Coaches information

COACH: The coach’s first responsibility is to the players. When the team is selected the coach will promptly notify each player on the team. The coach may ask any parent to become an assistant coach, but he retains all responsibility for the team. The coach is responsible to set practices, scrimmages, tournaments, as required to insure a successful season. The Coaches objective will be to help all players learn the fundamentals of fastpitch softball and develop to their fullest potential. This will require players to practice often and require playing time in league games at 10 & Under and 12 & Under to be equally split among all players. Coaches must act responsibly and carry on the traditions of good sportsmanship. Failure to follow these guidelines may result in removal of a coach.

CODE OF CONDUCT: Handling of questions, concerns and problems will always be first done on the team level. There must be an interaction between the player/parent and the coach before the situation can be raised to board level. The ZFA Board will consider those situations brought to their attention and will handle disputes and take corrective action. If a problem can‘t be solved on the team level, a written request for action shall be signed by the coach, player and/or parent and be delivered to the President of the association, and copies of the request will be distributed to all parties involved. The President of the association (with board approval) must meet with the concerned parties and provide a response to the coach, player and parent in a timely manner.

Process to become a certified USA Softball Head coach or Assistant coach.

You must complete the following.  Background check conducted through www.registerusasoftball.com, SAFESPORT, ACE, and Concussion Training.  These are the 4 certifications you must complete to be a volunteer coach for ZGF.  ZGF will reimburse you for the cost of the background check and ACE training,  the other courses are free but mandatory.  Keep your receipt and email it to zgf.treasurer@gmail.com for reimbursement. 

We need you to have this completed before the season starts.  If you do not complete these items by then you can not be on the Bench for Games.  You should strive to complete this before your first practice. 

Start at www.mnsoftball.com  Log in or create an account here.  The coach must have an account here as your certificates of completion for courses and your background check certificate will need to be uploaded to your account.  If you have an account already to register your daughter you can use this account, however, it must be your account it can not be your spouses account.

If creating an account, you will have to verify your email address before you can log in. You should receive an e-mail to click on a link to do this.

Once you are able to log into www.mnsoftball.com 

Next you need to complete your Background check

Click on Compliance and the go to background checks and follow the directions there to get this done.  Best to pay for the background check and ACE together and ZGFA will reimburse you for that just send to the above address

Once your have created your account at www.registerusasoftball.com  and are able to log in under your username and password then you can go the ACE tab and you will have to pay for a background check here and the ACE course. This is required and no other background check will work for this. Typically, the background check comes back quickly. Once it does you can and must complete SAFESport Training not an option this is federally mandated and must be completed in order to complete ACE Training.  Once you complete SAFESPORT training then you can complete the ACE courses required to become certified as a volunteer Coach for the year.  The certifications expire on 8/31/XX of each year. 

Additionally, every coach must complete Concussion Training this is in a separate section under the Compliance tab as well.

Heads up to Youth Sports: Concussion Training link there is a link to NFHS Concussion in Sports Training as well either one will work.  If you happen to have a MSHL concussion certificate this will suffice.

Once you have completed your background check (through Registerusasoftball.com the only one that is valid) Safesport, required ACE training, and the Concussion training and received your certificates you must then upload your certificates to www.mnsoftball.com

Steps to upload certifications and Background Check.

Log into your www.mnsoftball.com account and you should be on your Dashboard by your name click on More. Then on Compliance. Once you do that you will be able to see where to upload your certifications. You will have to save your certifications as pdfs. ZGF cannot do this for you as you must be logged into your account.