June 2, 2017
Parents of RCS Athletes,
We are excited to team with DragonFly Network to present athletic participation registration as an online service. All RCS Middle Schools and High Schools will engage in this service beginning 2017-2018 athletic year. Our goal is to upgrade the level of safety to our students-athletes, while adding convenience for you.
There are three chief benefits that this online athletic registration process will provide.
First, it will eliminate for you, the parent, the repetition of filling out paper forms – each sport, each year. With this online process, once you have completed the necessary student/athlete information, it can then be forwarded sport to sport, year to year, school to school. As the sports seasons change and the student will be participating with another team, you simply will make any necessary changes to the information on file, or verify that the information has not changed. In either case, the re-registration should not take longer than a couple of minutes.
Second, it will allow for a more systematic transfer of needed information between health care professionals when treatment for injury is necessary, with the goal of minimizing the extent of the injury. We will also be able to more efficiently track athletic injuries, which will provide vital information that can be used by coaches and trainers to prevent future injuries, and give insight as to how we can better treat future injuries as they occur.
Third, be assured that the information provided is safe through a series of security measures. Only approved school and RCS system personnel will be allowed access to the information. Also, DragonFly does not share or sell email addresses to outside entities, and they do not engage in drop in ads from outside companies.
As with any start-up of new systems, a certain amount of “one time” issues must be resolved. Though you may have already filled out paper forms for ’17-’18 teams, you are being asked to “re-register” online. Please keep in mind you that once you have completed this information for a student-athlete online, you should not have to ever go through a full registration process again for the remainder of his/her participation in Rutherford County School sports. We apologize for this repetition in year one, but we fully believe the benefits of this online registration service as described above far outweighs this inconvenience.
We also recognize that everyone does not have home access to internet service. Schools will provide time, place, and instruction to those that need assistance to complete the online registration. Be assured that every prospective student-athlete will have ample opportunities to complete necessary forms required to play.
Thank you for your cooperation as we move into this new method of operation. We continually strive to provide the highest level of service and safety to our student-athletes.
Tim Tackett, RCS athletic director