Short a Player on Game Day? Meet ProSlot Player Network
Published Invalid Date by Joe Fiorello
It's Friday night. Your catcher has a family wedding and your backup turned an ankle at practice. First pitch is 9:00 tomorrow.
Somewhere 10 minutes away there's a 12U catcher whose team has a bye this weekend. Their parents would happily drive them over. You just have no way of finding each other.
That's what ProSlot Player Network is for. Coaches post an open roster spot for a game. Families whose athletes are marked available offer to play. A parent approves every invite. Then after the game, both sides answer one question.
How a spot gets filled
The coach posts the spot: position, game date and time, and the field. The sport and age group come from the team. It goes out to athletes nearby whose families have marked them available, and member families who fit get an email.
Posting an open spot. Illustration with sample data; the team and game are made up.
From there, offers come in. Families offer to play, or the coach searches by position and distance and invites someone directly. Either way, nothing is confirmed until a parent says yes. Once they do, both sides get the time, the field and each other's contact.
A posted spot with offers coming in. Illustration with sample data; no real players.
It isn't only for tournaments. Any game a team is short for works: a league game, a scrimmage, a weekend tournament. Baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, volleyball and football are all on it, and players are matched by position. One thing stays with the team: every event has its own guest-player rules, and the team is responsible for making sure a guest is eligible.
What a coach sees, and what they never see
This is the part that matters most, because most of the people on the network are kids.
Any signed-in coach can browse who's available near them. What they get is a card, not a child: an age group, positions and a distance range, like "within 10 mi." No name.
A first name and last initial only show up once the team has been checked by ProSlot staff and has posted a spot. Staff confirm the coach's identity and SafeSport training, and the coach accepts a code of conduct, before a team can see a name, post or invite. A coach can't approve their own team.
A coach never sees:
A last name, unless the family accepts a roster spot from a tryout
A birthday
An address or town
A school
Photos. The network doesn't take any.
The family's phone or email, until the parent says yes
A coach can only search their own team's sport and age group, and searches reach 50 miles at most. Every search a coach runs is logged.
The parent makes the call
Every invite goes to the parent or guardian, never the child. Nothing is confirmed until a parent approves it. Not by the coach, not by the kid. Contact details are exchanged only after the parent accepts, and only with that one team.
Every guest-player invite comes to the parent first.
On the family side it looks like this: a spot near you shows up in Games with the position, the time and the field. Offer to play, and the coach decides. If a coach invites your athlete, it waits in Invites until you answer.
The family's side: an open spot to offer on, and an invite waiting for a parent's answer. Illustration with sample data.
Members also get an email when a spot that fits is posted nearby, so you don't have to keep checking.
The alert a member family gets when a spot that fits is posted. Illustration with sample data.
Between seasons, switch availability off and your athlete drops out of search.
One question after every game
When the game is over, the coach and the family each answer it once: would you play together again?
Say no, and that team and that player never see each other on the network again. Nobody is told who said it.
After the handshake line, each side answers one question.
Anything that needs more than a no is a report. If a coach does something that worries a parent, they report the team from the invite. The team is suspended the moment the report is sent, every invite it has out is withdrawn, and ProSlot staff review it.
What it costs
Joining is free for everyone. Families can list an athlete and see open spots nearby: age group, position, day and zip code, but never who the team is. Coaches can browse available players free.
Families: $3.99 a month or $29 a year per athlete. A membership makes your athlete visible to teams, lets you offer to play and accept invites, and emails you when a spot that fits is posted nearby. Cancel anytime.Teams: $2.99 to post an opening, or $49.99 a year for unlimited openings for one team. Posting is what shows first names and lets you invite.
There are launch offers while places last: free months of membership for early athletes, and free game postings for early coaches. The sign-up pages show how many places are left.
Checked teams can also post tryouts for permanent roster spots, at the same price as posting an opening. The yearly team plan covers tryouts too. Families register for a tryout free.
How to start
Go to proslotplayernetwork.com . Parents, list your athlete and look around. Coaches, create a team account and submit it for review. The safety page lays out every rule above in full.
Player Network is built and run by ProSlot BOS, the same team that builds custom platforms for leagues, facilities and clubs. If your program needs something like this under its own name, that's what we do.
