Volunteer training

Hello! Thanks for your interest in helping run the kids soccer league. The kids depend on the support of many people throughout the season and most of them are volunteers!

Volunteer Positions

  • Board Members - the league is managed by 10-12 volunteers elected to 1 and 2-year terms who act like department heads. We have coordinators of coaches, referees, fields, scheduling, registration, sponsors, purchasing and more. These folks are the ones who stay up nights trying to solve league problems and make sure all the kids get assigned to teams. Behind the scenes, but without them we would not have a league.
  • Coaches - our coaches and assistant coaches, while they are required to have a coaching license, are all volunteers. Some have a high level of training and lots of experience, others are parents who volunteered when they signed up their kid. Together we try to provide a fun and development-focused environment for all ages. We have a Coach page on the site with info pertinent to coaches, including links to the Grassroots Coaching License.
  • Team Parents - because coaching can take a lot of attention, most coaches enlist the help of a team parent to assist with coordinating some of the non-soccer details it takes to run a team. This may include scheduling team snacks for game days and organizing an end-of-season party, and even just remembering to see things from the parents' point of view and remind coach what they need to communicate with parents. Visit the Team Mom page for more info.
  • Referees - while refereeing is a paid position we like to treat these people like volunteers. They all love soccer and like working with the kids. They like to be talked to respectfully and not insulted when they miss something, just like all the other volunteers who put time into making the league come together. Like coaches, some bring a high level of experience and others are recruited at the start of each year and go through the basic training that will let them help out on game day. Visit the Referee page or contact referee@bigbearsoccer.com for more info.

Required Training & Background check

All volunteers (including referees) are what we call "Program administrators". There are some legal requirements of program administrators in volunteer organizations. All program administrators are required to participate in the Safesport Training program and provide the league with a Background Check. Both of these are paid for by the league, with no financial cost to the volunteer.

You will also need to establish a Cal South administrator account. If you registered your child in the league this year or in the past, you already have an account with Cal South. Please do not create a new, additional account! Send an email to registrar@bigbearsoccer.com with your legal name, child's name (if you have a child in the league), birthday, phone number and street address. It may take a couple days to get your admin account setup (volunteer registrar, remember). You do not have to wait for your administrator account to be setup to begin the required training.

  • SafeSport Risk Management Training - a national-level requirement for adult volunteer participants in minor/adolescent sport organizations. It is available as a 2-hour online training program which you can do from home or wherever you can get good internet access. This training must be completed prior to assuming your volunteer duties.
    1. http://safesport.org/authentication/register?token=ee57337f-31f9-421d-b095-82fc8c8c4c41
    2. You will be prompted to create an account. You'll need an access code from the league. Email coach@bigbearsoccer.com for this. It will ask your “Membership” organization. Select U.S. Soccer. It is important to use the same name and email in your Cal South account. You may need to log in to your email account and verify the email address.
    3. Find the SafeSport training link and begin the course.
    4. When you have completed the training, make sure to save the completion certificate PDF file to your computer.
    5. Log into your Cal South account and upload your certificate to the spot that looks like a fake SafeSport Training certificate.
  • Background Check - the league uses a service to perform LiveScan registration which provides our umbrella organization, Cal South, with a Department of Justice criminal background check. Cal South will then provide the league with a risk-management approval for each volunteer program administrator. At this time, a background check you've done with our league in the past is still good, but our Coach coordinator will advise you if you need one (even if you think you had one in the past, sometimes they seem to get lost in the system). Anyone who has not had a background check WITH OUR ORGANIZATION will need one, even if you've had one in the past with another organization. The background check service is paid for by the league and is usually available at the first week of games, or when posted by the coach coordinator.