As League Administrator for EA, Ashley Richards leads a multi-tiered safety compliance process spanning league administrators, club administrators, coaches, and players. As a standards-based league with 105 clubs managing six to eight teams each, ensuring compliance at every level is both complex and crucial.

Having a safe environment is of the utmost importance to EA, and compliance with their rules and regulations is key to maintaining it. "Creating a safe environment means creating a space where players can be and not have to worry about any harm that comes to them, physical or emotional," Richards explains. "We can keep them in a safe environment to the best of our abilities by making sure that they've had their background checks, SafeSport certification, USSSA waiver, and registered for a USSSA coach manager membership."

For three years, EA struggled with GotSport's limitations: an unfriendly interface, registration delays, validation errors, and overwhelmed club administrators.

"A lot of it was the delays in the registration process," Richards recalls. "With GotSport, we did find errors, especially within the SafeSport realm, and that delayed some players from playing their matches. It delayed coaches from being able to coach certain matches."

The system's inability to handle large-scale safety programs led to serious consequences. "Last year, I would get calls about coaches who couldn't play matches because their SafeSport wasn't validated," Richards recalls. "That was a hard conversation to have with someone who traveled four hours to coach."

Through proactive change, EA prevented these visible compliance issues from potentially damaging club relationships and developing into more serious safety risks.

EA knew they needed a new system. Importantly, it needed to be accurate and efficient to ultimately assist in EA’s mission of providing a safe environment.

Ashley on the transition: "Change is hard in any element, and myself, my team, we were a little nervous. We didn't know how this would look, how our clubs would handle it as well. And I was pleased to see that it was an easy transition."

"Change is hard in any element," Richards acknowledges. "My team and I were nervous. We didn't know how this would look or how our clubs would handle it. But I was pleased to see it was an easy transition." Previously, both league administrators and club administrators, along with the Director of Compliance, were burdened with person-by-person record reviews and manual tracking.

The league also needed to ensure their administration teams at the club level had visibility. Previously, administrators had to review records on a person-by-person basis rather than seeing their entire club's status. This made fulfilling mandatory requirements an exhaustive exercise.

Ankored's implementation delivered immediate results across all administrative levels. The system's automated notifications helped league administrators track overall compliance and drill down where needed, while club administrators gained team level visibility, without any unnecessary information. 

"From our club administrators, they're all so happy that it's easy to see what coaches have completed their compliance requirements and which ones haven't," Richards shares. "Especially in Ankored, they can view it as a team, instead of going individually, coach by coach. They can easily go in, see the teams they're assigned to, and then on the dropdown, they can see all of the staff and where they stand from a compliance standpoint."

The system proactively notifies coaches of upcoming expirations and validation issues, eliminating surprises. "The reminders and automation make me feel a lot better," Richards notes. "Coaches get automated emails about expiring requirements, so we don't have to manually generate reports and send emails."

The quantitative impact has been substantial: 10-12 hours saved weekly on administrative tasks and zero game-day compliance surprises. But the real transformation goes deeper— into the relationships with the clubs.

"Because we have more time, we can develop better relationships with our clubs," Richards notes. "We're starting to have better conversations about their future, what problems we can solve for them... we're not just putting out fires continuously."

Richards now gets to focus on strategic growth rather than manual tracking. The partnership with Ankored has proven crucial in this transformation. "The support team at League Apps and Ankored is exceptional," Richards emphasizes. "The response time is wonderful, even on weekends. But more importantly, they're a true partner who wants to evolve with us. It's not just putting a band-aid on any issue—they really take the time to dig into it and find better ways to run the systems.". 

With robust compliance systems in place, EA continues to grow as a standards-based league, confidently recruiting new clubs while maintaining their high safety standards.

Ashley had some advice for anyone in youth sports organizations: "If you're struggling with compliance and overworked administrators because of excessive paperwork, partner with Ankored. They'll help automate the requirements, so you can have less on your plate."

The transformation isn't just about efficiency—it's about creating a safer, more professional environment for youth sports. Through partnership with Ankored and LeagueApps, EA has proven that maintaining the highest safety standards can go hand-in-hand with administrative excellence.