Tryouts & Placement
Turn your interest form into an evaluated, placed roster, then arrange the team on a digital mat. This guide walks an organization admin or coach through running a tryout, importing athletes, evaluating skills, reviewing recommendations, proposing athletes onto teams, reviewing and sending parent invites, and using the Formation Mat.
Start a tryout
Open your organization and go to Tryouts & Placement, then create a tryout. A tryout is a working space that holds everyone who expressed interest, keeps their evaluations, and tracks who has been placed. You can run more than one (for example, a separate tryout per season).
Create the tryout
Give it a name (e.g. "2026 Tryouts") and, optionally, a season year.
Open it
You land on the roster — a searchable, sortable table of everyone in this tryout.
Bring in your athletes
There are four ways to get athletes into a tryout — use whichever fits how you collect interest:
- Paste a spreadsheet — copy your interest-form responses and paste the CSV directly.
- Upload a CSV file — export your responses to a file and upload it.
- Connect a Google Sheet — paste the link to a responses sheet that's published to the web; re-sync any time to pull new responses.
- Add one by hand — type a single athlete in.
Publishing a Google Sheet
In your responses sheet choose File → Share → Publish to web → CSV, copy the link, paste it into the Sync panel, and press Sync now. Column headers are matched automatically, so a typical interest form maps in one step. Re-syncing never creates duplicates and never overwrites an evaluation already in progress.Privacy
Tryout athletes are private to your organization's staff. No parent or child accounts are created at import — a real account is only created later, when a parent accepts the placement invite and confirms their athlete.Evaluate each athlete
Click any athlete to open the evaluation. Set the declared level (the level they've already achieved) — everything up to that level is assumed mastered, so the skill grid starts filled in. Review the skills and downgrade anything that needs work: tap a skill to cycle it not started → training → mastered. A readiness score shows how ready they are for the next level, and you can add private coach notes.
Set the declared level
Skills at and below it default to mastered.
Adjust during tryouts
Tap any skill to mark it as still training or not started.
Add notes
Coach notes stay with the athlete for placement decisions.
Team & position recommendations
As you evaluate, the system suggests the athlete's top 3 teams (by evaluated level and age) and top 3 positions (by skill profile and the position they tried out for). These are suggestions — open any slot and change it; your picks are kept and won't be overwritten if you re-evaluate later.
From tryout pool to a locked roster
Every athlete moves through three stages, and no parent is emailed until you say so:
- Tryout pool — everyone who registered for this tryout. You evaluate them here.
- Proposed — when you choose a team for an athlete, they're proposed for it. This only records your decision; nothing is emailed yet, so you can keep adjusting the whole class.
- Roster — after you review a team and send invites, parents get a claim link. Once a parent confirms their athlete, the athlete joins that team's real roster and the tryout evaluation carries into the team skills tracker automatically — nothing is re-entered.
Propose athletes, then send invites (the review step)
On an athlete's evaluation, choose a team to proposethem for it — this is just your decision on paper. When you've proposed everyone for a team, open Review & send invites at the top of the tryout.
- See the team's full proposed roster in one place, with each athlete's parent name, email, and phone.
- Fix any contact info inline before anything sends — a typo'd email is corrected right there.
- Hit Send claim invites and confirm. We then email every proposed parent on that team at once. Athletes missing a valid email are skipped (and flagged), and anyone already invited is never emailed twice.
Arrange the team on the Formation Mat
Open the Mat from a tryout to drag athletes onto a digital floor and leave them in place — a quick way to see your team in formation. It saves as you go.
- Drag athletes from the tray onto the mat; drag one back to the tray to remove it.
- Switch the backdrop between a competition mat and a blank canvas.
- Save several named formations (Opening, Pyramid, Ending…) and switch between them.
- Choose who appears: everyone in the tryout, the athletes proposed for a team, or a team's confirmed roster.
Do I have to use a Google Form?
No. Any spreadsheet works — paste it, upload a CSV, or connect a published sheet. You can also add athletes one at a time.
Will re-importing create duplicates?
No. Athletes are matched on name, date of birth, and parent email, so re-importing or re-syncing updates the same record instead of duplicating it.
When does the parent actually get emailed?
Not when you propose an athlete for a team — that step emails no one. Invites only go out from the "Review & send invites" step, after you confirm every athlete and contact is correct. The child and family accounts are created only when the parent then accepts and confirms, keeping youth data private until then.
Can I change a recommendation?
Yes. Recommendations are starting points. Any team or position you set by hand is kept as your decision.