CLEATS Certification
The standard every program, team, coach, and umpire can be held to.
Introducing CLEATS Certification.
CLEATS is the certification mark administered by ATBATS. Earning your CLEATS certification signals to every family that your program meets the highest standards in travel sports.
CLEATS Certified Coach
For individual coaches seeking personal certification. Verifies background check, coaching credentials, development philosophy, and ethical standards.
CLEATS Certified Team
For individual travel teams operating within or independently of a larger program. Verifies coaching credentials, participation policies, roster integrity, and team standards.
CLEATS Certified Program
For travel baseball and softball organizations operating multiple teams — regardless of legal structure. Verifies insurance, financial practices, organizational governance, and player-first standards.
CLEATS Certified Umpire
For umpires working travel baseball and softball. Verifies training, background check, rulebook knowledge, and professional conduct standards.
CLEATS Certified Content Producer
For instructors, creators, and media producing content for players, parents, and coaches. Verifies credentials, instruction safety, age-appropriate methodology, and disclosure standards.
CLEATS Certified Supplier
For equipment makers, apparel brands, tech platforms, and service providers selling into travel ball. Verifies product claims, safety testing, warranty integrity, and fair business practices.
CLEATS Certified Tournament
For tournament directors and organizers running travel baseball and softball events. Verifies legal structure, liability insurance, transparent refund policies, field safety, certified umpires, and guaranteed game minimums — so families know exactly what they are paying for before they register.
- Registered legal entity verified
- Liability and participant accident insurance confirmed
- Written refund and cancellation policy published before registration
- Transparent entry fee structure disclosed
- Field safety inspection completed
- Background checked staff and volunteers
- Certified umpires on site
- Minimum guaranteed games published in advance
- Weather cancellation protocol published
- Real-time results and standings published during event
ATBATS Local Business Partner
Travel tournaments bring hundreds of families to communities across America — and those families need places to eat, sleep, shop, and explore. ATBATS Local Business Partners are vetted businesses near certified tournament venues that welcome travel sports families with verified quality, fair pricing, and family-friendly service.
Local businesses apply to become ATBATS Local Business Partners and receive placement in the ATBATS Tournament Hub local guide — putting their business in front of hundreds of traveling families per tournament weekend.
"Every kid deserves to lace up their cleats."
Most Coaches Just Love The Game.
Most travel baseball and softball programs are started by a dad who loves the game and wants to give back to it. He knows how to coach. He knows the sport. He shows up early, stays late, and genuinely cares about the kids on his roster.
What nobody taught him is how to run an organization, communicate with families, manage finances transparently, document a player development plan, or build a program that serves every player — not just the ones who remind him of himself.
That's not a character flaw. That's a gap. And ATBATS exists to fill it.
We don't come after coaches. We come alongside them — with the tools, education, standards, and community they need to be as good at running their organization as they are at teaching the game. Because when coaches are equipped to lead, every player on the roster wins.
Organizational Leadership
Running a travel program means managing finances, communicating with families, setting policies, and making decisions that affect dozens of kids. Most coaches never learned how to do any of this — and nobody ever offered to teach them.
Player Development Science
Knowing the game is not the same as knowing how to develop players. Age-appropriate training, arm health protocols, mental skills, and individual development planning require education that most coaches simply haven't had access to.
Family Communication
The most common source of conflict in travel sports isn't bad intentions — it's poor communication. Playing time decisions, roster moves, budget questions — coaches who lack communication frameworks leave families frustrated and kids confused.
ATBATS gives coaches what the game never gave them — the organizational, developmental, and communication skills to lead programs that every family trusts and every player thrives in.
A Path For Everyone.
Know Before You Pay.
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Search our directory for ATBATS certified programs in your area
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Read verified parent reviews and playing time data
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Confirm your coach and umpires are CLEATS certified
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Enroll with confidence knowing your family is protected
You Coach. We Handle The Rest.
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Choose your CLEATS certification track
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Complete the online application and document submission
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ATBATS verifies your credentials and compliance
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Display your CLEATS certification badge and attract more families
Program operators: certification is easier to explain when families already know the standards — share the ATBATS Parent Education Center with your families so they can see what CLEATS certification protects.
Certification and compliance questions
What programs, coaches, umpires, and organizers ask before they certify — and what families should expect from a certified listing.
7 questions
Who can earn CLEATS certification?
Programs, teams, coaches, umpires, tournament organizers, content producers, suppliers, and local business partners can each apply for the track that matches their role. Every track is scored against the same five pillars: leadership, ethics, accountability, transparency, and standards.
What does CLEATS certification verify?
Certification verifies documents, not intentions: current general liability and participant accident insurance, background checks on every adult with roster access, coach education and conduct standards, a published refund and fee schedule, safety and pitch-count practices, and an outside complaint process.
Each item is reviewed against a written standard, and the resulting tier — Foundation, Standard, or Elite — reflects how much of the standard the applicant has actually met.
How long does certification take, and how often is it renewed?
Most applicants finish the compliance packet in a few weeks, and the delay is almost always waiting on insurance certificates or background-check results rather than on review.
Certification is reviewed annually. Insurance lapses, unresolved complaints, or standards violations can suspend a certification between reviews, so a listing reflects current standing rather than a one-time achievement.
What compliance records does a certified program have to keep?
Certified programs keep current insurance certificates, dated background-check records for every coach and volunteer, a published fee schedule and refund policy, tryout notices that meet ATBATS timing standards, roster and playing-time records, and a log of family complaints and how each was resolved.
The platform stores these records for the program, which is what makes an annual review a document check instead of a scramble.
How does a family confirm a program is certified?
Search the public ATBATS directory. Every certified program appears with its tier and the standards it has met, so families can confirm status before paying a fee. If a program claims certification and does not appear in the directory, it is not certified.
What happens when a complaint is filed against a certified program?
The complaint is logged, the program is notified, and it has to respond within a defined window through a process it does not administer. ATBATS tracks outcomes and patterns across programs.
Unresolved or repeated violations can lead to a tier downgrade or suspension, and serious consumer-protection matters can be referred to the appropriate state attorney general.
Is certification required to run a travel team?
No — nothing legally requires it. Certification is how a program proves the protections it already claims to have, and it is increasingly what families and tournament organizers ask for first.
Apply for CLEATS Certification
Join the founding ATBATS community and help shape the future of youth baseball and softball.