Why Safety Is a Youth Sports Club’s Best Growth Strategy

For most youth sports operators, the words “risk management” bring up pressure, paperwork, and worry. But what if your approach to safety could actually help you attract and keep more families?

That was the idea behind this NextUp 2026 panel, hosted by Kate Quattlebaum, Vice President at NCSI, the background screening company that recently joined LeagueApps. She was joined by:

• Rob Connor of Babe Ruth League, who has spent 20 years with the organization and leads its safety program
• Seth Liberman, CEO and founder of Ankored, which helps organizations protect kids and manage risk
• Shelly Pope, Head of Partner Relations and Development at Vertical Insure, which offers financial protection products for organizations and families

Together, they covered how to protect your people, your brand, and your finances, and how to turn all of it into a reason families choose you.

1. Don’t shop for background checks on price

Rob compared safety to field maintenance. If you spot a divot in the outfield or a base that won’t break away on a slide, you fix it right away. Screening the adults around your kids deserves the same attention.

When Babe Ruth League first offered background checks in 2012, the main goal was keeping costs low. Volunteers and local leagues were often paying out of their own pockets, so price came first. Looking back, Rob says that was the wrong focus.

After the federal Safe Sport Act passed, Babe Ruth rebuilt its program in 2019 with a new rule: if you’re going to run a background check, it should actually do its job. Many people assume every background check pulls the same information, but that isn’t true. Ten different providers can return ten different results.

The better check cost more, so Babe Ruth had to explain why. That meant educating local leagues that a thorough screen is just as important as fixing a hole in the field where a kid could twist an ankle.

What to do:

• Ask your background check provider exactly what their screen searches, and compare it with others.
• Choose a provider based on thoroughness, not just the lowest price.
• If costs go up, explain to volunteers and families what the better check covers and why it matters.

2. Take the hard calls off local volunteers

Before joining Babe Ruth, Rob was a volunteer at his local league back when background checks were still done on paper. He was the one collecting the forms, reviewing what came back, and deciding whether someone could coach. Then he’d run into that same person at the grocery store or on the sidelines of a fall soccer game.

He didn’t sign up to be the judge of his neighbors, and he figured most volunteers don’t want that job either. So when Babe Ruth rebuilt its program, it took those decisions away from local leagues. Today, Rob is the “bad cop” for every Babe Ruth league in the country, and he jokes that he sometimes thinks twice before admitting who he is. Local leagues can still give input, and there’s an appeal process.

Rob believes a national organization should set the standard for who’s on the field. You can have great uniforms, clean bathrooms, and a well-stocked concession stand, but a kid’s experience comes down to the coach they see four to six days a week, for 10 to 12 weeks a year. That coach decides whether they have a good season and whether they come back.

What to do:

• Decide who in your organization makes final screening decisions, and make it someone other than local volunteers when you can.
• Write down clear criteria for who can and can’t work with kids.
• Set up a fair appeal process so decisions don’t feel personal.

3. Safety pays you back

As Rob put it, everybody likes change until change happens. When Babe Ruth’s background check jumped from a few dollars to about $25, many local leagues assumed it was a money grab. It took a year or two of explaining before people understood the difference.

Today, it’s paying off. Rob said that in his 20 years with Babe Ruth, 2027 is the first time liability rates for local leagues have stayed flat two years in a row. He credits that directly to the safety program. At every insurance renewal, Babe Ruth walks through exactly what it checks, how many people were screened, how many didn’t pass, and how those cases were handled. He’s also seeing better retention among local leagues and teams.

Seth called this the big mindset shift. Many leaders see safety as a burden and a cost. In reality, it can drive growth. Parents want a safe environment for their kids, so safety helps you attract and keep families longer. It also helps you keep coaches, since most volunteers want to get better at coaching and appreciate the training.

What to do:

• Track your screening data: how many people you check, how many don’t pass, and how you handle them.
• Bring that data to your next insurance renewal.
• Tell parents about your safety practices as part of why they should choose you.

4. Start where you are

Not every organization has someone like Rob. If you’re starting from scratch or your policies feel broken, Seth’s advice is simple: start where you are.

Ankored learned that the hard way. Years ago, they met with an organization that was only screening a third to half of its coaches. Seth’s team listed everything it should be doing, and the organization never called back. The lesson was to meet people where they are.

Seth sees safety as continuous improvement, not a box you check once. A background check is one piece of a bigger mission to raise good people, not just good athletes. That includes emotional safety, too. If a seven-year-old gets screamed at and called a failure every time they make a mistake, that’s not a good experience for anyone.

The good news, he said, is that the work isn’t as hard as it looks. Just ask what the next step is. That could be one new policy, a better background check, or a look at whether you have enough insurance.

