Since USAU now requires one certified coach per high school team to compete at State Championships, we have been planning certification clinics throughout the spring to give coaches as many opportunities as possible to become certified.
We have four coaching certification clinics scheduled before the State Championships.
Find the clinic that fits your schedule and location best >>>
Sam Callan, USA Ultimate’s Youth and Education Programs Manager, recently sent out an email with clarifications on the requirements for coaches and what is needed to become a certified coach. Here is Sam’s update:
A key requirement when it comes to high schools is that at least one of the coaches of a team competing in a sanctioned USAU state championship needs to be a certified high school coach. (We also are accepting the middle school certification, but that clinic is not offered as often). To be a certified HS coach, a coach needs to be a coach member and then attend an in-person high school clinic (and pass the test for the certification). There is an exemption for first-year teams.
The coach must be a coach member to attend a high school clinic.
Coach membership requires:
- Completion and “green light” of a criminal background check conducted through our provider
- Complete SafeSport training
- Signed waiver
- Concussion training (CDC and NFHS are both free)
- Watch the videos online
- Pass the coach membership test
- Pay for the coach membership
You can see the requirements and access the training from your USAU “dashboard” and click on “COACH AND COACH/PLAYER COACHING REQUIREMENTS” in the long list of options.
One tricky part is SafeSport. If you are already a member you can take SafeSport as it is included in all memberships now. If a coach is not a member, the coach can either 1) complete all the requirements except Safesport and then purchase the coach membership and complete SafeSport training or 2) purchase any membership and have immediate access to SafeSport. Once all the coach membership requirements are completed, the membership can be changed to a coach membership.
The background check can take a few days so the latter option above allows the coach-hopeful to be working on everything else while that is being processed.
The high school clinics are organized locally and run by a local facilitator. The clinic is a little over three hours and costs $35 (there is a thread about how different organizations handle the cost and some make it lower). The clinic is not a “X’s and O’s” clinic; it focused on coaching philosophy, inclusion, ethics, and a little about practice.
Someone needs to complete all the requirements BEFORE signing up for a high school clinic; the system will not allow anyone without a coach membership to sign up. So please ask your coaches to plan ahead.
You can find all the requirements for youth-events and coaches at https://www.usaultimate.org/youth_guidelines/