Adult Athlete Risk Management (U18 / U19 players)

Effective for the fall 2023 season, all athletes 18 and older must secure a FREE background screening from MSYSA and complete the SafeSport training in order to participate. This includes players who may be 17 at the start of the season but turn 18 during the season. As such, this communication is intended to provide you notice that MSYSA is moving forward on requiring athletes (18 or older) to secure the SafeSport training and background screening.

General information regarding Adult Athlete Risk Management can be found here. Additional details, including step-by-step instructions on how athletes (18 and above) can complete these requirements, will be shared when available. As a reminder, the required SafeSport Trained Course is FREE.

In addition, optional trainings from the U.S. Center for SafeSport are offered to parents and athletes. Examples include: ‘Parent’s Guide to Misconduct in Sport’ training (30 min. course), ‘SafeSport for Youth Athletes’ (ages 13-17) training (15 min. course) and ‘SafeSport for Kids’ (ages 5-12) training (15 min. course). All of these trainings are FREE, and the youth trainings require parental consent. To access the parent and/or youth trainings, please visit https://safesporttrained.org/#/dashboard and create an account. Once logged in, click “Catalog” from your Dashboard, and then click “Enroll” in the course(s) you want to take.

MSYSA Adult Athlete Risk Management (U18 & U19 players):

• All U18 & U19 athletes must secure a background screening from MSYSA and complete the SafeSport training in order to participate. This includes players who may be 17 at the start of the season and turn 18 during the season as well as players who may turn 18 after the season.
• MSPSP will require that every U18 or U19 player be in compliance with the two RM pieces (background screening and SafeSport training) prior to being registered.
•  This will be another item checked by MSPSP during the team/player registration process.
• Players will not be registered (appear on official state association rosters or be given pass cards) until these requirements are met.
• As a reminder, both the background screening for adult athletes and the SafeSport Training are free.
• Athletes who are currently 17 years old but will turn 18 during the seasonal year (through July 31^st), are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED, but not required, to obtain a Background Screening and complete the SafeSport Training before the season starts, to avoid a potential lapse in eligibility. Note: Should an athlete turn 18 during the seasonal year but not have completed the Background Screening and SafeSport Training, they would then be considered ineligible and are likely to impact team(s) eligibility.

MSYSA has created several resources to assist with implementing this new requirement:

• A general summary of information regarding Adult Athlete Risk Management can be found here.
• Instructions intended for adult athletes (aged 18 and above) are available here. This includes information for 17-year-old athletes who will be turning 18 during the season.