Coaches

Please see the registration page for a checklist of what you need to register a team with PA West.

Listed below are the requirements to become a coach in PA West.  

Earn Your Coaching Credentials:

• • Scheduled Courses - Register for PA West Coaching Courses

  • PA West Soccer Coaching Requirements (pdf) - Find your age group and make sure that you meet the minimum coaching requirement.  The registration system will not allow us to activate teams whose coaches don't meet these requirements. 

Obtain Your PA Required Clearances:

• • Child Abuse Certifications (PA Dept. of Human Services) is required of volunteer and paid coaches.

  • Criminal History Record Certification (Pennsylvania State Police Reports) is required of volunteer and paid coaches.

  • Federal Criminal History Certification (FBI Reports) is required of all paid coaches and volunteers who have not resided in PA for at least the previous 10 continuous years.  This is also acceptable for volunteers who have lived in PA for at least the previous 10 continuous years.

  • Notarized Affidavit for Volunteer Exemption from FBI Certification is acceptable for volunteers who have lived in PA for at least the previous 10 continuous years.

SafeSport

• Safesport training - This training is required for all club members that serve in any role other than as a player (or player that is 18 or older). An annual refresher course is required. 

• Please email an SASC board member to get an enrollment key for the Safesport website. Choose 'US Soccer' for the organization. 

Uploading your clearances

• Directions for uploading your clearances to the PA West Risk Management System 

• PA West Risk Management Portal

• If you're clearances expire during the current season, they must be updated prior to team declarations. Email Tim McCoy at tim@pawest-soccer.org to request to have your current clearances removed. The Affinity system will only allow uploading of updated clearances once the old clearances have been removed.

• To upload new clearances and apply for approval in the Affinity system:

  • Go to this link: https://pa-bgc.sportsaffinity.com/reg/index.asp?sessionguid=

  • Click on the blue “to begin REGISTRATION please click here” at the top of the page.  DO NOT USE THE LOGIN BOX IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER.

  • Once there, login.  You will see all the family members

  • You will have the option to add family members or to continue, you want to continue.

  • The next screen will list all those eligible in the family to register for this, to the right of your name, you will see a ‘register as coach/admin’ button, please click that.

  • It will then come up with what you asking you to select the play level and the only option is Background Check.

  • Once you select that, your information will come up on the screen, in the middle of this screen, you will see ‘click here to show photo or certification upload’

  • This is where you will see to upload the documents.  Towards the bottom, you will see ‘club additional information’, please pick your club.

  • At the bottom, you want to select the ‘save and next page’.

  • Walk through the rest of the steps, agree to the ELA’s if there are any (they may not apply, but can’t go any further).

  • The Payment page will come and should say no payment due.

  • Keep on until you get to the end.

  • This will create the application for approval.  You will go ‘under Review’

References:

• PA West: Coaching

• PA West: Risk Management

• After the local SASC registration, the SASC Registrar will verify that all players/coaches/teams have completed the necessary steps to be declared in the PA West state system.  When this is complete, the PA west state office will double check everything and formally declare the teams as being eligible for travel.  

• During the next 2-3 weeks, the state office organizes the teams into regions and age groups. Usually this is completed by the mid-March or mid-August, depending on the season.  At this point, the state office sends out information to Age Group Commissioners (AGC), who are in charge of scheduling game dates and locations for a specific gender/age group/division.  

• The AGC will reach out to coaches for information that the AGC needs to schedule for the upcoming season. Please watch for an email from your AGC and respond to them as quickly as possible. The sooner that all coaches respond to the AGC, the quicker the AGC will be able to finalize the game schedules. SASC teams that play on grass fields should request the first two spring games AWAY and the last two fall games AWAY due to Somerset County weather. 

• As soon as the AGC confirms the dates/locations as "Final," notify the SASC Assignor of the dates for your HOME games so the Assignor can schedule times/fields for all SASC home games. Please send any special requests at this time.  Please remember that you must get approval from the visiting team for any game times scheduled before noon or after 6pm - get approval from the other team before making this as a special request. 

• Once the SASC Assignor has confirmed the SASC schedule as "Finalized," coaches will need to send the details for their team's home games back to the AGC.

• Coaches will also need to send details (date, time, location, directions) to your opponents that are scheduled to play at Somerset. Contact information for your opponents can be found through the link on the East District page, "View Team Declarations, Results, Standings." You will have to login using your Affinity login to view contact info for other teams.

Game Day Rosters (GDR)

• The GDR will need to be printed prior to each game.  GDR are usually available to print from Thursday through Sunday morning for each week by logging into your Affinity account.  I usually print 2 copies in case the opposing team doesn't have their GDR.  Games cannot be played without the GDR.

• [Add screenshots and directions for printing GDR from Affinity account]

• At the conclusion of each game, the winning coach will receive the completed and signed GDR from the referees. In the case of a tie, the home team will receive the GDR. 

• The GDR must be scanned and emailed to the AGC by the end of the day each Sunday.  You should have AGC contact info from scheduling, but the AGC contact info can also be found by using the "East District" links at the bottom of this page.

Team Managers Handbook for Affinity - The handbook has directions for everything from uploading player pictures to printing Game Day Rosters. 

Affinity Help Documents for Players, Coaches and Parents