Seth also offered a reality check. Not every parent makes safe choices. He’s heard of parents keeping their kids with a coach who’s had troubling allegations for 20 years, simply because he’s the best coach in the state. Unlike a concussion, abuse is hard to see, so many parents believe it won’t happen to their child. That’s why organizations need to make strong standards the default instead of relying on parents to demand them.

What to do:

• Look at where your program is today, without judgment.
• Pick one improvement to make this season.
• Include emotional safety in how you train and evaluate coaches.

5. Build a team, a system, and written rules

As your program grows, you won’t personally know every coach and volunteer. Your standards shouldn’t change whether you have five coaches or 500, but keeping up with them gets harder. Seth broke down what you need.

A team. Don’t try to do it alone. Pull together a group of people in your organization who care about safety, because even the best programs run into situations nobody planned for.

A system. You need a way to track everything, because that record is your proof. Rob couldn’t have kept insurance rates flat without one. If you’re small, a spreadsheet works fine. As you grow, you’ll need software, because the gaps are where things go wrong. Seth compared it to getting carded at a bar. The policy is to check everyone, whether they’re 72 years old, an Eagle Scout, or your neighbor of 20 years. That way the decision isn’t personal. It’s just the rule.

Written rules, in advance. Seth’s team gets calls every week from organizations asking what to do after something happens. His first question is always what their policy says, and often they don’t have one. Decide ahead of time who you will and won’t accept, what your rules are for one-on-one time with minors, and how you’ll handle refunds. Then publish those rules and share them. When something comes up, you can point to what you already told everyone.

Seth was honest about the limits, too. No program will stop every bad actor or every injury. The goal is prevention, making it as hard as possible for harm to happen. And since people sue over everything, even playing time, the goal isn’t to avoid every lawsuit. It’s to have a defensible case if one comes.

He suggested thinking in concentric circles. The closer someone is to kids, the more you should require. A coach in a contact sport might need a background check, abuse prevention training, and concussion training. A parking lot attendant needs less. Then add what fits your sport and setting, like heat safety for football in Texas in August.

What to do:

• Form a small safety team inside your organization.
• Track every check and training in a spreadsheet or software.
• Apply the same screening to everyone, with no exceptions.
• Write, publish, and share your policies before you need them.
• Match requirements to each role based on how close it is to kids.

6. Protect families and your finances at the same time

Risk isn’t only about who’s on the field. It’s also about money, and Shelly knows that from experience.

At one point, she was a single mom with one child in college and a 14-year-old daughter playing high-level ECNL soccer, where Shelly also served as team manager. Her daughter’s club offered registration protection, and Shelly signed up, figuring she’d never need it. Four weeks later, at a preseason tournament, her daughter suffered a season-ending injury.

Shelly was on a payment plan, so she filed a claim. The protection paid the club the rest of what she owed and freed her from paying for a season her daughter couldn’t play. Both sides were made whole, and her relationship with the club stayed intact. Her takeaway: you never know which families are quietly struggling, so offering this kind of protection helps everyone.

She also pushed back on the idea that someone always has to lose when a family asks for a refund. Usually, either the club absorbs the cost or the family does, and that can hurt retention. Coverage like this adds a third option, so you don’t have to play bad cop or raise your fees to cover losses. Your organization is a business, she said, and its financial health shapes the quality of your program.

There are a few more benefits for organizations:

• You get paid first. When a family on a payment plan files a claim, the organization is paid any remaining balance before money goes to the family.
• It helps you fight chargebacks. Because families have to accept or decline the protection at checkout, you have a record that they saw your refund policy. Shelly said about 76% of organizations that used that record won their chargeback disputes.
• Claims are simple. Families upload four documents online, and claims are usually paid in about five to seven days.

The key is how you explain your policy. Refund rules are usually buried in fine print that nobody reads. Shelly’s advice is to explain the why. Show families where their fees go, like coaching, facilities, and programming, so they understand the money isn’t going toward someone’s vacation. Transparency builds trust, and trust keeps families coming back.

What to do:

• Offer registration protection and accident coverage to families at checkout.
• Rewrite your refund policy in plain language, and explain where fees go.
• Keep records of what families agree to at registration.

7. The panel’s parting advice

Kate asked each panelist for the one thing they’d want operators to remember.

Rob keeps it simple. Ask yourself whether you’d want your own kids in this program. If it’s good enough for your kids, it should be good enough for everyone.

Shelly came back to empathy. You don’t know what’s happening in every family’s life, so give them options like registration protection and low-cost accident and injury coverage, which is available even if your organization doesn’t have insurance.

Seth looked ahead. He believes organizations that embrace safety will win big, and those that don’t may not be around in five or 10 years. The shift is already showing up in courts, lawsuits, insurance rates, and politics. The old “rub some dirt on it” days are gone, so the goal is to get ahead of the change instead of chasing it.

Kate added a note for tournament and event operators. Even if participating clubs are technically responsible for their own people, your brand is tied to everything that happens at your event. Setting clear safety requirements for every team that takes part protects your reputation, too.