What families should and should not be able to see

A youth team's app holds a lot about the athletes on it: names, grades, positions, attendance, who is going to Saturday's game, their guardians' phone numbers and emails, and sometimes a coach's notes.

Families need some of that. Nobody needs all of it. So every team app makes choices about who sees what, whether it says so or not.

Here are ours, in plain words.

What a family sees

• The schedule. Every practice and game, with times, locations and cancellations.
• The team board. Coach posts, announcements and comments.
• A team roster, kept short. First name, last initial, number, position and grade. That is all.
• Team stats. Results and team totals.
• Their own athlete. Their athlete's RSVPs, attendance marks and workouts.
• Headcounts. How many are going, maybe, or can't make it. Not who.

What a family does not see

• Other families' contact details. No guardian emails or phone numbers for anyone else's athlete.
• Other families' RSVPs and attendance. A family sees the count, never another athlete's answer.
• Coach notes. Never, about any athlete, including their own.
• The depth chart. It is a working decision for the coaching staff.
• Equipment records. Who has which helmet or jersey stays with the coaches.
• Coach-only groups. Coaches can make groups private. If a coach shares a group with families, a family sees only the shared groups their own athlete is in.

Group events stay fair

Sometimes an event is just for one group, like a goalkeeper session or a JV practice. It still appears on everyone's calendar, so nobody is surprised by a field being busy. But only that group's families are asked to RSVP, and only that group is counted.

Who else sees what

Coaches see their own team's full roster, including guardian contacts and their own notes.

Directors of a school, club or rec department see the teams in their organization, so they can support coaches and answer families.

Direct messages are between the two people in them. No coach, director or ProgramSlate staff policy gives anyone else read access.

Why it is set up this way

Two reasons. First, a lot of sideline friction starts with comparisons between athletes, by name. Not handing out those comparisons helps. Second, this is minors' information. The safest information is the information people never had access to in the first place.

If you have questions about any of this for your program, the FAQ and privacy page go into more detail, or contact us.

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