to home - Ohio State University.

We wanted to reach out to you with the current risk requirements, specifically as it relates to all volunteers.

Linked are Coaches Instructions   See below for more detailed info on each.

There are four risk requirements to be a volunteer/coach in Ohio, regardless of program type (recreational or competitive). Most, if not all, of these requirements extend to coaches in other sports as well - they are not unique to soccer. This is because they are either State of Ohio or Federal requirements. We call them the Four Pillars of Risk (Four Pillars of Safe Soccer):

1. Lindsay's Law (State of Ohio)
2. Concussion Training (State of Ohio)
3. Background Check (State of Ohio, U.S. Soccer, USYS)
4. Safe Sport (The Federal Government of the United States of America)

Player's Health is our platform that houses all the risk requirements all volunteers must complete. This is linked with Demosphere so that when a volunteer finishes all the risk requirements, their risk status updates to 'approved'.
 

Concussion Training Mandated By: State of Ohio What Is Required: coaches are to take one of two online concussion trainings, as required by the State of Ohio - either the CDC Heads Up training or the NFHS Concussion training. How Often Is This Renewed: every three (3) years. Where Is This Completed: in a coach's account in Player's Health, where they will be presented with an external link to take the CDC Heads Up or NFHS Concussion training. Guides to successfully navigate either training are also included. After taking the training, coaches will need to return to Player's Health to upload their concussion completion certificate. Safe Sport Mandated By: the Federal Goverment of the United States of America What Is Required: volunteers must complete an online training through the US Center for Safe Sport; the training runs on a four-year cycle. Only one training per year needs to be completed.

• Year One: Initial Course (1.5-2 hrs)
• Year Two: Refresher Course 1 (30-45 mins)
• Year Three: Refresher Course 2 (30-45 mins)
• Year Four: Refresher Course 3 (30-45 mins)
• Year Five: Initial Course (cycle repeats)

How Often Is This Renewed: each year (annually) from the last date of course completion. If completed in Feb 2020, it must be renewed in Feb 2021.

Where Is This Completed: in a volunteer's account in Player's Health, where they will be directly presented with the training for free as a member of Ohio Soccer Association.

Volunteers will be prompted to take whatever Safe Sport training is next in line. For first timers, the initial course is taken....for returning volunteers, one of the refreshers unless they are due to start the cycle over (Year Five).

After completion of the necessary course (save your certificate), the successful completion status should flow back into Player's Health automatically. There are occasional issues with this, so Option B is that volunteers may return to their account in Player's Health and submit the 16-digit code at the bottom of their SafeSport completion certificate in order to pull their completion status down.

Please note: A volunteer who takes Safe Sport training outside of Player's Health, but then at a future point comes to Player's Health to take the next course in line in PH, will be prompted to start with the initial course because they took their first training outside of the system.

For this reason, we strongly encourage all volunteers to take the Safe Sport training inside Player's Health.

For volunteers  who may have taken Safe Sport already through another organization or sport, and are current (within last 12 months), they may use the code on their existing certificate to pull their completion status down. If they do not wish to start their training back at the initial course, which is what Player's Health will prompt them to do, they should continue their training wherever they took it external to Player's Health and use the certificate code to update their Safe Sport status.