How Mass Youth Lacrosse Raises the Bar for Player Safety

When Mass Youth Lacrosse adopted its Player Bill of Rights, the goal wasn't to invent something new — it was to put into writing what the organization already believed. The result is a living document that drives how the organization screens coaches, trains volunteers, and holds programs accountable across nearly 200 towns, 3,500 coaches, and roughly 25,000 young athletes in Massachusetts.

In a recent webinar hosted by Ankored's Tanner Fogarty, Mass Youth Lacrosse Executive Director Kevin Barney and Board President Mary Ayotte walked through how their Player Bill of Rights came to be, what it took to operationalize it at scale, and what advice they have for youth sports administrators looking to do the same.

From Unspoken Standards to Written Principles

The Player Bill of Rights didn't start with a blank page. As Ayotte explained, the organization drew from principles already embedded in its programming — abuse prevention training, national background checks, coaching certification clinics — and formalized them into a written framework that member programs and families could point to and understand.

A catalyst came from outside the organization. The Aspen Institute's Project Play initiative challenged youth sports organizations nationwide to adopt a player bill of rights. For Mass Youth Lacrosse, the push from Project Play aligned with what the board already wanted: to stake a claim, publicly, that safety is a driving factor of who they are.

"We were doing these things already," said Barney. "But being able to put your stake in the ground and say, 'Hey, we care, and this is going to be a driving factor of who we are' — that's different."

Putting the Bill of Rights Into Practice

For Barney, the shift from verbal agreement to written policy gave staff and town leaders something concrete to stand behind. Managing 3,500 volunteer coaches across nearly 200 towns means compliance can't be a casual handshake. It requires a system.

"The last thing any of us want is more sheets of paper, more spreadsheets, more cross-referencing," Barney said. "You need a plan, and it needs to be straightforward and user-friendly."

Mass Youth Lacrosse took several deliberate steps to make compliance work for their volunteers:

• Lowering barriers to entry: The organization built a nominal cost into its player membership fee to cover first-level background screening, so coaches didn't have to pay out of pocket and seek reimbursement. As Ayotte noted, the goal was to pull down barriers as much as possible for volunteers who simply want to help.
• Partnering with the right platform: After iterating through different processes over the years, the organization partnered with Ankored to manage online compliance. Barney emphasized volunteer and support staff need to be able to easily access and handle compliance requirements as part of their busy lives, and Ankored makes that possible.
• Maintaining in-person training quality: Mass Youth Lacrosse didn't abandon in-person coaching education when it digitized compliance. Instead, it invested in making those sessions valuable. The organization learned to invest in better facilities, varied scheduling, and content that goes beyond X's and O's to focus on how to be a better coach.
• Creating a regional support structure: The organization divides its towns into regions, each with volunteer directors who meet monthly. This hierarchy means compliance isn't solely dependent on organizational leadership — it's distributed across leaders who understand their local communities, flag issues early, and holding one another accountable.

Peer Accountability as a Force Multiplier

One of the most effective tools in Mass Youth Lacrosse's safety culture isn't a policy at all — it's accountability. Every coach receives a badge once they've completed compliance requirements, which they wear at games. When coaches look across the field and see other coaches wearing their badges, it creates a visible standard.

"We tell people, 'Wear it as a badge of honor,'" Barney said. "You did everything. Make sure the others do."

That peer accountability extends to self-policing. With 500 games every Sunday, the organization can't be everywhere — but between officials, town leaders, and coaches who all understand the standard, issues surface. Officials can report concerns back to the organization, which then investigates whether a coach simply forgot their badge or whether a compliance gap exists.

Scaling Without Friction

Scaling compliance across 200 towns presents a different set of challenges than managing 20 coaches. But Barney noted that the online piece scales naturally — going from 100 to 200 towns is "just clicks of a button" for an administrator running reports. The harder work is in-person: ensuring coaching education clinics are accessible, well-run, and worth the time volunteers give up to attend.

Ayotte highlighted how the operations team uses every available channel — social media, regional networks, and community partnerships — to make sure coaches can't say they didn't know about training opportunities. Clinics have been hosted at police stations, churches, and university spaces to bring them as close to coaches as possible.

Where Can Programs Get Started?

Both leaders offered direct advice for youth sports administrators looking to build a similar culture of safety, with both pointing to the fact that you need to lean on those that have already done it. 

Talk to other organizations about what's worked for them and what hasn't. Kevin Barney says Mass Youth Lacrosse shares its playbook with anyone who asks: "We don't keep secrets. We want to make everyone's lives easier and better." Use what you learn to build a plan whose rules have clear reasons behind them, like insurance requirements, child safety, and coaching standards. New members may push back at first. Once they understand why each requirement exists, most come around, because as Barney puts it, "it's not just checking a box."

Then make the process easy for the people who have to follow it. If a coach offers to help three days before the season, your system should let them finish everything fast. Volunteers who find onboarding painful will walk away. 

Finally, invest in your volunteers and listen to your community. Mary Ayotte stresses that certification alone isn't enough. Coaches need real training on running effective practices, as well as protecting and supporting young athletes, for players at every skill level, because a well-prepared coach gives kids a better game day. Survey parents and coaches regularly and act on what they tell you. At Mass Youth Lacrosse, safety and coach qualifications come up as top priorities again and again, and that data helps the board justify where its resources go.

The Bottom Line

Mass Youth Lacrosse's Player Bill of Rights works not because it's a document, but because it's backed by a system — one that makes compliance easy for volunteers, visible to parents, and enforceable at every level of the organization. The lesson for youth sports administrators is clear: a culture of safety doesn't happen by proclamation. It happens when you remove barriers, invest in your people, and build a process that everyone — from the state-level board to the first-time volunteer coach — can stand behind.

"We're gonna do everything we can to make sure our kids are safe," Barney said. "And it starts with, 'This is what we're gonna do' — and then you need the support of everyone."