Every evaluation in AthletiScout is the same five pillars, scored 1 to 5 against the level the team plays at, by a coach who was there. This page is the whole method: what is scored, what the numbers mean, how the bar moves with level and age, and who can see the result.
The whole method in one picture. The sections below explain each part.
Where this comes from
And why it will keep moving
Built from the forms coaches already useAt Recreational, the national AYSO player evaluation. At club levels, a player performance rubric from competitive coaching. In goal, the NCYSA and ODP goalkeeper evaluation. The fifth pillar, Coachability, fills the gap the FA's four-corner model calls the social corner.
Nobody has this 100% rightNo nation and no soccer organization has settled how to judge a young player, and the game keeps changing. So the standard here is versioned: the pillars, the sentences and the weights can move as the game moves, without touching a single score already on the record.
Specific beats holisticOverall judgements of a child's potential favour the oldest kids in the age group; specific observations do not. So there is no potential field, and the number is computed.
One record for everyone around the playerFamily, coach, club, and later college, see the same evaluation in the same words at the same standard. The app's job is to capture the most effective way for all of them to manage a player's development, and to keep improving it.
The five pillars
What every scorecard measures
TECTechnicalBall mastery, first touch, striking, passing and receiving
TACTacticalDecision-making, positioning, reading the game
PHYPhysicalSpeed, agility, endurance, strength for age
MENMentalCompetitiveness, resilience, composure under pressure
CCHCoachabilityEffort, attentiveness, response to correction, treatment of teammates
Four pillars are the ones youth scorecards already use. Coachability is the fifth: the one pillar any coach can judge without technical expertise, and on a recreational card often the most credible score of the five.
The scale
1 to 5, half points allowed
11.522.533.544.55
The coach does not type a number. They pick the sentence that matches what they saw.
Each pillar has its own five sentences, one per whole number, describing what that score looks like on the field. Every one of them says "at this level": a 4 on a Competitive card and a 4 on an Academy card describe different players, on purpose. At Recreational the coach sees the official AYSO rating key instead. A new player with no history starts at 3.
The level sets the bar, not the child's age
Four levels
RRecreationalAYSO and rec leagues
CCompetitiveClub: Flight 3, 2, 1
VVarsityHigh school varsity; pre-ECNL and pre-MLS NEXT, some ECNL and MLS NEXT
AAcademyThe most advanced MLS NEXT and ECNL players
A score always carries its levelThe app shows 3.2Competitive and never a bare 3.2. The same number at a different level describes a different player.
Different levels are never comparedScores measured against different standards are not averaged together and are not sorted in one list. A 4.5 at Recreational is not "better than" a 3.0 at Varsity.
Moving up usually lowers the numberWhen a player's team moves to a higher level, the next score is measured against a higher bar. The app says so at that moment. It is a change of standard, not a step back.
What is expected grows with age
U7 to U19
Age groups follow US Soccer's August 1 cutoff. Within a level, the form asks more of older players: rows are added as a player grows and nothing is ever taken away.
Recreational: the AYSO form, 26 skills added by age
From
Scored on
U5 / U6
Athletic ability · Ball control · Dribbling · Kicking and shooting · Laws of the game · Coachability · Attitude · Confidence · Enthusiasm
U8 adds
Passing · Shooting technique
U10 adds
First touch · Turning · 1v1 defending · Team defending · Attacking play
U12 adds
Decision making · Communication · Functional defending · Functional attacking
U19 adds
Heading · Midfield vision · Tactical awareness
Every age
Focus and composure · Initiative · Accountability
Competitive, Varsity, Academy: 14 skills under four pillars
Good sport · Improvement potential · Determination (U9+)
Coachability
Scored directly, no skill rows underneath
Playing in goal. When a coach evaluates a player as a keeper, they turn on the keeper section: 26 goalkeeper rows, from catching and diving to distribution, control of the box and composure, scored on the same scale and feeding the same five pillars. It adds to the form for that evaluation; it never replaces it, and it is never a stored position.
The headline number is computed, never entered
Quick or Detailed, same record
Quick or Detailed
Quick scores the five pillars and is done. Detailed opens the skill rows underneath; each pillar fills in from the average of its rated skills, and the coach may adjust it. Either way, the five pillar numbers are the record.
The composite
The headline number is the average of the five pillars. Nobody types it. Only submitted evaluations count; a draft never moves a number. Older seasons weigh less: this season counts in full, last season half, two seasons ago a quarter, so an early evaluation never holds a player back.
What a coach is not askedThere is no "overall potential" field anywhere in AthletiScout. Holistic judgements of future ability are measurably biased toward players born earlier in the year; specific observations are not. The composite is calculated, never entered.
Who evaluates, and how much it counts
Trust follows the evaluator
Evaluator
Counts toward the record
Can search for players
Club coach, verified by the club
Yes · high trust
Yes
Recreational or AYSO coach
Yes · medium trust
No
Independent trainer
Yes · medium trust
No
Self-assessed (parent or player)
No. Shown separately, never merged into the coach record
No
A family sees who wrote each evaluation and whether a club has verified that coach. Evaluating is not recruiting: a coach a family invites to evaluate sees that one player and nothing else. Competitive, Varsity and Academy teams are evaluated twice a season, preseason and postseason. Recreational teams once.
Who can see an evaluation
And what nobody can do to it
The family and the child's own coachesPlus the director of coaching at the child's verified club, which is how clubs keep evaluations fair and on schedule. Nobody at any other club. Never other parents or players.
Editable until submitted, permanent afterA coach can start at a Tuesday session and finish on Saturday. Submission is explicit and one-way. Nothing is deleted. If the family disagrees they attach a written response, and coaches see both.
Two kinds of notesNotes written to the family travel with the player through every coach and club change. A coach's internal notes stay with the club.
See it on a real scorecard
Free during the pilot. Per family, optional, and yours to delete.