The technology and software solutions company Affinity Sports has digitized player cards for youth and adult soccer leagues in the United States. Player cards are used by teams before any game or tournament to show who will be participating and what league they belong to. They can be difficult to organize, get damaged easily, and, if lost, force the team to disqualify or forfeit the match.
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One coach remembers the horrors of not having the player cards all too well. “Our player cards were stolen out of my car and my son’s San Diego Soccer Club team had to forfeit their soccer match in US Youth Soccer’s Cal South State Cup,” says Karen Kusunoki, a former soccer team manager of the San Diego Academy Navy. “The boys were devastated. Without the player cards, our team was not allowed to continue in the competition. I am still upset. Who knows – the team could have been State Champions.”
Affinity Sports CEO Mark Skeen saw a problem in how US youth soccer was organized and decided to create a solution.
“Technology surrounds us everywhere but on the soccer field. I knew we could bring useful technology to the soccer fields across America and have a positive impact on growing the game and keeping our kids safe.”
The digitized player card is kept in a cloud-based management system that is intuitive and facilitates the process of creating a customized league. The system can be accessed from a mobile device through the Affinity Sports app, which is a one-stop shop for registration, communication within leagues, information on tournaments and games, and even GPS-navigated directions on the locations of events. The system has proved efficient and effective, and has raised the bar for technology-based sports management methods, according to one organization.
“Affinity Sports has risen to the top of the industry with their new digital player cards,” says Desia Bramel, Manager of Registration Services for Oregon Youth Soccer Association. “Affinity Sports already has the strongest technology-based online registration software on the market today — we have worked with them since 2009. I can’t tell you how many hours it has saved us. And, their outstanding service gives the State the feeling of absolute comfort.”
Affinity Sports is an online registration platform in the USA, with 22 State Associations and more than 1.2 Million players in their SaaS (Software as a Service) management system. By putting an end to coaches’ headaches, making leagues more standardized and efficient, and creating less waste, Affinity Sports has not only made an effective improvement on a flawed system, but also has set a new standard for youth and adult soccer organizations in the US.